BACKGROUND: Arab Christians in Israel and the Palestinian areas

May 4, 2009, 5:05 GMT

Jerusalem - More than 170,000 Arab-Christians live in Israel and the Palestinian territories, divided into 13 denominations.

Over 120,000 of them live in Israel, around 50,000 in the West Bank, and another 1,000 in the Gaza Strip - and according to at least one expert, they are in a 'precarious position'.

In Israel itself, says Daniel Rossing, Director of the Jerusalem Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations (JCJCR), they find themselves forced to live as a minority within a minority, a reversal of the usual Christian-Jewish demographics.

In the West Bank and especially Gaza Strip, Arab Christians have to 'walk a tightrope' with the local Muslim fundamentalists, notably the Islamic Hamas movement, which administers the Gaza Strip.

'Protesting Hamas actions toward them can be suicidal. Protesting against Israel can be far more effective, but it creates a skewed picture,' Rossing notes.

Complicating matters for local Christians is the issue of national identity. In Israel, Jews and Arab Christians are two populations who have opposing national sympathies.

Arab Christians identify with the Palestinians, leading a document issued by the Latin Patriarchate to note that 'the ongoing conflict between the State of Israel and the Arab world, and in particular between Israelis and Palestinians, means that the national identity of the majority of (local Christians) is locked in conflict with the national identity of the majority of the Jews.'

 A recent JCJCR poll surveying Israel's adult Jewish population found an even split on the question of the attitude of Arab- Christians to Israel, with 45 per cent saying they thought it positive or largely positive, and an equal percentage saying it was negative or largely negative.

At the same time, 51 per cent viewed them as not particularly loyal or not loyal at all, to Israel.

The JCJCR poll also revealed a lack of contact between Israeli Jews and the Christian world, with 52 per cent indicating they had no Christian friends.

Apart from the reversal of the minority-majority role, the Christians' precarious position in Israel and the Palestinian territories is also due to their dwindling population, mainly though emigration and because of a low birthrate.

In Israel, Christians make up 2.1 per cent of the population. In the Palestinian areas, the figures are starker. According to Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh, before the creation of Israel Christians constituted up to 20 per cent of the Arab Palestinian population. Nowadays it is 1.9 per cent.

The main cause of the decline was emigration, according to Batarseh. It was easier for Christian families to move abroad, he said, since Palestinian Christian communities have existed overseas since Ottoman times, when young Christian men fled to escape army service.

'Nowadays it's stable. No more are leaving,' he told the German Press Agency dpa. 'We hope that many who emigrated will return.'

The Pope's visit, Batarseh added, 'should have a special significance for the Christian community to come back again to their homes.'