Last month’s Lindisfarne Analysis focused on the southern enclave of Gaza in the Palestinian Territories, which is controlled by Hamas. This month we look at the situation faced by Palestinian Christians in the much larger West Bank run by Fatah, which includes the historic Christian town of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem

It shouldn’t need to be said in the run up to Christmas that there have been Christians in Bethlehem since the earliest days of Christianity.  But with Hamas’ attempts to spread the fighting in Gaza to the West Bank, which has been partially successful, there is now a real possibility that the 48,000 strong Christian population of the Palestinian territories, of which Bethlehem in the West Bank is the largest centre – could literally be wiped out.

A century ago Bethlehem was reported to be 84% Christian, now it is now less than 20% Christian. As we noted in last month’s Lindisfarne Analysis on Gaza, for centuries Palestinian Christians were subjected to dhimmitude – a non-citizen status that allowed them to live provided they were subservient to Islamic government and law. However, much of the twentieth century saw a respite from that, even if the wider social attitudes it engendered persisted. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the West Bank, including Bethlehem and nearby East Jerusalem was annexed by Jordan in the first Arab-Israeli war. Both were then seized back by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and have effectively been part of Israel ever since.

The negative impact on Palestinian Christians of previous peace deals

However, what has been catastrophic for Christians in the Palestinian Territories has been the failure of western governments to consider their needs and desires, when they have sought to negotiate peace deals between Israel and various Palestinian groups.

The Oslo Peace Accords signed between 1993 and 1998 decreed that a new “Palestinian National Authority” should have civilian control of Gaza and large parts of the West Bank. Christians living in the area which was to be subjected to the new Palestinian Authority were deeply fearful of what this would mean.

When the Oslo Peace accords were about to be signed Bethlehem’s long serving Christian mayor, Elias Freij pleaded in vain for Bethlehem to be included in Israel’s Greater Jerusalem area, as it had been when it was ruled by Jordan between 1948-67. He warned that Bethlehem’s inclusion in the Palestinian Authority area would lead to it becoming a town with church buildings and no Christians.

Similar fears were expressed in 2000 during a US sponsored peace summit when it was reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was considering partioning Jerusalem. Leaders of the Greek Orthodox, Latin and Armenian churches wrote to US President Clinton as well as to Mr Barak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat demanding to be consulted before any such action was taken. While the mere idea that the Israeli government was considering handing over East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority led to a flood of applications for Israeli identity cards by those living in East Jerusalem.

Those fears were not unjustified. The first page of the Palestinian Authority’s 1997 basic law, which effectively forms its constitution, states that “Islam is the official religion in Palestine” and “the principles of Islamic shari’a are the main source of its legislation” (article 4), as well as setting up shari’a courts (article 101).  It makes no mention whatsoever of freedom of worship – let alone full freedom of religion, merely stating that “other heavenly religions” should be respected. Although it states (article 9) that “All Palestinians are equal under the law and judiciary without discrimination because of race, sex, colour religion…” its statements on shari’a based law and the existence of shari’a courts make that at best an empty promise.

Life for Christians under the Palestinian Authority

Since the creation of the Palestinian Authority things have not gone well for Christians living under it. Bethlehem, which is only six miles south west of Jerusalem became a base from which suicide bombings and other attacks on Israel were mounted. When Palestinian protests escalated into a new intifada in 2000 militias linked to the Palestinian Authority began firing into Jerusalem from the Christian village of Beit Jala, including from the Christian school where around 1,000 Christian children were then students. In April 2002 when Israeli forces entered Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority forces responded by seizing the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem holding 40 nuns and clergy as hostages.

Since then, Christians in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the West Bank have been repeatedly subjected to various forms of harassment and abuse. A 2019 report from the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Israel’s Bar Ilan University identified three major incidents that year in which whole Christian communities had been targeted. One involved mob violence with cries of “jizya” directed at a Christian community after they had made a police complaint, and two others involved repeated desecration of churches. In all of these no action was taken by the Palestinian Authority. The report concluded:

“It is unlikely that the latest wave of attacks will lead to the arrest, let alone prosecution, of any suspects. The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA’s image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives.”

As is common for Christians facing state sponsored persecution, Palestinian Christians are reluctant to speak about what is happening to them for fear of repercussions. That fear was evident in 2019 when a US TV news channel set up multiple interviews with Christian business owners in Bethlehem, all of which the interviewees cancelled at the last minute, despite Fox News offering to disguise their identities. The Begin-Sadat Centre report noted that Christians expect the situation to get worse:

“Though the Christians in the PA avoid saying so publicly, many of them fear – with good reason – that Muslim aggression against them will only escalate.” 

Why many Palestinian Christians fear a two-state solution

That is almost certainly why a 2020 academic survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that far more Christians than other Palestinians wanted to emigrate. The survey found that the reasons for this were not simply economic, but were because the level of intimidation, discrimination and fear they experience from groups such as Fatah and Hamas.

The survey also found that only three out of ten Palestinian Christians favoured the two state solution, which the UN and most western governments have long argued for:

“more than half of the Christians hope for a political settlement that leads to the creation of a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in which Palestinians and Israelis would have equal rights while three out of 10 prefer a two-state solution. Half of the Christians view the one-state solution as safer than the two-state solution for Palestinian Christians.”

The reason so many Palestinian Christians fear a two-state solution is not hard to see – it is their day to day lived experience in the Palestinian Territories under both Fatah and Hamas.

Why western governments must not ignore Christians in the Palestinian Territories

So, when western governments start to voice suggestions such as a peace deal which involves handing over control of Gaza to the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority, it is vital that those governments start to think very hard and seriously about what that will mean for the future of Palestinian Christians.

If they simply ignore Palestinian Christians as  – as they clearly did in the Oslo Peace Accords, then there is a very real risk that within a few short years the entire Christian presence in the Palestinian Territories, which includes Bethlehem where Christ was born, will have largely ceased to exist.

Any peace process that results in Israel proper, being the only place where Palestinian Christians feel safe to live, will be a shameful betrayal of a persecuted Christian minority.