Misery tempts Palestinian Christians to flee

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Despairing of life under Israeli occupation, many Palestinian Christians are moving abroad, threatening their ancient links to Bethlehem and the land where Jesus was born.

"There is a real fear that 50 years down the road, the Holy Land will be without Christians," said Mitri Raheb, 45-year-old pastor of the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.

Pressures on majority Muslims are just as daunting -- and many of them also leave -- but dwindling Christian communities look more precarious as the young and dynamic pull up roots.

Christians have migrated from Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jala and Beit Sahour for over a century, mainly to Latin America, the United States and Canada, to escape successive wars and crises.

Bethlehem governor Salah al-Tamari said there was no way of tracking accurately how many Christians and Muslims had left since the eruption of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000.

"There is no business, no freedom of movement," he said. "We depend on tourism, which is being demolished. Sometimes we receive 1,500 tourists a day but none of them stay the night. They visit the Nativity Church and leave, so we don't benefit."

A towering concrete wall is closing in on Bethlehem as part of a barrier that Israel is erecting, which it calls a defence against suicide bombers from the occupied West Bank. Much of it has been built on Palestinian land.

"Once it's finished there will be only three gates leading in and out of Bethlehem," said Raheb. "Bethlehem will basically be a four-square-mile (10-square-km) open prison."

"This wall has separated many people from each other," said Hiyam Abu Dayyeh, a Christian social worker. "What kind of life is this if you can't feel free or move in your own country?"

PRESSURE CAULDRON

Now unemployed, she hopes to leave Beit Jala for Germany, which she visited often when she was working for the church.

"Many people are without work and without hope," she said. "People are completely exhausted. If it stays like this, Palestine will be a big psychiatric hospital."

About 50,000 Christians live in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war -- east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Another 110,00 reside in Israel.

The aid-dependent Palestinian economy took a devastating hit when international donors decided to boycott a Hamas government formed after the Islamists won an election in January 2006.

Violent infighting between Hamas and the once-dominant Fatah faction has driven Palestinians closer to breaking point.

Two-thirds of the population now live in poverty, according to the British charity Oxfam, with more than half unable to meet their families' daily food requirements without assistance.

Palestinian Christians are generally better off than other segments of society, but they too have felt the pinch.

"We used to be six people working in the restaurant and we were always busy. Now we are two and we sit here doing nothing," said Maher Rabie, who runs a small pizzeria in Beit Jala.

He took a loss of 30,000 shekels ($7,000) last year to keep it open. He says he might return to the United States, where he lived for 12 years, if the summer does not bring better times.

"Actually we don't have an economy any more. It's finished," he said. "The last five years were hell on earth. Sometimes we say if we go to hell in future, we already know what it's like."

Rabie and his wife Rania have three boys in school aged 8, 14 and 16. "We think of what kind of future we can provide for them if this situation persists," the 47-year-old father said.

LOSS OF HOPE

Christian leaders say they face no religious persecution from the Palestinian Muslim majority or from Israel.

Bernard Sabella, a Palestinian sociologist at Bethlehem University, estimates that 50 to 75 Christian families a year are leaving Jerusalem or the West Bank for new lives abroad, down from a peak of 200 to 250 families in 2002 and 2003.

He said most cited similar motives to Muslim migrants -- political conditions, unemployment and lawlessness, although discomfort with rising Muslim militancy was a factor for some.

"As Christians we want to be part of this society," he said, pointing to the cultural richness, variety and ancient roots of the church communities living in the cradle of Christianity.

The median age of Palestinian Christians is now 37, against 19 in the general population. "If our young people leave, we are in a disaster," Sabella said.

Many Christians have languages, educational skills, money and family links abroad -- factors that make migration easier. But church leaders want to anchor them in their homeland.

"We are asking the world to help Palestinian Christians stay in their country," said Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan, pleading for assistance with education, job creation and housing and with Christian institutions that could serve Palestinians in general.

Christian entrepreneurs who returned from lives in exile in the 1990s -- when it seemed that the Oslo interim accords with Israel might bring peace, prosperity and Palestinian statehood -- are now losing hope.

"It's getting tougher and tougher every day," said Elias Samaan, a 45-year-old who set up a carpentry business after moving to Beit Jala from the United States in 1992.

"We're really thinking about leaving again, leaving everything -- our house, our work, our business, our land."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2942641

I have seen several articles written claiming that Christians are leaving Palestine due to Muslim religious extremism. While there have been some cases of extremist attacks on Christians in Palestine, that is NOT by far the reason for their emmigration. Christian Palestinians, in the Sabeel Survey (Christian) are leaving for the reasons given above. If you need proof, Click here for The Sabeel Survey on Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Israel – Summer 2006

From the Sabeel Report:

"Clearly the primary reasons remain the political and the economic. The fact that Religious Fanaticism has received 8% should be cause for concern and for bringing attention to possible remedial action that should be taken in order to minimize negative effects. Palestinian society traditionally and historically has been known, and continues to be known, as an open, tolerant and accommodating society. Christian and Moslem Palestinian children go to schools together, especially to the private schools in the Jerusalem-Ramallah-Bethlehem areas; they join the same social, sports and political groups; they make friendships of a lifetime and they aspire similarly to an end of Israeli occupation and to the times that they can all contribute to reconstruct an independent Palestinian state. This is not ideal utopianism but the experience lived between Christians and Moslems as they both went through the refugee experience of 1948 and the dispersal of their people. They also experienced together the effects and constraints of Israeli occupation since 1967 and they joined in efforts to get rid of Israeli occupation and to liberate themselves as a people. It is in this context, and with the respect to the rich heritage of Moslem-Christian relations, that the heightened religiosity of the public sphere becomes a point for further examination and discussion. An exclusive religious parameter or preference that can interfere with the history and heritage of a pluralist, tolerant and an open Palestinian society calls for a serious reflection not simply by Christian Palestinians but by all Palestinians. Our society is likely to lose if sectarianism becomes a dominant feature replacing the all accommodating national and social agenda so characteristic of Palestine and its culture of openness, frankness and mutual trust and accommodation. "

Palestinian Christian Emigration: The Israeli Separation Barrier and Other Measures of Continued Military Occupation

The current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not helping in reducing the urge towards emigration among Middle Class Palestinians, including Christians who most often characterize themselves as belonging to the Middle Class. This situation speaks of continued Israeli occupation measures and methods, highlighted by the Separation Barrier and its impact on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem-Ramallah area in terms of exodus of Middle Class Palestinians, including Christians. The negative effects of the Separation Barrier touch all Palestinians in all geographic areas of the West Bank, such as in Qalqilya and Tulkarm in the North and Hebron in the South where the population suffers daily at the hands of the few hundred Jewish settlers, as documented by B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Organization. The special situation of Bethlehem-Jerusalem calls for an in-depth examination since the traditional historical religious ties between the two biblical cities make a pilgrimage visit to the Holy Land unthinkable without free access and mobility between these twin cities. Nowadays, the Separation Barrier has made a concrete separation between the two cities that is neither aesthetically acceptable nor does it do any honor to the One born in the city 2000 or so years ago. For any visitor or pilgrim the sight of the Separation Barrier makes one’s heart cry and saddened by the ugliness of surrounding Bethlehem of the Nativity with such a concrete structure. The claim, by the Israeli authorities, that all this is being done for security reasons is actually leading to thousands of Palestinians in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem being denied access to each other’s city. All this is encouraging the exodus of Christians from the Holy Land and from the Bethlehem area in specific. Israel should be held responsible as its measures of population control are clearly a factor that pushes Palestinians in the Bethlehem area, as elsewhere, to leave for good. Those who speak of “good will” gestures in order to advance peace and conflict resolution prospects should be reminded that the denial of freedom of movement and access to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and to numerous other localities in the West Bank and Gaza are pushing Palestinians to leave, particularly those with skills, some capital and entrepreneurial capacities. This migratory end result of denial of free movement and access goes specifically counter to efforts at peace and conflict resolution in the troubled land. "

It is the almost 40 years of Israeli occupation that has led to extremism, NOTHING else.

To see how you can help, link to The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation

The video "Hope in Palestine" shows what is happening in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, under Israel's brutal occupation which does not choose between Christian and Muslim.