Shadow over Bethlehem

At this time of year, faced with occupation and threats from extremists, Palestinian Christians have little to celebrate

By Ben White
(A freelance writer who has spent several summers in Palestine/Israel based in the West Bank and written extensively on the Middle East)

The Guardian

".....But if Gove's powers of observation do not fail him, sadly his powers of analysis do. Like many apologists for Israeli policies, he is happy to use the Christian Palestinians for propaganda designed to deflect attention from Israeli policies on to the threat of "Islamist radicals".

The dominating reality for Christian Palestinians this Christmas will be the 40-year Israeli occupation that continues to have a devastating impact on the Bethlehem region. The illegal separation wall, for example, cuts right into the north of the city (not simply "near", as Gove wrote) and in the area as a whole only 6% of the wall adheres to the Green Line. Christian and Muslim families have all lost land to the path of the wall - some villages face imprisonment in tiny enclaves.
In July alone, the Israeli military confiscated 1,500 acres from the Christian majority town of Beit Jala,
on the outskirts of Bethlehem......

With no prospect of either individual or collective freedom, dignity or opportunity under Israeli apartheid, many of Bethlehem's Christian residents see no alternative but to leave. These are the appalling, and worsening, political and economic "push" factors behind the worryingly high level of Christian Palestinian emigration, as surveys have corroborated.

For years though, a coalition of the Israeli government, far-right thinktanks, and US Christian Zionists have sought to both create a smokescreen and foster division in Palestinian society by alleging that "Islamic fundamentalists" are waging an anti-Christian "jihad". While the claim of persecution is demonstrably false and it is doubtful, to say the least, if those behind such campaigns have the Palestinians' best interests at heart, there are still genuine sectarian tensions that need acknowledging.

For the sake of national unity - and confronting deliberate "divide and conquer" tactics - it is tempting for Palestinian leaders and solidarity groups to play down or ignore the incidents of inter-communal conflict. This also does not do the Christian Palestinians, or Palestinian society as a whole, any favours.

Muslim-Christian relations in Palestine are shaped by numerous overlapping, interconnecting and sometimes conflicting factors. There is the tribal-patriarchal dimension to the society, particularly in more conservative rural areas, that combined with family disputes can lead to clashes which are easily spun as religiously motivated........"