To Palestinians and their antisemitic friends, Christians and Christianity are only meant to be subverted for the cause ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

To Palestinians and their antisemitic friends, Christians and Christianity are only meant to be subverted for the cause

There have been plenty of articles about how Palestinians like to claim that Jesus was Palestinian.

The Israeli comedy show Eretz Nehederet made an excellent spoof last year where all the Jews of Judea became declared Palestinians, but of course the non-existent Jews are the ones who killed Jesus.

As with most spoofs about Palestinians, the reality is barely different from the parody.

Here are excerpts of the description of a book called The First Advent in Palestine:

Reading the Advent narratives of Luke and Matthew anew, in their original context, changes so much about how we see the true story of resistance, abusive rulers and systems of oppression, and God coming to earth. In Luke, Rome and Caesar loom, and young Mary's strength and resolve shine brightly as we begin to truly understand what it meant for her to live in the tumultuous Galilee region. In Matthew, through Joseph's point of view, we see the brutality of Herod's rule and how the complexities of empire weighed heavily on the Holy Family. We bear witness to the economic hardship of Nazareth, Bethlehem, and the many villages in between--concerns about daily bread, crushing debt, land loss, and dispossession that ring a familiar echo to our modern ears. Throughout her explorations, Nikondeha features the stories of modern-day Palestinians, centering their voices to help us meet an Advent recognizable for today.

Like Holocaust inversion, Palestinians become Jews when it is done to attack today's Jews.

Meanwhile, Palestinians treat their own Christians like garbage. A new JCPA (now JCFA) report details how the Christians have been fleeing areas under Palestinian Authority and Hamas control.

In 1967, Christians in Judea and Samaria were 6% of the population. In 1997 they constituted 1.5% of the total Palestinian population, in 2007 – 1.2%, and in 2017 – 1%.

In Bethlehem, Christians frequently face violence and intimidation, and are left defenseless. A member of the Protestant clergy explained: “Christians feel unprotected due to the failure of the PA police to intervene on their behalf in confrontations with Muslims.”

In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86% Christian. By 2017, Bethlehem’s Christian population had dwindled to 10%.

Here is a small example of everyday harassment of Christians in Bethlehem, from a 2019 article:

While Palestinian Christians don’t face systematic, large-scale persecution, conversations with local Christians behind closed doors reveal discrimination is, in fact, present.

Conducting research in the West Bank this past summer, I spent considerable time with Christian families around Bethlehem. One evening as I was eating dinner with a family, a mosque right outside their home broadcasted verses from the Hadith. Shortly after the recitation ended, the father of my host family remarked, “They just cursed the Christians.” While they explained this did not happen every day, I was shocked to discover that Palestinian Christians, living in what used to be a Christian-majority town in the West Bank, are forced to listen to curses hurled at them from loudspeakers.

We don't hear about this so much because the Palestinian Christians are deathly afraid and choose to embrace dhimmitude in a vain attempt to avoid being victimized. So they proclaim in public how well they are treated, while the majority have quietly fled elsewhere, away from the region.

The Palestinian Authority still officially follows the 1960 Jordan Penal Code, which can be used to intimidate and jail Christians who are perceived as insulting Islam - even if they make a noise or gesture. The laws are written as if they protect Christians as well, but the reality is that they are only used to attack them.

Whoever dares to publicly scorn or curse any of the prophets, he / she shall be punished by imprisonment from one to three years.

Whoever publicly violates fasting in the month of Ramadan, he / she shall bepunished by imprisonment up to one month or a fine up to twenty five dinars (JD25).

Whoever with the intention of hurting the feelings of any person and of insulting the religion of any person or with the knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be hurt thereby... he/she shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not to exceed three months or by a fine not to exceed twenty dinars (JD20).

Whoever commits one of the following acts, he / she shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not to exceed three months or a fine not to exceed twenty dinars (JD20):
1. Publishes any print, writing, picture or effigy calculated or tending to outrage the religious feelings or belief of other persons , or;
2. Utters in a public place and in the hearing of another person any word or sound calculated or tending to outrage the religious feelings or belief of such person.

As long as a Muslim can claim he of she was insulted by an overheard phrase or even a grunt made by a Christian, that Christian is subject to imprisonment.

It does not work the other way around, as the JCPA report notes:

Added to this is the institutional persecution committed by PA police against Christians. As one member of the Protestant clergy under the PA explained: “Christians feel unprotected due to the failure of the PA police to intervene on their behalf in confrontations with Muslims.” When subjected to harassment and worse by Muslim extremists, Palestinian Christians usually opt not to report incidents to the PA police. According to Shafik, a Protestant clergyman, many are too scared to discuss their accounts, feeling it is dangerous since it may provoke further persecution, regarding the PA police as hostile. Sana Razi Nashash from Beit Jala recalls being harassed by a man in the street. The next day, on her way to file a complaint with the police, she saw the perpetrator wearing a PA police uniform. Needless to say, she did not bother filing the complaint.

Christian Palestinians also face significant bias when seeking justice in local courts. Discrimination within the legal system leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, perpetuating their marginalization. Christians encounter obstacles in accessing justice for crimes committed against them, leading to a culture of impunity. This lack of legal recourse discourages reporting of abuses and perpetuates victimization. Christian women are especially vulnerable to legal discrimination.

Christians and Christianity are treated by Palestinians much the way they treat every social justice issue. To the world they claim to be in solidarity with these causes but in reality they are the first ones to violate the rights of the people they claim to care so much about.