https://arab.news/jkxra
In an effort to ramp up its hasbara, or propaganda, Israel is trying to appeal to US Christians. Early this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a podcast run by a conservative Christian commentator. The host talked about a “great experience” he had when visiting Israel as part of a church group. However, he mentioned that, during the visit, the congregation’s pastor was spat on by a child. Netanyahu was barely able to refrain from laughing.
While Israeli propaganda tries to show the world that Christians are flourishing in Israel, the reality is totally different. In fact, the number of Christians there is dramatically decreasing. Before the First World War, 11 percent of the population of Ottoman Palestine, which included present-day Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, were Christians. That has dropped to about 1.7 percent now that historic Palestine is under Israeli jurisdiction.
Jerusalem is especially affected. There is a governing religious rights in the city that dates back to the Ottoman era. It was formalized in international law by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. However, Israel has been deliberately breaking the status quo and infringing on the Christian character of the city to the advantage of the Jewish character.
Tel Aviv has resorted to several methods to drive out the native Christians. One of them is the acquisition of the property of the church. The Armenian Church and the Greek Orthodox Church have been especially affected.
Israel has been deliberately breaking the status quo in Jerusalem and infringing on the Christian character of the city
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
In March, the Jerusalem Municipality back taxes on church-owned commercial properties, threatening to auction them off in violation of long-standing agreements. The municipality claims that the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem owes the state millions of shekels in unpaid taxes. The tax claim, which dates back to 1994, is unproven and has no legal foundation.
The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest landowner in Israel. It owns about of the walled Old City, Jerusalem’s historic core. But , a Jewish settler group, has been using shell companies to acquire Palestinian-owned properties in strategic locations in Jerusalem, some for nominal amounts, to increase Jewish control in the city.
When the church tried to protest these transactions, the Israeli court sided with the buyer. In addition to bullying the church into accepting these fraudulent transactions, in 2018 revoked the tax-exempt status of any building not being used for prayer. However, this greatly affected the church, as it uses the revenues from its commercial properties to fund its religious and charitable activities. To increase pressure on the church, the municipality last month its bank accounts.
Israel also plans to turn the Mount of Olives, a site of pilgrimage and one of the most sacred places in Christianity, into a national park. Though the plan has been shelved for the moment, Israel is encircling the area with settlements. Organizations like , a settler association funded by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, have been involved in developing tourism and archaeological projects in the area in a bid to strengthen the Jewish presence and claims in East Jerusalem.
In addition to infringing on Christian property and heritage, and cemeteries have been desecrated and the clergy have been harassed. Clergymen and nuns are regularly assaulted and spat on. This supremacist habit has been by Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister in the Netanyahu government, who dismissed the act as “not criminal.”
Israel is also preventing the manifestation of Christian festivities. During Easter celebrations in April, Israeli authorities imposed strict on Christian worshippers. Only 4,000 permits to enter Jerusalem were issued for Palestinian Christians from the West Bank, a fraction of the usual number. And those who managed to reach the city faced aggressive policing, threats and violence, including reported incidents of police brutality and attacks by ultranationalist Jewish settlers.
In addition to infringing on Christian property and heritage, churches have been desecrated and the clergy harassed
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
The settlers have also been attacking Taybeh, the only fully Christian village in the West Bank. Residents fear for their lives as settler violence has increased in an attempt to drive them away from their homes. The Israeli authorities have been accused of abetting the attacks. In July, Israeli set fires at Taybeh’s Church of Saint George and near a Christian cemetery.
In addition to the erosion of the Christian character in the West Bank, the Christians in Gaza have been the victims of Israeli atrocities, just like everyone else in the Strip. Their churches have been bombed. 44 Christians, or 5.5 percent of the Christian population of Gaza, have been killed, 23 of them while sheltering in churches. But Christians have still refused to leave Gaza. They know their presence goes beyond themselves — it represents the presence of Christianity in the Holy Land.
While claiming to cherish Christians, Israel actually wants to erase their presence. They do not want the Occupied Territories to have an element that the West can sympathize with. This way, they can frame their aggression on the Palestinians as a conflict between Israel, representing the “good” civilized Western culture, and the “evil, barbaric” Muslims. This of good and evil was last week echoed by Mike Huckabee, an ardent Zionist and US ambassador to Israel.
It is time for the West to wake up and realize that, while Israel claims to be a defender of “Western civilization,” which is supposedly Christian, it is working on erasing the Christian character of the Holy Land.
- Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.