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The Slow Exodus of Palestinian Christians
Cook, Jonathan
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2020-06-07/exodus-palestinian-christians/Date Written: 2020-06-07 Year Published: 2020 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX24839 Israel has exploited the steady decline in the numbers of Palestinian Christians to advance its claim that they are being hounded from the region by Muslim extremists. But the real blame lies with Israel and the foreign Churches. Abstract: - Excerpt: The Palestinian territories were under a form of lockdown long before the arrival of the coronavirus, however. Israel, the occupying power, has made sure that the entire Palestinian population is as isolated from the world as possible - their voices silenced, their experiences of oppression and brutality at Israel's hands near-invisible to most of the Israeli public and to outsiders. But Bethlehem, the reputed site of Jesus's birth 2,000 years ago, is the one Palestinian area outside East Jerusalem, which has been illegally annexed by Israel that has proved hardest for Israel to hermetically seal off. During visits to the Church of the Nativity, tourists can briefly glimpse the reality of Palestinian life under occupation. Some 15 years ago Israel completed an 26ft-high concrete wall around Bethlehem. On a typical day - at least, before coronavirus halted tourism to the region - a steady stream of coaches from Jerusalem, bearing thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world, came to a stop at a gap in the concrete that served as a checkpoint. There they would wait for the all-clear from surly Israeli teenage soldiers. Once approved, the coaches would drive to the Nativity Church, their passengers able to view the chaotic graffiti scrawled across the wall's giant canvas, testifying to the city's imprisonment and its defiance. Subject Headings |