Back in 2008, a British vicar banned the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" from his services following his pilgrimage to the 'West Bank' city.
The Rev. Stephen Coulter said the carol’s lyrics don’t reflect the reality in Bethlehem, attacked Israel’s actions in the 'West Bank', primarily the security wall and the roadblocks, telling the British newspaper The Times that he was "shocked at how the Arab-Israeli conflict that has raged around the 'West Bank' town has decimated its population, wrecked its economy and hit tourism."
Taking a decidedly biased, one-sided view of Israel’s necessity to place security barriers between Bethlehem and Jerusalem due to lethal Palestinian Arab terror attacks including suicide bombers, this British cleric bleated, "can you imagine how these poor Christians feel being stopped by security guards, Jews from Russia, who have been in the country for just five years and who have all the freedoms denied those who have been there for centuries?"
Truth be told, Coulter was widely criticized for his blatantly biased pro-Palestinian Arab and anti-Semitic public comments.
On the other hand, in February 2024, UK’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, canceledl a meeting with Munther Isaac, a Bethlehem-based pastor who shared a platform with notorious anti-Semitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestinian rally. Corbyn, you know, the guy who had met with several Palestinian Arab terrorists, who had travelled to Tunis to lay a wreath at the grave of a major Palestinian Arab terrorist who had masterminded the Munich Olympic Games massacre of Israeli athletes.
Many church leaders had encouraged Arafat’s takeover of the Christian holy city of Bethlehem, falsely putting the blame for the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Bethlehem on Israel when, in truth, the Christians were bullied and threatened to leave by Arafat henchmen who today possess their homes and their businesses.
In 2007, the Jerusalem Post featured a report on Bethlehem Christians breaking their silence and speaking openly about what they described as Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in that town.
The families said they wrote letters to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Vatican, Church leaders and European governments complaining about the attacks, but their appeals have fallen on deaf ears.
Christians have long been afraid to complain in public about the campaign of "intimidation" for fear of retaliation by their Muslim neighbors and being branded "collaborators" with Israel. But following an increase in attacks on Christian-owned property in the city over the past few months, some Christians are no longer afraid to talk about the ultra-sensitive issue.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station. "I believe that 15 years from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian here. This is a very sad situation." Qumsiyeh, one of the few Christians willing to speak about the harsh conditions of their community, has been the subject of numerous death threats. His house was attacked with fire-bombs.
At that time, Qumsiyeh said he has documented more than 160 incidents of attacks on Christians by Muslims attempting to displace Christians so that they could take over their property and businesses by violent threats.
Another Bethlehem Christian, Edward Salama, said "When I see what's happening to Christians here, I worry a lot for our future. They are targeting Christians, because we are seen as weak."
A Christian businessman who asked not to be identified said the conditions of Christians in Bethlehem and its surroundings had deteriorated ever since the area was handed over to the PA in 1995.
"The Christians today make up less than 15 percent of the population. People are running away because the Palestinian government isn't doing anything to protect them and their property against Muslim thugs.”
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reports that the Palestinian Authority has been Islamizing Bethlehem since they assumed control in 1995. The city’s municipal boundaries were changed to incorporate 30,000 Muslims from three neighboring refugee camps, severely tipping the demography.
In 2023, Leo Dee reported that in the Jerusalem Post, writing: “While Jesus’s homeland is under attack by Islamic terrorists, the number of Palestinian Christians in the land of Israel continues to decline, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reports that the Palestinian Authority has been Islamizing Bethlehem since they assumed control in 1995.”
This is a phenomenon well known to Israeli Jews, particularly those in Jerusalem, where our history is replete with marauding Arabs, often protected by Arab armies, have killed, bullied, and driven Jews out of their properties.
Examples include the Jews of the Old City of Jerusalem, a majority in 1948, who were expelled by the Jordanian army and had their properties stolen by random Arabs.
The same applies to the Jews of the Shimon HaTzaddik area of eastern Jerusalem who fled ahead of the approaching Jordanian army only to have their homes possessed by Arabs. Until today, they remain unable to return to their legal properties.
The ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Holy Land has gone unnoticed and under reported:
In 1950, under Israeli protection, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86% Christian.
Since 1994, when the Palestinian Authority took control of the city, that percentage has declined drastically, and the last census in 2017 showed that Bethlehem was reduced to only 10% Christian families.
The PA has no incentive to conduct a new survey. The figures would point an accusatory finger at their brutal ethnic cleansing, an ethnic cleansing that is not confined to Jews.
The silent eradication of Christians under Palestinian Arag control is frightening and often violent.
The survey conducted by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) uncovered a disturbing phenomenon.
Palestinian Hamas, Islamic Jihad, even the Fatah-PLO Ramallah rulers, have been conducting a silent ethnic cleaning against Arab Christians.
Their report from December 2023 srecord that violence and coercion have decimated Christian communities in territories under both the PA and Hamas control.
Researchers Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch and attorney, Tirza Shorr, discovered mass emigration of Christians.
"Demographics don’t lie. We are witnessing a significant 80-90% decline in the Christian population in major ['West Bank'] cities."
The report also collected testimonies regarding violence and harassment against Christians, especially of girls, since the PA took over.
Most cases, however, go unreported due to fear of retribution and a lack of legal enforcement. The Vatican is silent.
Maurice Hirsh insists, "The survival of Christianity in its birthplace depends on awareness and action. Silence strengthens the perpetrators and leaves the victims without international support."
But the international community, keen to stand with the Palestinian Arab cause, has been silent on this issue.
This is unacceptable and it is time Christian leaders courageously speak out and demand that their nations leaders take as stronger action against this form of Palestinian Arab ethnic cleansing than they have taken against decades of Palestinian Arab ethnic cleansing against Jews and Israel.
The former mayor of Bethlehem, Hanna Nasser, said, “There is no future for Christians in Bethlehem.”
It is fashionable, even for Christian advocates, to take the side of the perceived “victim” which, in progressive circles, is always the Palestinian Arab side of the Palestinian Arab-Israel Jewish war.
However, on 15 June 2011, the European Parliament discussed the falling numbers of Christians living under Palestinian Arab control and its report was damning;
“Since the consolidation of power by Hamas, there has been repeated violence against this community. Between 2007 and 2011, there have been acts of vandalism and bomb attacks on Christian schools, homes and institutions, as well as cases of murder and, recently, attempted murder against members of the Christian community.
The failure to carry out investigations or arrests following these incidents suggests that Hamas has no intention of intervening to stop this persecution of Christians.
In addition, it was confirmed by a Canadian NGO towards the end of 2009 that members of Hamas have repeatedly desecrated Christian graves and exhumed the bodies, in order to ‘decontaminate’ the soil from the corpses of Christians who they believe to be unworthy of burial on Palestinian land.
According to the same source, Hamas has forced members of the Christian minority to collaborate with it, intimidating them with threats of rape and reprisals against their families.
Discrimination now seems to have become the rule in the 'West Bank' as well, especially in Bethlehem, where the Muslim majority, while accepting Christian tourists, is becoming ever more hostile to Palestinian Christians.”
The Christian population of Bethlehem has still not forgotten the siege of the 1,400-year-old Church of the Nativity, the sacred birthplace of Jesus, by 100 terrorists loyal to Yasser Arafat in 2002.
They held dozens hostage, including priests and nuns, desecrated bibles, emptied the church coffers, and set sections of the centuries-old church on fire.
At this European Parliamentary session the following dictate was approved taking into consideration the EU relationship with the PLO;
“Given that Article 2 of the association agreement with the PLO states that respect for democracy and human rights constitutes an essential component of that agreement, can the Commission specify what action it will take to ensure that this clause is respected by the Palestinian government authorities and that the violence against Christians ceases?”
That was over 14 years ago. The Christian situation under Palestinian Authority rule has only gotten worse, and there is no Israel to blame.
The situation of Christians in Gaza is not better, and their fate was sealed when Israel handed Gaza over to the Palestinian Arabs.
Not once between 1967 - 2005, when Gaza was under Israeli rule following the Six Day War, were any Christian churches or institutions ever discriminated against or attacked.
Under Hamas control of Gaza, the Christian population plummeted from about 3,000 in 2008 to an estimated 600 in 2022, most of them Greek Orthodox.
Truth be told, Hamas persecuted Christians before they targeted the Jews.
In Gaza since Hamas’ rise to power in January 2006, the imposition of sharia law made life unbearably difficult for Gaza’s Christian population. Attacks against Christian holy sites and individuals became commonplace.
In June 2007, the Sahwa Rosary School in Gaza was bombed and ransacked and copies of the Bible were burned.
Reverend Hanna Massad, pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church said at the time, “There is pressure and discrimination on all levels for all of the Christians in Gaza. Christians can’t openly wear their crosses outside."
His church was firebombed in the September 2006 riots.
In May 2008, that same Christian school in Gaza was bombed once again.
In short even as the population of Gaza was increasing the numbers of Christians were decreasing at alarming levels.
Out of Gaza, in the Palestinian Arab town of Jenin, Reverend Tomey Daoud, head of the Greek Orthodox Church said, “The Islamic people want to kill us. That’s their principle and belief. They don’t want Christians in this country. They don’t want to hear our names. They don’t want to see us. That’s the reality.”
Coming back to Leo Dee’s article, he wrote, “As the bells are muted in Bethlehem this year, Christians around the world should protest the persecution of their brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. While Jesus’s homeland is under attack by Islamic terrorists, and the number of Palestinian Christians in the land of Israel continues to decline, this is just a microcosm of a global trend of Muslim-Christian hatred. This year should be the year for Western Christians to demand that their co-religionists in Islamic countries must also have the right to celebrate a Merry Christmas.”
In a tragic twist of fate, the writer, Rabbi Leo Dee, was himself the victim of a Palestinian terror attack that killed his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina in April 2023.
Dee’s article was wrong in one important aspect.
In December of 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) of the Israeli Government published data on the country’s Christian community.
According to the Report, approximately 187,900 Christians reside in Israel, which represents 1.9% of the population. This number represents a growth of 1.3% compared to the previous year.
The one place in the Middle East where the number of Christians has increased is in tiny Israel.
Truth be told. The inititor of the violence is always the Palestinian Arabs.
Truth be told. The victim is always the Jew.
Truth be told. Christians are always the secondary victim of Palesrtinian Arab and Islamic violence,, unless the Jew is absent. In which case they are the primary victim. Evidence is in Bethlehem and in a Gaza void of Jews.
On a wider scale this truth is seen in Africa and more recently in Syria.
Barry Shaw is with the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.