A Franciscan prays in Bethlehem before Easter
Few people know much about the existence of Palestinian Christians, even though there are nearly half a million around the world. Most Palestinian Christians are scattered across all six continents in what amounts to a modern-day Diaspora. Some moved abroad on their own free will, but many others were forced out of their homeland in 1948 when Israel became a state. Palestinian Christians such as Elias Chacour, author of We Belong to the Land, have written eloquently about the devastation and challenges that fell upon many Christian communities during this period.
Today, approximately 130,000 Palestinian Christians continue to live in Israel. Another 40,000 continue to live in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, though their numbers are shrinking rapidly on account of migration. While in the West we sometimes hear that Christians are leaving because of Islamic extremism, one is hard pressed to find a Palestinian Christian who will agree with this. The reason they are leaving, they say, is because of Israel's crushing military occupation. Restrictions on trade, movement, and basic human rights -- and a sense that the future will only get worse -- has led many to throw up their hands and call it quits.
Gone are the days when up to 30,000 Arab Christians -- from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere -- would descend on Jerusalem during Holy Week. The political situation makes this impossible today. But sadly, even Palestinian Christians who live in places like Bethlehem are routinely denied permission by Israeli authorities to travel the five miles to Jerusalem, the city of Jesus' resurrection. And on the backside of the Mount of Olives, Israel's separation barrier has cut off hundreds of Christians from their churches. The situation, when experienced, is desperate.
This week Bernard Sabella, a Christian Palestinian in Jerusalem, wrote:
Easter celebrations are hostage to the whims of the Occupation authorities, as part of policies that are racist and that aim to push Christians to emigrate. The Occupation authorities are imposing strict restrictions on the movement of Christians during Easter week, and are preventing Christians from reaching the churches, and are adopting a policy that prevents Palestinian Christians from other parts of the West Bank from reaching Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. Also, barriers are put near the gates of the old city of Jerusalem, especially in the area leading to the Christian quarter, Herod's Gate, and the roads leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in order to deny worshipers their right to pray freely. A new phenomena now, is the huge presence of Israeli police inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with their weapons, which violates the sanctity of the Church and religious traditions.
Therefore, we, members of the Christian community in Jerusalem, are calling upon our fellow Christians around the world, and the Heads of Churches as well, to help us put an end to Israeli violations of our right to worship freely in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, so that Christians will be able to enter the Church to pray.
The situation is desperate, but still people remain -- carving out a life, a sense of dignity, and even finding joy. The pictures that follow, beginning with a few shots from Jerusalem and then moving on to the West Bank village of Zababdeh, were taken in 2003. They are dedicated to the Christians of Palestine.
The Lutheran and Anglican churches in Jerusalem on Good Friday, walking the Via Dolorosa
Franciscans waiting to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Good Friday
Inside the Holy Sepulchre
This is the Palestinian village of Zababdeh, home to approximately 2000 Christians and 1000 Muslims. If one visits a church here, you may find yourself sitting next to a car mechanic who has been used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers (they ordered him to stand in front of them while they rested their weapons on either shoulder and fired). You may find yourself sitting on a pew with several men who have been tortured in Israeli jails, screaming "Help me, Jesus!" in Arabic as they were abused for three days without sleep (their charge: spray painting a political slogan on a wall in their own village). You may find yourself taking communion from a priest who has been shot at by soldiers while traveling from his home to the church where he ministers. And wherever you sit, you will find people who yearn for peace, who oppose violence, and wonder why Americans don't condemn those aspects of Israeli behavior that are illegal and not related to security.
Villages like Zababdeh are swollen with stories of pain and abuse. But Easter weekend is one of the most looked-forward to times of the year. Checkpoints permitting, the "Holy Fire" is brought from the tomb of Christ in the Holy Sepulchre to Zababdeh (and to all other Christian communities in the West Bank), then the Christians parade through the streets with the fire. This is an ancient tradition.
Here Muslim residents of the village watch as Christian residents process with the Holy Fire
The procession stops by each of the four churches in Zababdeh -- Anglican, Melkite, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic. Here and in the pictures below people gather at the Catholic church.
On this Easter, the Bishop of Nazareth came to Zababdeh and performed several baptisms during the morning service. He was late, however, thanks to a long delay at one of the military checkpoints north of the village.
This woman prays in Zababdeh's Orthodox Church. In the months I lived in the West Bank I learned that one sees the world much differently when he or she is stripped of both power and freedom. It affects the way you pray, too.
To learn more about Christians in Palestine:
Elias Chacour's We Belong to the Land (In the early 1990s Secretary of State James Baker gave this book to Israel's Prime Minister Shamir, telling him he that he too should read it!)
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Comments: 31
If there then why not anywhere else?
Your picture is very motivating and a stimulation for us to do more and be more. Thank you.
Have a great day Joel.
Being a Greek Orthodox Christian, I have always wanted to visit Jerusalem during Easter and witness the Holy Fire emerge from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It's a shame that the political climate in that area of the world has come to the point of having an armed military presence in what should be a neutral place of worship for all Christians.
Thank you for this very well written article, Joel, and for sharing your photos with us. Happy Easter.
This Easter season, may the message of Peace that Jesus taught become the message for all the world to follow.
Please rember that Jesus was born as a Jew and he and his immediate disciples were Jews.
There absolutely should be two states and I hope that Palestinian Christians fair well under a Hamas led Palestine and better then the Coptic Christians of Egypt or the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia or the Christians of Sudan - - who funny thing is, are supported by every synagougue in the US.
No one should ever be restricted in his/her ability to practice their religion - - I do however, feel abused when the treatment of Jews throughout millenia by christians IE, mass expulsions, pogroms, forced conversions, murder, rape and ultimately the Holocaust is conveniently ignored as a discussion point. When Israel was formed Arab/Muslim countries expelled their Jewish populations and confiscated their properties - - I don't know what made me sicker as a child learning about the Holocaust or learning about the Jews that survived the extermination camps and upon returning to their homes or farms were murdered by their christian neighbors who coveted their property and murdered them for it.
I've stood where jewish communities once flourished in places like Poland and the former Chzech republic and I've been to horrible places like Dachau and Aushwitz.
What Israel is doing in its defense doesn't come close, not at all, to what christians and muslims have done to jews or what muslims and christians did to each other during the time of the Moors or the Crusades.
I wish folks a peaceful & happy Easter and that all the worlds children may pray to G_d as they wish. Most assuradely, G_d doesn't look on his children by the many hundreds of denominations we belong to nor the color of our skin, he just looks at us all as his children.
Jeff, I too have been to Auschwitz, as well as to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, and to dinner tables with Jewish friends who have lost loved ones in suicide bombings. Of course I strongly am against the injustice and atrocities that have been committed against Jews, just as I am against wrong being committed against anyone.
This article is about Palestinian Christians, the vast majority of whom will tell you that their suffering is a result of Israeli policy, not Islamic fundamentalism. Israel does not oppress Christians because of their religious belief; Israel oppresses them because they are Palestinian. While the Israeli government does need to protect Israel from those Palestinians who seek to do it violence, much of what Israel does in the West Bank is not about this.
Let me give just two examples:
First, since 1967 nearly half a million Jews have been moved into Palestinian territory. This is a clear violation of international law, condemned even by the U.S. (though today our government condemns it only with a weak whisper). To provide safety for these illegal settlers, Palestinians are forced to live in a system of checkpoints, military closures, and are forbidden from using roads reserved for Jews only. Thousands of Palestinian families, including Christians, have been forced from their land so that Jews could build (illegal) settlements. Again, all this is not in Israel; it is in occupied Palestinian territory. And so I think it is fair to say that this is not about Israel's security; it is about taking and controling the land upon which another people already live.
Second, the case of Mubarak Awad is an example of how Palestinian Christians -- like their Muslim neighbors -- are oppressed even when they wish to challenge Israeli policy in a nonviolent manner. Awad, a Christian who inspired his people (both Muslim and Chrisitian) to engage in nonviolent sit-ins, etc in response to Israel's illegal seizure of people's land, was deported from his homeland by Israel in the late 1980s. Awad did not wish to destroy Israel; he wished to challenge its immoral use of power and might in the Occupied Territories. Now an exile, Awad teaches nonviolence and peace studies at American University in Washington DC.
From 48 on as Arab countries and Palestinians chose not to recognize Israel they chose war instead of accepting a two state solution. And, with that choice created the unfortunate consequences in which they live today. The 1973 war in which the Arab "nations" attacked in the manor of the Japanese in WWII - - on the eve of Yom Kippur the holiest day of the Jewish year in which jews atone for their sins is yet another example of how little respect others have for jewish religious traditions. - - think of this on Easter or the eve of Ramadan.
I believe the Palestinians have been used by Syria in particular and other Arab countries as a "permanent" wedge to purposely prevent the recognition of Israel and a final peace agreement. Egypt did nothing for the Palastinians when they controlled Gaza, Jordan did nothing for the Palastinians when they controlled the West Bank - - both of which were lost in the 67 war as israel defended herself from the Arab armies that were deployed and readied to attack - - one of the consequences of history that have prevented the Palestinians from controlling their own destiny.
Israel does incredible stupid things from time-to-time but it is the only democracy in the middle east and the only place that women have equal rights (Israeli political/sexual scandals included).
I look forward to the day that Israeli's and Palestinians live side-by-side in peace.
When Israeli military documents from 1947 and 1948 were declassified in the late 1990s, it became abundantly clear that Ben Gurion and other early leaders sought not to live in peaceful coexistence with Palestinians but wished to cleanse the land of them. Plans were laid to clear out Palestinian population centers, and in places where Jew and Arab lived in relative peace (e.g., Haifa), Jewish militant groups resorted to gross acts of terrorism to make residents flee, even shelling men, women, and children as they gathered at the docks to take ships to Lebanon. You mentioned standing in now vacant places in Europe that once had thriving Jewish communities. One can do a similar thing in hundreds of places in what is now Israel, only the communities were once Palestinian. Many Palestinians did indeed oppose the creation of a Jewish state, and they had legitimate reasons for this -- not least of which was that they would become second class citizens in their own homeland.
Also, I think you let Israel off too lightly when you say it does stupid things "from time-to-time". The problem, as I and many other see it, is not the incidental errors in Israel's judgement or action; it is Israel's construction of a SYSTEM that uses power to dispossess a people. Even as I type, settlement construction/expansion is continuing in the West Bank, powerless Palestinians are having their fields ripped from under their feet, and Jewish settlers are whizzing by checkpoints that Palestinians often have to wait at for hours. And this is just to name a few things.
I look forward to the day when the two can live side-by-side in peace as well. And this is why I write here and speak to audiences elsewhere about Israel's system of injustice and oppression in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Having lived there and witnessed so much -- on all sides -- I feel I have no other choice.
Two books I recommend for people interested in learning more about 1948 and the years that followed:
THE LEMON TREE: A JEW, AN ARAB, AND THE HEART OF THE MIDDLE EAST, by Sandy Tolan
THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE, by Ilan Pappe (an Israeli historian)
All the best, Jeff
How far do we go back to "prove" the Jewish claim on the biblical land of Israel? If we go back to one of my original points, Jewish settlement in Israel predates and includes Jesus and his followers (they were all Jews). The Romans dispersed the jews throughout their empire although there always seems to have been a small jewish presence in the country throughout millenia. Predating but accelerating around WWI jews started to return to Israel in larger numbers (and, were attacked periodically by the locals - palestinians). The Al asqua Mosque is built on top of the Second Temple...So, in terms of "who's land" the real answer may not be what you like but, at the time of the UN mandated partion two people were recognized and two countries could have been formed but palestinians and the Arab countries around chose war - - and, lost. And, unsurprisingly Israeli's had plans for the land...
If at anytime the Palestinians and Arabs had accepted the modern state of Israel and had not attacked in 48 or 67 the Israeli's would not have been in a postion to expand and would be inside internationally recognized boundaries.
I will reiterate, the settlements are a bad idea and most Israeli's and American Jews are opposed to them - - as Israel has returned the Sinai (three times the size of Israel proper) and withdrawn from Gaza, a final peace settlement will require the return of most of the captured land and an abandonment of most of the settlements.
The geography of Israel, smaller than Deleware, 13-20 miles wide from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and a population of 7 million jews, 2 million Arabs in Israel proper - - is surrounded by Arab countries with a total population approaching 200 million and a land mass equal to that of Europe unfortunately requires some sort of strategic hold on various pieces of captured land for defensive purposes. Saddam Husseains barrage of missles in the first Gulf War, Hezbollah's launching of missles on Northern Israel, continued barrages of missles into civilian area's from Gaza and suicide bombers walking or drivin into Israel underscore the precarious predicament of Israels security position.
Again, I stress: Peace for the two people's in a two state solution. Best, Jeff
Just because a people once lived on a land does not give them the right to return and evict those who have since settled it. Morally, one might wish, for instance, that the Cherokees could nicely evict the current residents of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but practically such an action would have tragic consquences for those who have moved in over the last three hundred years. Jews do indeed have a rich, deep history in the land of Israel and Palestine. But so do others! To suggest that Jewish history gives Israel the right to dispossess a native population smacks of racism and tribalism.
Again, I do not dispute Israel's historical and spiritual ties to the land; I do dispute the claim that this then gives Israel the right to disposses Palestinians who ALSO have historical and spiritual ties to the land. As the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has said, "When Zionism emerged in the late 1800s, it had two goals: First, find safe haven for Jews. Second, redefine Judaism as a national movement, not just a religion. These two noble ideas became a crime against humanity because they could ONLY BE IMPLEMENTED BY DISPOSSESSING PALESTINIANS."
The Israeli narrative claims that Israel had a right to the land allotted it by the UN in 1947. But here is one response to this argument, given by Alex Awad, a Palestinian Christian whose brother was deported by Israel in the late 1980s for his nonviolent activities: "In 1947 the Jews owned less than 7% of the land but received 54% in the UN plan. Such an arrangement was inconceivable to the Palestinians. The UN partition plan was not a binding document to be forced upon the people of Palestine, but a plan to be agreed upon by the parties. The Palestinians decided to reject it. The Zionists had mixed feelings about it, some not thinking the Jews received enough. But in the end the Jews not only accepted it but took more than the UN plan suggested during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War."
click on CALLING A SPADE A SPADE: THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE, and scroll down to page 10.
The Shin Bet security service announced Tuesday that it had arrested 19 Palestinian suspects in a Hamas plot to smuggle in a 220-pound bomb from the West Bank and detonate it in an Israeli population center on seder night. (Passover)
According to the Shin Bet, the would-be bomber drove the explosives into Israel in late March, evading scrutiny because he has an Israeli identity card. But for reasons unknown, he later returned to his West Bank hometown, Kalkilya, where the bomb went off by accident.
I read the news from both inside Israel and Palestine. Here's just one piece from Palestine this week, published in the San Diego Tribune. The story illustrates the SYSTEM that is oppressing Palestinians and still today stealing their land. The article explains how Israeli settlers, wanting to push a Palestinian off his own land, set fire to his olive trees. The fire got out of control and firefighters from the Jewish settlement had to put it out. The settlement is demanding of the Palestinian $1600 in fees for their service, even though it was settlers who set the blaze! If he does not pay, his land will be confiscated by the settlement. (His trees have been attacked repeatedly over the years; this is just the most recent incident.)
Again, this is part of the ugly system Israel has set up in the West Bank. I only wish more Israelis and Jews around the world refused to put up with it. As Jesus -- who you rightly point out was a Jew -- said, we should each take the plank out of our own eye before complaining too much about the speck in another's.
If anyone is interested, please click on ANOTHER SIDE OF TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST to read the story about this particular Palestinian. If you were this man, how would you feel about the government of Israel? Would you feel that that government was interested in peace, or in dispossessing you of your land?
Israel served eviction notices to settlers who took over a disputed West Bank property. Defense Ministry officials on Wednesday notified scores of settlers living in a Hebron building that they have two weeks to vacate the building or appeal the eviction. The settlers say the building was purchased legally from its Palestinian owners, who deny it.
My point: there is a functioning albeit imperfect justice system for palestinians - - something lacking, in most of the middle east for minorities.
Secondly, and my last post because we are obviously on opposite ends of this but together on supporting two independent soverign countries.
Again, The fact is that sometimes individual Israelis do stupid mean things too. It is terrible that it can happen. But it is not the policy of the government or the will of tmajority of Israeli's.
I have an aquaintance that has been to the wall around Kalkilya. And she had this to say: "It is indeed a big wall. But there is a reason for it as terrorists were shooting into a highway right below it – shooting at passing civilians, including children, mothers etc - - What does the Hamas/Fatah government do about this? Nothing. When they stop the terror there will be no need for a fence".
Let's hope the cycle ends now!