Below is the full-length version of a paper that was shortened for publication by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine (cf. Information Brief No. 89).

27 February 2002

“Palestinian Christians: An Historic Community at Risk?”
by Don Wagner

On a moonlit December evening in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, seventeen year old Johnny Thaljiya was outside his cousin’s souvenir shop playing with one of the customer’s babies while they were shopping in the store. Johnny had just finished the evening mass at the historic Church of the Nativity (Greek Orthodox) where he served as an altar boy. Suddenly, Johnny let out a scream and grabbed his throat as he fell to his knees, gently placing the baby on the ground prior to collapsing. Family and friends rushed to his side and realized that Johnny had been shot through the throat by an Israeli sniper, which is not an unusual fate for young Palestinian men these days. He was rushed to the hospital but it was too late to save him. Johnny died within an hour as Palestinian deaths crept toward 800 in the previous 16 months of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

While Johnny’s death should not be singled out as having a significance above any other Palestinian death at the hands of the Israeli occupiers, there are some symbolic lessons in how and why he died. Johnny had not been politically active and his assassination had no political, legal, or moral justification. His case is not unique as approximately one third of the 1000 plus Palestinians killed as of March, 2002, are youth (aged 25 and under). Most are killed for throwing stones, participating in a demonstration, or simply being in the wrong place at the time. Sadly, the international community has done nothing to protect Palestinian youth and other civilians from a fate like that of Johnny Thaljiya, thanks in part to the veto cast by the United States veto at the United Nations that could have brought impartial international observers to function as buffers between the Israeli army and the Palestinians. Today every Palestinian is at risk under this occupying army and increasingly every Israeli is at risk as the violence continues to accelerate in the occupied Palestinian areas and inside Israel.

Often overlooked in this descent into war in the Holy Land is a specific community whose presence may not survive the next 25-30 years in Israel and Palestine: the dwindling Palestinian Christian community. Many Palestinian scholars believe that Palestinian Christians could disappear in the Holy Land within a generation if the present war and emigration patterns among Christians continue. How ironic that as Palestinian Christianity celebrates its anniversary of 2000 years in Palestine and Israel that the indigenous Christianity is on the edge of extinction in the land of its birth. Perhaps more troublesome is the fact that little is being done by the western powers or the international Christian churches, who number over 2 billion persons or one third of the people on the planet. Most striking is the fact that the Middle East policies of the nation with the largest and most powerful Christian majority is underwriting the destruction of Palestinian Christianity through its uncritical support of Israel’s war machine.

In this monograph I will review the rich heritage of Palestinian Christianity, concentrating on its early contributions. Then I will examine why this community is “at risk” today before exploring some ways in which Christians, Muslims, Jews and other concerned persons and organizations might respond to their plight.

FROM JESUS TO THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

Christianity in Palestine: the Roman and Byzantine Era (30-636 C.E.)

Palestinian Christianity begins with a Palestinian Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, recognized by Christians as God incarnate, by Muslims as one of the greatest prophets in history, and by Jews as a heretical teacher who was executed by the Romans around the year 30 C.E. In that year mostly Jewish converts to Jesus’ movement gathered on the Jewish festival of Pentecost to establish the first Christian church in Jerusalem. During Christianity’s initial 300 years it faced intervals of intense persecution from both Jewish and Roman authorities but gradually the new religious movement spread from Palestine to most of Europe, Africa, and Asia. By the 4th century C.E., Christianity was the state religion of the Roman Empire and had spread to India, Central Asia, China, and throughout Africa.

In Palestine, the militant Zealot revolt of 66-70 C.E. brought a crushing defeat of the Jewish community by the Roman army and the destruction of the Second (Jewish) Temple and dispersion of much of the Jewish community, including those Jews who had converted to Christianity. However, the second Zealot revolt of 131-5 C.E. was more devastating to Judaism and Jewish Christianity alike. The Roman rulers banished Jews from Jerusalem and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina and the land became known by the Roman term Palestina, perhaps taken from the Philistine population that had settled in the coastal regions a millennium earlier. The Roman edict against Jews was severe:

It is forbidden for all circumcised persons to enter or to stay in the territory of Aelia Capitolina; any persons contravening this prohibition will be put to death.
(see Jerome Murphy O’Conner, The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land, London: Scorpion Cavindish Press, 1995, pages 16-17).

With this second Zealot revolt, most of the Jewish character of Christianity began to wane and the various pagan and Gentile Christian practices were blended with the universal doctrine (articulated by Jesus himself and St. Paul) that every believing Christian is equal and those of Jewish blood or those who practiced Jewish ritual were of no higher status. Additionally, a number of non-Jewish tribes from Arabia and central Asia, Roman citizens began to settle in Palestine, having come as Christian pilgrims or were later converted to the new faith. By the time the Emperor Constantine ended persecution in 313 C.E., Christianity was the majority religion in Palestine, with small pockets of Jews and pagans remaining in what is today the West Bank and Galilee. Thus a distinctly Palestinian Christian community emerged comprised of these Jewish, pagan, and various Arab, Asian, African, and European ethnic groups.

Palestine became a new focus for pilgrimage during Constantine’s reign, thanks in part to the enforced Pax Romana which offered protection to Roman citizens but also the newly built Roman roads, a common languages (Greek and Roman), and in general easier access to Palestine. Christians from Egypt and North Africa came to Palestine and there are records of significant Coptic monks and laity settling in the Gaza district and Jerusalem. The great Coptic theologian Origen of Alexandria settled in Jerusalem and later Caesarea, exerting considerable influence over future leaders and the diversity that characterized Palestinian Christianity in this era. His successors were instrumental in stimulating the establishment of a chain of monasteries and churches in Gaza and southern Palestine. As early as 212 C.E., Alexandria the Bishop of Cappadocia (Asia Minor) made a pilgrimage to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, inspiring a movement of European monks and priests to settle in Palestine from the far reaches of the Byzantine Empire. One of the largest Christian cities of this early period was the former Roman imperial city of Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, where Eusebius established a theological school and monastery during Constantine’s reign.

Constantine’s pious Christian mother (St.) Helena is credited with stimulating both pilgrimage and the building of several great churches in the Holy Land. As noted above, the pilgrimage tradition was well under way by the time of Helena’s visits after 329 C.E., but she may have had considerable influence on her son concerning church construction. The great Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity may have been among the many stimulated by St. Helena’s love of the Holy Land. Tradition claims that she had a role in raising funds for the third oldest church in the Holy Land, which is St. Porphery’s Orthodox Church in Gaza City. Gradually, Jerusalem became the center of Palestinian Christianity, but monasticism flourished as many decried the pagan influences of the cities. By the fifth century there were over 400 monasteries filled with local and expatriate monks from every corner of the Empire. Great scholars and theologians decided to make Palestine their home, such as the irascible British monk St. Jerome, who hated the distractions of Jerusalem and established a monastic community in nearby Bethlehem that attracted a significant community of aristocratic women from Rome.

Christianity reached its zenith as the dominant religion in Palestine during the fourth-seventh centuries C.E. However, the pressures of Byzantine imperial Christianity, which linked the faith to colonial politics, brought an onslaught of corruption and division. Constantine’s successors, both political and religious, used the orthodox Christianity of the Ecumenical Councils to impose strict doctrinal formulas on certain communities such as the Armenians, Syriac Christians of eastern Turkey and Syria-Lebanon, and the Assyrians, all of whom had settled in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem regions. By 451 C.E. at the Council of Chalcedon, not only were these expatriate Christians declared heretical but also the Coptic Orthodox Christians. It has now been determined by church historians that these formulas were inspired more by imperial politics than by theological motives, so as to control Christians in the eastern reaches of the Byzantine Empire, particularly those aligned with the rival Sassanian Persians.

Enter Islam (636-1099 C.E.)

Pilgrimage and growth of Palestinian Christianity continued until the Sassanian invasion of 616 C.E. when several churches and monasteries were destroyed. Church historians report that the Sassanians used Jewish militia, who had grown to resent Byzantine oppression, in the destruction of various churches and monasteries (see the essay by Robert Schick in Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future, Melisende, London, 1999, page 224). The Muslim invasion of 636 brought a new dimension of tolerance but also a rival religious tradition. Many Christians converted to Islam, most out of resentment over the increasingly oppressive Byzantine rulers and others due to the more attractive teachings of the Arabian faith. During the first two hundred years of Islamic rule in Palestine the Christian experience was characterized by the reconstruction of churches destroyed under the Sassanian-Jewish attacks, tolerance, conversion of the faithful to Islam, and what might be termed a creative theological and popular religious tension between Christianity and the new monotheists from Arabia. There were only two periods of outright persecution of Palestinian Christians under early Islamic rule. The first occurred under Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-886) when several churches were burned and some Christians were killed by local marauders. Christians in Jerusalem were forced to wear identical clothing marked by a cross on the front and back. The reign of Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (996-1021) brought a period of more serious persecution and the burden of wearing heavy crosses around their necks. (Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, New York, Alfred A. Knopf Press, 1996, page 251). In September, 1009, Hakim also ordered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be razed and Christians battled Muslim authorities in the streets of Jerusalem. Reports of the growing persecution of Christians in Palestine may have contributed to the Pope developing plans for a military attack to liberate the Holy Land from Islamic rule.

The Crusades (1099-1187)

When Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095 he found a receptive audience, particularly among insecure feudal European rulers who seized upon the opportunity to unite their fiefdoms. Adding to the political climate was the popular myth that the world might end with the coming millennial year and the return of Christ to establish his earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. Many of the faithful were easily convinced that they might be the forerunners of reestablishing Christian rule in the Holy Land.

The First Crusade provided several unfortunate dimensions, such as the killing of thousands of Jews in the Rhine River valley and then attacking Byzantine Orthodox churches in Constantinople. Further, many Crusaders died along the way from disease, shipwreck, and malnutrition. Once they reached Palestine, they had slaughtered several Arab Christian communities in Syria and Lebanon (see Amin Mahlouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes) not to mention the Muslims and Jews who lost their lives at their hands. Their ruthless assault on Jerusalem continued the killing of Palestinian Christians, Jews, and Muslims, unable to distinguish one from the other. The bloodletting that occurred in Jerusalem is reported by the eyewitness Raymond d’Aguliers:

Some of our men cut off the heads of their enemies … others tortured them longer by casting them into flames. Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one’s way over bodies of men and horses. But these are small matters compared to what happened to the temple of Solomon. … If I tell you the truth it would exceed your belief. In the Temple and Porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to the knees and bridle reigns.
(Andrew Sinclair, Jerusalem: The Endless Crusade, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995, page 56).

This colonial onslaught by European Christian armies remains in the memories of Arab Muslims and Christians as well as Jews as one of the significant injustices of history. It is important to remember that Arab Christians were the victims of this frightening European military assault.

A short-lived Crusader kingdom was established in 1100 C.E. when Baldwin I was enthroned as king. Latin Christianity was imposed on the diverse Christian community, most of whom were Greek Orthodox. The Orthodox Patriarch was expelled and non-Latin Catholic Christians either fled or continued to operate under-ground. Muslims who survived the onslaught were forced into slavery or they fled to safety outside of Palestine.

In 1187, Salah al-Din, a Kurd who came to power in Egypt, declared a jihad and defeated the Crusader hold on Jerusalem and much of Palestine came under his rule by 1189. He allowed the Orthodox Christians to return and by 1250 the Greek Orthodox Patriarch was reinstated as the primary Bishop of the Christian community in the revived dhimmi system. During the succeeding century a variety of Christian communities received official recognition from the Muslim rulers, including Copts, Armenians, Nubians, Ethiopians, and the Syrian Orthodox.

Ottoman Rule (1517-1918)

Gradually a new Islamic rule emerged from the Osman Turks who rapidly expanded their rule under Salim (1512-20) and Sulaiman the Magnificent (1520-66), conquering the former Byzantine regions including Jerusalem and Palestine. The Turkish Islamic administrative term for rule over non-Muslims was called the Millet system, or a series of negotiated agreements with the Christian and Jewish hierarchies that determined the religious, social, and legal status of the monotheistic minorities. As such the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem generally represented their respective communities before the Ottoman authorities in all matters. Individual Christian communities were represented by Bishops and other hierarchies, to addressed matters to the Greek Patriarch. Interestingly, the Government of Israel replicated a form of the Millet system which remains in effect with certain adaptations today.

During the 17th and 18th centuries the Ottoman Empire began to weaken which enabled certain European nations to negotiate economic agreements in various parts of the Empire that would provide privileges in international trade. The system, called the Capitulations, gave significant economic power to European nations in the Eastern Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and soon certain nations established missionary enterprises and churches throughout the Middle East. Gradually, Lutherans from Germany established churches and hospitals in Palestine, the British sent Anglicans to Syria, Egypt and Palestine, and the Russians established closer ties with the Orthodox. The French adopted the Latin Catholics and each nation became protectors of their respective communities. But while the Catholic and Protestant missionaries brought literacy and development to Palestine, they also fragmented the local Christians, a legacy of division and competition that remains problematic.

As Ottoman Rule declined during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, three important forces arose that would effect the Palestinian Christian community over the succeeding 150 years. During this period Palestinian Christians were approximately 18-19% of the total population of Palestine, which included a small number of Jews, mostly in Jerusalem and small communities in Galilee. The remainder of the 475-500,000 living in this southern district of the Ottoman province of Syria were Sunni Muslims. The Christians tended to live in the cities, especially Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jaffa, and the Bethlehem triangle. There was little if any religious or political tension among Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

The first new factor was a very gradual emigration of Palestinian Christians, primarily from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which began with news of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. A small number of Palestinian Christians joined Lebanese craftsmen, some of whom were fleeing the religious strife between Lebanese Maronite Christians and the Druze, seeking to discover new life in the west. Aside from the influence of Lebanese merchants there had been a small number of Palestinian and Lebanese emigrants who had heard the glorious economic and culture opportunities from European missionaries. A larger number left in the early 1890s when the Port of Beirut was opened to international commerce, enticing a small wave of Christian Palestinians from Bethlehem to seek new opportunities in Europe, North America, and South America.

A second new dynamic was the rise of Arab nationalism, which came to Palestine as a result of Arab intellectuals in Syria and Egypt seeking independence from their Ottoman overlords. As the various Palestinian churches had developed the art of printing in Palestine, particularly in Galilee, several Christian intellectuals in Haifa, Nazareth, and to a lesser degree in Jerusalem came to publish nationalist newspapers. This was combined with a plethora of small study cells that met in homes, churches and mosques, particularly across Galilee. A new literary revival emerged called al-Nahda, which was primarily secular and nationalistic, with a significant number of Christians in the forefront. For example, Najib Nasser’s journal al-Karmil became an important voice for Palestinian independence from the Ottoman overlords as it articulated the need for an independent Palestinian democratic state. It was replaced by the newspaper Filistin which was published until 1967. Butros al-Bustani and Najib Azouri were important Palestinian Christian intellectuals whose books and pamphlets articulated the growing national consciousness. They reflected the influence of the great Syrian nationalist ideologue Michel Aflaq, also a Christian. Certainly the most important literary work of the period was Georges Antonius’ The Arab Awakening, which continues to be respected as the seminal work of its kind during this period. Certainly the Muslim secular nationalists were in the forefront of the nationalist struggle, but the Christian minority made a significant contribution in the articulation and implementation of the secular democratic state vision, and Palestinian Christians have remained in the leadership until the present day.

Many of the Palestinian nationalists struggled to bring their churches and clergy into the spirit of national independence, often to no avail. A significant example was Khalil Sakakini, a highly respected Palestinian nationalist at the turn of the previous century and a Greek Orthodox layman. In 1908 he challenged the Greek Patriarch and clergy, calling for:

expelling those Greek priests, brethren of the Holy Sepulchre, from the country and the Jerusalem See of corruption. I shall work for liberating ourselves from the Greek influence … Nobody should blame us if we got rid of them and worked for their expulsion.
(quoted by Yehuda Litani in “Harsh Summer for the Patriarchate,” Ha’aretz, September 25, 1995).

The embryonic Palestinian national movement was cut off by the Ottoman overlords but it would lie dormant for only a brief period. Meanwhile, decisions concerning the future of Palestine and the Palestinians would soon be made by the western powers, Great Britain in particular.

The third factor would eventually become the most disastrous dynamic to emerge during this period, which is the rise of political Zionism. As a reaction to European anti-Semitism, Zionism was a foreign movement to Palestine and in that it mirrored certain forms of European nationalism, it was entirely foreign to the Jews and Arabs of Palestine. As we shall see, its sponsorship by Great Britain and its aggressive land settlement and political organization would eventually cause the largest single dislocation of the Palestinian population, and as such, a serious blow to Palestinian Christianity.

British Mandate and the Nakba (1922-48)

Palestinian Christians remained relatively consistent in terms of their place in society, particularly the urban regions of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Nazareth, Galilean villages, Ramallah, and the Bethlehem region. The British census of 1922 placed the Christian Palestinian population in Jerusalem at just over 51% of the total in 1922, the majority being of the well educated mercantile class. Gradually, Zionist settlement increased the proportion of Jews throughout Palestine but the Jewish presence in Jerusalem remained relatively small. However, the hostilities that ensued after the United Nations partition vote of November 28, 1947, had a devastating effect on the Palestinian population with between 725-775,000 refugees being expelled from their ancestral lands. A fact that is well documented by Israeli and Palestinian historians is the new Jewish state’s military strategy called the Dahlet Plan which was conceived to depopulate Palestinian population centers in such areas as Jaffa, Lydda-Ramle, Haifa, western Jerusalem and its suburbs, and in the Northern Galilee. The infamous account of the northern Galilee towns such as Ikrit and Bir’am have been brought western awareness by such Christian leaders as Fr. Elias Chacour in his autobiographical account Blood Brothers, the facts of which are verified by Israeli historians and lawyers. Their villages were destroyed and these internal “refugees” within the state of Israel were denied the right to return to their villages, despite the fact that they won an appeal in the Israeli High Court. Most of the refugees of this era and those of succeeding decades simply lost everything.

In the Jerusalem district, historian Sami Hadawi estimated that over 50% of Jerusalem’s Christians were expelled from their West Jerusalem homes, which was the largest single numerical decline of Christians in Palestine in history. Hadawi, who worked in the Land Bureau for the Jordanian government, had access to property deeds prior to 1948. His study concluded that in Jerusalem there was a higher proportion of Palestinian Christians that became refugees after ’49, a ratio of 37% of Christians to 17% of the Muslims living in Jerusalem. Part of the higher ratio of Christians was due to the fact that the majority lived in the wealthier western Jerusalem districts, which were seized by Israel during the hostilities of 1948-9. Further, approximately 34% of the land seized by Israel was owned by churches of Palestinian Christians and it was simply taken by force with no compensation given to the previous owners. Major Israeli institutions such as the Knesset, the Dome of the Book, and many of the government buildings, homes of Israeli government officials, and foreign embassies are either the homes of Palestinian Christians or are built on Christian land. No compensation was given, the property and land was simply stolen. (Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948, Amman, Jordan: Saqi Books, 1988, pages 117-137).

Bethlehem University sociologist Bernard Sabella reports that by 1966, Palestinian Christians had declined to 13% of the total Palestinian population in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a significant decline from the 18-20% ratio that held until 1947. However, following the War of 1967 and continuing until the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993, the population decline was more dramatic. Sabella places the ration of Palestinian Christians to Muslims at 2.1% in 1993. The decline was in direct reaction to the severity of the Israeli occupation and the lack of an economic, educational, vocational, and a secure life in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. Had the ratio of the 1922-47 period remained at 18% the Palestinian Christians would have been close to 300,000 by the early 1990s. Inside Israel, the Palestinian Christians grew to approximately 160,000 by 1993, compared to an Muslim population of 650,000 in Israel. However, by the turn of the century and the second Intifada, the emigration patterns continued to the extent that Christians now number only an estimated 1.6% of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

If these rates continue over the next generation, Palestinian and western scholars observe that the indigenous Palestinian Christian population will be on the verge of extinction within a generation. Some call this the “museumification” of the indigenous Christians of Palestine and Israel, indicating that there will only be a small number of elderly Christians left to show churches to western tourists but the churches are empty, having no local community to worship and inhabitate them. The situation will parallel what now exists in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and Turkey. One current observer who makes this case is the popular British travel writer William Dalrymple, whose profound work From the Holy Mountain chronicles his travels throughout the former Byzantine Empire to evaluate the present status of Christianity in these lands where it once thrived. Dalrymple concluded: “The single most dramatic decline of the Christian population (next to Anatolia) is in Palestine.” (William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain, New York: Owl Books/Henry Holt and Company, 1999; page 319). Bishop Riah abu-Al Assal, Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East is even more graphic:

If we do not find a solution quickly, the land where our faith was born and survived for two thousand years will soon be empty of indigenous Christians. The living faith will only be represented by dead stones and Imported custodians.
(Riah Abu El-Assal, Caught in Between, London, SPCK, 1999, page xv).

Many Palestinian Christians are now stating, perhaps as an appeal to the conscience of the west, addressed especially to the people and the government of the United States, that Palestinian Christianity may die within a generation if a just peace is not implemented in Israel-Palestine soon. The fundamental crisis for Palestinian Christians is the same for all Palestinians—the occupation and the brutality of Israel’s measures against the entire Palestinian community. Until the United States implements policies with full accountability and both economic and political measures that will bring Israel into compliance with existing United Nations resolutions 242 and 338, which remains the international formula for a just peace in the Holy Land, all Palestinians and Israelis will continue to suffer insecurity, economic deprivation, and death from the inhumane status quo of occupation.

What Palestinian Christians Want

Perhaps the most succinct and accurate articulation of the Palestinian Christian position is found in the Jerusalem Sabeel Document of 2000, as produced by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. Led by the Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, former Canon of St. Georges’ Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem and Director of the Sabeel Center, this document summarizes what the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians accept as the basis for a just peace in the conflict. The document begins with a biblical and theological rationale for their position and then turns to the moral basis for their “Peace Principles:”

1. We acknowledge the sufferings and injustices committed against Jews by the West, especially those inflicted by the holocaust. Nevertheless, they do not justify the injustices committed against the Palestinians. Justice claimed by one people at the expense of another is not justice.
2. Since Israel has, by force, displaced the Palestinians, destroyed their villages and towns, denied them their basic human rights, and illegally dominated and oppressed them, it is morally bound to admit its injustice against the Palestinians and assume responsibility for it.
3. Since Israel acquired by force 77% of the land of Palestine in 1948, approximately 20% more than the United Nations had allotted, and established its state there, it is moral and right for Israel to return the whole of the areas captured in 1967, i.e., the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to the millions of Palestinians who need their own small sovereign state.
4. IsraelŐs “Law of Return” which allows any Jewish person to immigrate to Israel while denying Palestinians the right of return to their homeland is immoral and discriminatory.
5. Sharing the sovereignty of Jerusalem is imperative to a moral and just peace.
6. The ideology of militarism as well as the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction are morally wrong. They sabotage the spirit and visibility of peace and will not provide security either.

Once this moral framework has been articulated, the document turns to the legal and political framework for a just peace, which is essentially the international consensus held by every nation with the sole exceptions of Israel and the United States:

1. Palestinian refugees have the right of return (UN resolution 194).
2. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are occupied territories and the Israeli forces must withdraw from them (UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338).
3. The Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal. Moreover, it is illegal for the occupying power to transfer its population to, or to change the status of, the occupied territories (Fourth Geneva Convention).
4. East Jerusalem is occupied territory. Israels unilateral actions to alter the status of Jerusalem are illegal and invalid. (UN resolutions 252 and 478).
5. Violations of human rights such as home demolitions, land confiscation, torture, revocation of residency rights, restriction of movement, colsoures, and the monopolization of resources are an insult to the dignity of human beings and contravene international law. (United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

These moral and legal/political principles state the unambiguous basis for a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Since 1948 it is estimated that approximately 50 peace proposals have been brought forth and all have failed. In some cases the United States (often under pressure from Israel) has opposed the above formulas, despite the fact that the United States has been a signatory to these very principles. Existing U.S. policy is in compliance with these principles, but the U.S. actions have to date been contrary to the above internationally adopted positions. The experiences of the 1990-2000 phase, or the Madrid Peace Process followed by the Oslo Accords, were all clever attempts to bypass the basic United Nations resolutions as articulated above. All these procedures, however clever and skillfully nuanced, have led to disasters for both the Israeli and Palestinian people, who are both less secure, more economically deprived, and further from peace than at any previous time since the creation of Israel in 1948.

Fortunately, most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox church bodies in Europe, Canada, and the United States have now adopted official policy statements that are in complete accord with the Sabeel Principles. Most of the churches have held these positions for several years. The task now is to translate these national policies into active moral, spiritual, and even political advocacy by the clergy and laypersons. The mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and their various institutions and leaders could make a significant difference in the near future if there is a concerted effort at education and organization, but the prospects for such are in their initial stages of implementation. . Whether these churches will choose to commit staff, educational material, and advocacy remains an open question, but there are some indications that the pendulum is swinging in the direction of education and action. We recall that after long periods of lethargy, the churches eventually made significant contributions in the civil rights struggle, in their opposition to the Vietnam War, and in the crusade against Apartheid in South Africa. The struggle for Palestinian rights remains a distant hope but the official policies are now in place and the infrastructure for significant action are coming into view.

For the past twenty years there has been significant inter-denominational cooperation on Middle East issues through the Washington, D.C. based Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). Through the years CMEP has made important contributions in the formation of church policy on the Middle East and has mounted significant advocacy programs, such as opposition to the move of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Recently there have been important national organizational developments initiated by CMEP, such as a small structure for prayer and education on Middle Eastern issues in every state in the United States. These prayer and study groups are small but growing, and a possible base for future coordination on advocacy programs. Second, CMEP in cooperation with the National Council of Churches and other agencies, is now prepared to launch a significant media project, placing media professionals in Bethlehem and other areas of the West Bank. Their goal is to assist the Palestinians in telling their story to the west, particularly in the United States. By early 2002 there had been sufficient fundraising so as to allow the project to begin.

Additionally, a new program called “Accompaniment” will begin in the summer of 2002. There will be several aspects of this program, but in essence it is designed to provide western observers and witnesses to the human rights calamity that presently exists in the Palestinian areas. Persons volunteering for this project will received significant training prior to departure. They will offer themselves to accompany Palestinians trying to make dangerous crossings or pass through checkpoints on their way to fulfill such normal tasks as traveling to school, visiting hospitals or clinics, or simply going to work or to their churches and mosques to pray. The hope is that these western observers will provide a modest sense of protection or at least as observers who will also be trained to report on violations of human rights. These strategies proved effective in both the campaign against Apartheid in South Africa and in the wars in Central America during the 1980s. In both cases, the churches played major roles in the long struggle for justice and peace.

Conclusion

Early in the second Intifada, Israel reinvaded the Bethlehem region and began to occupy a number of homes and institutions in Beit Jala. One day the Israeli Defense Forces occupied the Lutheran orphanage in Beit Jala. The local priest telephoned his Bishop, the Rev. Dr. Munib Younan, who immediately telephoned the United States Consul General in East Jerusalem, who replied that they had reports that Israel was not occupying the orphanage. Bishop Younan decided to travel through the check points and see for himself it the priest was reporting the story accurately. After several hours he reached the orphanage and saw for himself that the IDF had tanks surrounding the orphanage and soldiers posted on the roof, where they were using it as a sniper post. He demanded that the army withdraw and the local commander refused. Bishop Younan then telephoned the US Consul General and the US Embassy, and reported that he was in the orphanage, and it was occupied by the army, and he insisted that the United States put pressure on the Israelis to withdraw from the church property. Then Bishop Younan telephoned the Lutheran Bishop at his headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, and reported the problem. Bishop Younan requested that the Bishop use all means in his power to communicate to the Bush Administration that Israel is violating a number of agreements and that they must be forced to withdraw not only from the orphanage, but from Beit Jala and Bethlehem. News of the occupation of Beit Jala and the Lutheran complaint began to reach the international news media and the Lutherans were joined by other church bodies in lodging formal and informal complaints. Within 48 hours the IDF withdrew, at least temporarily, from Beit Jala. A small victory, but one achieved in part as Christians in the United States heard the cries of their sisters and brothers in Palestine, and acted for justice.

Don Wagner is associate professor of Religion and Middle East Studies and executive director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University.