Persecution of Christians in Palestinian Authority

12/27/2009 Palestinian Territory (Examiner) – Yusuf Khoury is a Christian who had to flee from religious persecution in Gaza. Hamas men tried to capture him twice. His sister is under pressure to wear a head scarf. As Muslim religiosity intensifies in Gaza, Christians feel more under siege.

Within a year of Gaza’s take-over by Hamas, the owner of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore was abducted and murdered. Christian stores and schools were firebombed.

The Western media usually ignore the plight of Christians in the P.A.. They just denounce Israel’s security barrier. However, until Arab terrorists “turned Bethlehem into a safe haven for suicide bombers, Bethlehemites were free to enter Israel, just as many Israelis routinely visited Bethlehem” [as I once did].

In Bethlehem, too, life is difficult for Christians. Khoury says that Muslims stand in front of his college to intimidate the students by the way they read the Quran. Other Muslims place their prayer rugs in Manger Square. The college dean would not explain why. He said that Muslims and Christians live in “relative harmony,” but admitted that Christians “feel the pressure of Islam ”

One hears claims that Israel is compelling Christians to flee. No facts are adduced to explain why would it be just Christians. Truth is, Muslims are compelling a Christian exodus, as they have from other states, in our time, particularly in Lebanon. Some of the pressure is official. When the pressure is individual, P.A. authorities condone it.

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