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31.12.04, 00:44
Przeczytajcie a wnioski wyciagnijcie sami ,...
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ARE CHRISTIAN INTERESTS RESPECTED BY THE STATE OF ISRAEL?
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Although the Israeli government provides seperate courts for Muslims and
Christians, adminstrative treatment of Moslem and Christian Palestineans is
equal; BOTH ARE TREATED UNJUSTLY. Muslim and Christian alike are mistreated
by Israel on social, economic, educational and religious levels. Actions
taken against Palestinians reveal Israeli government motives more clearly
than media reports. To describe the mistreatment of Moslem Palestinians is to
describe the mistreatment of Christian Palestinians.
Four days ago (on 11.10.1997) the Vatican and Israel signed an agreement. The
new agreement covers the churches, religious houses, hospitals, and social
and educational agencies of the Catholic Church in Israel. Patriarch Michel
Sabbah of Jerusalem, in a telephone interview broadcast by Vatican Radio,
reported that the new pact has not significantly changed the "difficult"
situation for Christians in the Holy Land. He argued that Israeli security
measures have transformed the Palestinian lands into a territory
under "Israeli military occupation."
Some Facts on the Ground:
1- Had you read Fr. Chacour's books, Blood Brothers or We Belong to the land
you would have read about the two Christian Villages Ikrit and Birim near the
northern borders of Israel. These two villages were destroyed by the Israelis
for no other reason than to clear the land of its inhabitants. Both
Palestinian Muslims and Christians are asking the Israelis to respect their
fundamental rights. In Israel (Palestine 1947), Muslims and Christians feel
that although they do have the same Israeli ID, they are considered as second
class citizens.
2- A 1990 study conducted by Dr. Bernard Sabella, Assistant Professor of
Social Studies at the University of Bethlehem, shows that 714,000
Palestinians were forced to leave their homes in 1948, other sources speak of
750,000 including 50,000 Christians. "These Christian refugees were 7 per
cent of the total refugees and 35 per cent of the total number of Christians
who lived in Palestine prior to May 15, 1948." Dr. Sabella writes "Initially,
the majority of the refugees lived in the Palestinian cities, towns and
refugee camps that were built to absorb them. As for the Christian refugees,
they lived in the cities, particularly Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah".
The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics reported in 1994 that the 50,000
Christians in the West Bank and Gaza represented 2.2 percent of the total
population estimated at 2,238,000. Arab Christians in Israel were estimated
in the same year, in the StatisticalYearbook of Jerusalem at 125,000 or 14
percent of all Arabs in Israel. Christians in Palestine and Israel make up
175,000 or 2.3 per cent of the entire Arab and Jewish population of the Holy
Land. Estimates for world wide Palestinian Christians is close to 400,000 or
roughly 6.5 per cent of all Palestinians...35 % of all Christians in 1948
were forced to leave Israel.
I can tell my experience as a parish priest in California, sent by the Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem to serve the Arab-American Roman Catholic
emmigrants, the majority of the people that I serve in San Francisco are from
Ramallah, Ber-Zeit, Bethlehem, Jifneh,and Jerusalem. Studies of Christian
immigration show that the on-going political and economic instability caused
this emigration.
3- In an article published in 1993 Wadie Abu-Nassar, teaching-assistant in
the Political Science Department at Tel-Aviv University, Executive director
of the Catholic Preparation for the Great Jubilee, Jerusalem 2000, and one of
the main Catholic activists in Israel wrote, "Despite the Israeli attempts to
cover up, it is possible to see many examples of discrimination against
Arabs." The discrimination is codified into Israeli law by appending military
service as a requirement for government regulated benefits. Palestinians are
not conscripted into the Israeli military. Therefore, they are automatically
disqualified from many government, educational and employment opportunities.
Dormitories at Israeli Universities are filled on the basis of quotas. 50% of
the 1050 beds at Tel-Aviv University's dorms are assigned to students who
have completed military service. The remaining 50% of dormitary space is
given to "overseas" students rather than Palestinians. This policy reduces
the number of Arab students in the university since public transportation
from surrounding Arab villages is limited.
4- When jailing people, Israel looks at them as Palestinians and does not
distinguish between Muslims and Christians. The Israeli government has jailed
more than 10,000 Palestinians, many of whom were never tried in a court of
law. And yet, the United States government calls Israel the only democracy in
the Middle East.
5- When conficating Palestinian lands, demolishing houses and confiscating
identity cards from the Palestinians living in Jerusalem, Israel does not
distinguish between Christians and Muslims.
6- After the war of 1967, Israel conficated the licenses of the Christian
guides to the Holy Places and created administrative barriers for any Arab
(Christian or Muslims) who wanted a tour guide license. Israeli guides and
tourist agents, however were readily given licenses.
7- Christian and Muslim Palestinians from the Occupied Territories do not
have access to Jerusalem for worship. More than 90 per cent of Palestinian
Youth were prevented from visiting Jerusalem for more than 4 years even
though Jerusalem is only a few miles from their cities and villages. This
fundamental human right of workship is withheld on the grounds of Israeli
national security. Both Palestinian Muslims and Christians are asking the
Israelis to respect their fundamental right to worship.
8- To those of you who have been to the Holy Land or know Palestinians, it is
no secret that Israel discriminates against the Christian Palestinians. What
is of greater significance and unfortunately kept secret by the United States
press is the discrimination against the religious interests of World
Christianity.
a- Israel stopped Christian religious programs on Radio Israel in September
1996. All rebroadcasts of Roman Catholic Religious Services (Latin ) were
prohibited. And yet the western media describes Israel as a country that
gives religious freedom to all. What do you think world oppinion would be if
Italy restricted the broadcast of the Pope's midnight mass from St. Peter's
Cathedral? In fact a proposed Israeli law would make possession of the New
Testament a criminal offence punishable by a year in jail.
b- Christians from all over the world, including the USA were prohibited by
the Israeli government from visiting the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem for
50 days. This punishment for bombings by radical Palestinians was financial
punishment directed at the Christian Palestinians of Bethlehem. However, it
was more than that. It was a restriction of religious freedom for all
Christians.
c- Symbols of Chistianity and Islam are ridiculed in the Israeli press. After
depicting the Moslem Prophet and a prominent Christian Saint as farm animals,
the Maariv newspaper published a picture of the Cross on its entertainment
page of October 10th, 1997 deprecating a significant symbol of the Christian
faith.
9- St. Yves, a Human Rights Center in Jerusalem published a study about the
systematic policy of reducing the number or Christians in Palestine. Both
Israeli law and administrative procedures are used to create difficulties for
Christian Institutions and
