The saga of Christy Anastas, Palestinian defender of Israel, continues

Christy Anastas is a young woman who, during an al Jazeera program, was promised by Saeb Erekat that "Palestine" would have full human rights, freedom of speech and women's rights, among other things.

As a result, she publicly defended Israel in a remarkable lecture at Uppsala University in Sweden.

And all of that talk about freedom of speech went out the window.

This video shows her giving background information, the Al Jazeera segment and her lecture in Sweden.



Her family reacted viciously, as Ma'an reported:

A Bethlehem father whose daughter recently released a pro-Israel video has condemned the move, saying that the family "rejects and distances" themselves from the content in a statement made to Bethlehem's Radio Mawwal.

The Anastas family also denied claims that their daughter had been forced to flee, saying that they feared she had been the victim of "entrapment" and was under "pressure" from sponsors who had promised to pay her enrollment fees and housing costs for university in the United Kingdom.

The statement comes after a video featuring their daughter Christy was released on the internet in which she spoke of her belief that "God has given this land to the Jews as an everlasting covenant," and claimed that she was forced to flee Palestine because of persecution for her beliefs.

The Anastas family expressed their "surprise" at the video, "deploring and condemning" her words, denying that she was ever forced to "flee" but instead that they she had left of her own free will to study abroad.

They added that the video "was a result of direct pressure that Christy is currently experiencing."

The usual "blame Israel" crowd, including this liar I exposed recently, are convinced that Christy is being coerced by some nefarious crowd to say these awful things.

Here's the latest on the story from CAMERA:

Christy Anastas, the 26-year-old woman who has fled the West Bank (where a journalist was recently sentenced to a year in prison for mocking Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook) will present herself for inspection at a police station in England on the morning of April 29, 2014.

Why?

Because a self-styled “peace and justice” activist has called the police in England, informing the authorities that she may be a “missing person.” Consequently, Christy will present herself at a police station somewhere in England this morning to assure them that she is not being held against her will.

That’s the report from Howard Stern, who along with Christy, is a co-founder of the Emmaus Group, an activist organization that promotes awareness of the mistreatment of Christians in Muslim-majority environments. Stern reports the following:

Christy has lived with my wife and I and our other two grown up kids for two years. We are family. We love her dearly. She is totally part of the family, free to come and go as she pleases. She has friends, drives a car and enjoys church where she helps at youth club. As a family we are all upset by his actions and words as Christy has, is and never will be coerced and forced to do anything she does not want to. We are a Christian household. We are all protective of her and I do chaperone her a lot and speak with her where appropriate but she is strong-minded kid and knows what she wants and what she believes in - taken after her mother in that dept!! [Christy’s mother, Claire Anastas, is an ardent anti-Zionist activist. More about this below.]

When the dust settles, Stern hopes to obtain a formal apology from the self-styled “peace and human rights’ activist who called the police in an attempt to “help” Christy.

In the meantime, Stern writes, “We have reported the matter of his reporting to MPs, our lawyers and senior church officials who we liaise with. Christy will attend a local police station in the morning to confirm all is ok and well.”

One has to wonder why so-called “human rights” activists have not expressed any concern over the possibility that Christy’s mother, Claire, has been testifying under duress on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

It’s a real possibility. Claire has been pretty energetic – if not frantic – in her efforts to focus attention on Israel and legitimize the Palestinian Authority. If she has ever said anything critical of the PA or Hamas – two institutions clearly worthy of criticism – it hasn’t gotten much attention.

In addition to being a favorite of the “peace and justice” types on Twitter, Claire Anastas was a centerpiece in the now notorious 60 Minutes episode that demonized Israel in 2012 and was a prominent source in Yasmine Perni’s 2013 movie, "The Stones Cry Out," which offers a distorted view of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Claire has also spoken at a number of conferences in the U.S. where she has condemned Israel.

Given the dependence of Palestinian Christians on the Palestinian Authority for their safety, why isn’t anyone asking if maybe Claire’s testimony is being coerced or offered under duress?

The reason is simple. Christy Anastas’s testimony is a threat to the narrative of Western “human rights” activists who have been serving the interests of a combine of theocrats and kleptocrats in their fight against a self-critical democracy, Israel, for the past few decades.

Claire’s testimony is exactly what these activists want to hear. Christy’s testimony, by way of comparison, raises the possibility that maybe they have picked the wrong horse in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

No doubt about it, the different treatment received by Christy and Claire Anastas reveals an interesting dichotomy. Palestinian Christian testimony, when it cuts against Israel, is immediately accepted as reliable.

But now that Christy Anastas, a Palestinian Christian, has done the unthinkable by calling out for the PA for its corruption, violence and ineptitude – which no one really doubts – so-called human rights activists question her mental competence and treats her like she’s a modern-day incarnation of Patty Hearst.

In the minds of the pro-Palestinian activists who want to "help" her and in the minds of the Palestinian Christians who denounce her, it's just unthinkable that a sane and rational person could honestly believe what Christy says. And so they describe her testimony as "dodgy." They imply she has been kidnapped and is being held against her will by evil manipulative Zionists. And if these explanations don't work, Palestinian Christians come right out and say she has been bought and paid for.

It’s a form of hysteria, actually. This hysteria is patently evident on the Facebook page of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, where EAPPI's “peace and justice” activists have shown they have bought hook line and sinker, the story offered by news outlets in the West Bank. The story told in these outlets is that Christy Anastas was spirited away by operatives working on behalf of a vast Zionist conspiracy who have corrupted her mind and soul.

It is funny that no one is surprised when scores of young Jews, pretending to be brave, decide to publicly attack Israel, using their purported Judaism as a club to give their lies authenticity.

Yet when Palestinian Arabs like Christy or Zeina Barakat show true bravery for speaking obvious truths it is a major story and they are attacked relentlessly.

It is clear that Saeb Erekat's promises of free speech and freedom in his quasi-state are simply more of his many lies.