http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/papal-visit-sheds-light-christians-plight-2014523131622377448.html
Papal visit sheds light on Christians' plight
Palestinian Christians hope the Papal visit will boost waning morale due
to grim political realities.
Dalia Hatuqa and Gregg Carlstrom Last updated: 24 May 2014 11:32
A poll showed that a majority of Palestinian Christians identified the
occupation as their greatest challenge [AP]
Jerusalem - Palestinian Christians are hoping that Pope Francis, on a
trip to the Holy Land this weekend, will address their grievances at a time of
political stalemate and heightened economic woes. Most do not expect the
Pontiff's trip to change the political reality, but some - at least - believe
his call for a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will boost
waning morale.
"We are living in a difficult situation politically with nothing going on
except settlements and with no near perspective of peace," said Father Jamal
Khader, the Palestinian spokesperson for the pope's visit. "That is why we need
the visit of the pope: to strengthen and encourage us."
About 50,000 Palestinian Christians live in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. In Israel, their numbers are closer to 130,000.
"Jerusalem's Palestinian Christians were 30,000 before the establishment
of Israel, while today they are only 8,000," said Yousef Daher of the Jerusalem
Inter-Church Center. "It's not emigration [that's] the result of this lack of
numbers. This is not the issue. The issue is driving Christians out, barring
them from worship."
A recent poll showed that a vast majority of Palestinian Christians
identified the "[Israeli] occupation" as the greatest challenge to their
community. Economic factors, the stalled peace process, and mushrooming Israeli
settlements in the West Bank were also high on the list.
"Almost two-thirds said they would [leave] if they had the opportunity
due to economic difficulties and the political stalemate," said Bernard
Sabella, an expert on local Christian affairs.
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THE STREAM: Israel draws distinctions between its Arab minorities
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The Christians who have stayed find themselves struggling with political
controversy and a sense of insecurity.
Earlier this year, Israeli lawmakers buried a small but significant
change in a seemingly anodyne law that changed the makeup of the country's
equal employment commission. Instead of having simply Jewish and Palestinian
members, the panel was enlarged, with seats earmarked for Muslims, Christians,
Druze - a level of distinction not used for Jewish members.
The Knesset approved the bill, over the objections of the commission's
chair. "The goal is to give the Christians a set of benefits," said Likud
member Yariv Levin, the bill's sponsor, in an interview with the Israeli
newspaper Ma'ariv. "They are not Muslims, not Arabs, only Christians… they are
natural allies for us, a balance against the Muslims."
Controversy flared up again last month, when the army announced that it
would send draft notices to Christians. Israeli Jews are required to serve, as
are Druze and Circassian men, but Palestinians are exempt, and few enlist. "If
you accept yourself as a Palestinian, you don't go into an army which maintains
occupation or kills Palestinians," said Michel Sabbah, the former Latin
Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The notices are voluntary, and the numbers involved are small: The army
believes only a few dozen men will actually enlist.
So the plan has served mainly to stir controversy. A few high-profile
religious figures endorsed the idea, including Greek Orthodox priest Father
Gabriel Naddaf, who received widespread praise from Israeli politicians and
media. He was dismissed from the church earlier this month amid public backlash.
It's hard to talk about discrimination against Christians, because
they are regarded as part of the Arab population ... in education, in housing,
in employment, it's overall discrimination against Arabs, Christian or Muslim
or Druze. You cannot come and divide between [them].
Sawsan Zaher, Lawyer, legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel
"[It's] a good opportunity to try the old Zionist policy of
divide-and-rule," said Basel Ghattas, a Palestinian member of the Knesset and a
Christian himself. "They've created an argument within the Christian community.
There is a huge debate, a huge crisis."
Veterans can receive preferential treatment when applying for jobs, and
some benefits, including a new break on home taxes, are also conditioned on
military status. But those benefits have not done much to improve the overall
status of minority groups: The Druze, who have served in the army since the
1950s, still have some of the lowest levels of education and employment in
Israel, and their villages are woefully underfunded.
"It's hard to talk about discrimination against Christians, because they
are regarded as part of the Arab population," said Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer from
Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel. "In education, in
housing, in employment, it's overall discrimination against Arabs, Christian or
Muslim or Druze. You cannot come and divide between [them]."
The unemployment rate for Palestinian citizens of Israel is twice that of
Jewish Israelis; more than half of Palestinian families live below the poverty
line.
Palestinians in Jerusalem face particular hardships: Almost 80 percent
live in poverty, mainly due to difficulties in finding jobs, and because of
repercussions of Israel's separation wall, which cuts East Jerusalem from its
Arab hinterland in the West Bank.
Living conditions are also difficult because building permits are rarely
issued to East Jerusalemites. "Palestinians live on only about 13 percent of
East Jerusalem lands, while settlements have been expanding, with endless
possibilities for growth," said Hind Khoury, a Palestinian former minister for
Jerusalem affairs.
Palestinians living in the city are considered residents, not citizens,
and those with non-resident spouses must submit a request for family
unification. Since 2003, an Israeli law has prohibited Palestinians from the
West Bank and Gaza Strip from uniting with their spouses in Jerusalem or Israel.
"About 1,000 families live illegally in the city because one of the
parents is from the West Bank," Khoury said. "The children also are denied ID
cards, and therefore access to schools, health care, insurance services."
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RELATED: Israel warns extremists ahead of papal visit
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Harder to quantify is the religious discrimination experienced by
Christians and other minority groups, a problem that has worsened as Israeli
politics lurch further to the right.
Last month, a group of Palestinians held a baptism in an abandoned church
in Bassa, a village in the far north that was destroyed in 1948. They were
interrupted by residents of Shlomi, the Israeli town built on the ruins, who
honked car horns and smashed the camera of a photographer who was documenting
the ceremony.
The residents of another demolished Christian village, Iqrit, sent a
letter to the pope last month asking him to "intensify his sacred efforts" and
pressure the Israeli government to allow them to return home. They were
expelled in 1948, and the government has barred them from rebuilding the
village, despite numerous court orders allowing them back.
Elsewhere in Israel, a recent spate of hate crimes has targeted church
clerics and property. "Death to Arabs and Christians and all those who hate
Israel" was daubed earlier this month on the exterior of an office belonging to
the Notre Dame Center in East Jerusalem. "King David for the Jews, Jesus is
garbage," read the slogan painted on another church in the city.
"The right-wing Israeli government is creating even more extreme
right-wing young people," Ghattas said. "Every single policy, every single
budget, every single act… it's all aimed to perpetuate Israel as a state for
the Jews, and as much as possible, to alienate and discriminate and marginalise
the Arab citizens of the country."
Israeli authorities, who say they are bracing for more such attacks in
the lead-up to the pope's visit, have launched "Operation White Robe,"
dispatching more than 8,000 police officers for the Pontiff's security.
But with a cordon and a stringent permit system, Palestinian Christians
are worried they will not even be able to see the pontiff, let alone celebrate
his presence freely. They fear a repeat of the events of Easter Sunday, when
many were denied permits to Jerusalem. Some of those who managed to make it
were forbidden from entering the Old City to attend mass at the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been buried.
While Israel insists these security measures are to ensure the pilgrims'
safety, many Christians feel they hinder their religious freedom. "We need to
make sure that rights of worship to all the faithful are respected," Khoury
said. "It cannot be that Jerusalem is open to some and closed to others. Peace
won't happen if Jerusalem remains an isolated city."
