From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Palestine and Israel form the Holy Land for Christians. Christian holy places like Bethlehem and Nazareth are placed in Palestine. Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, approximately 20% of Palestine's population was Christian. This is reflected in the large number of Palestinian leaders that are Christian. This includes Hanan Ashrawi, Edward Said and Raymonda Tawil, mother of Yassir Arafat's wife Suha. However, the Christians were also often found in the more affluent segments of Palestinian society which generally fled the country in conjunction with the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Thus while Christian voices are often heard from the Palestinian diaspora, the Christian presence in Palestine is dwindling. Christians emigrate mainly to Latin America and Canada. Some explain the different rate of emigration between Christians and Muslims not by personal preference but for Christian emigrants are usually more successful in being accepted abroad.
The majority of Palestinian Christians belong to the Greek-rite Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, one of the 16 churches of Eastern Orthodoxy. There are also Maronites, Melkites, Jacobites, Roman Catholics, Syrian Catholics, and Protestants among them.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabah is the leader of the Palestinian Roman Catholics.
There has been a substantial amount of anti-Christian incidents carried out in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority. Many claim that this represents a pattern of deliberate mistreatment by the PA; others hold that these are isolated incidents that reflect the beliefs of the individuals involved, but not the society in general. Two American courts, one in Illinois and the other in North Carolina, accepted the threat of "religious persecution" as grounds for granting asylum to Christians fleeing PA territory.
According to some Christian sources, Palestinian Islamists in the West bank are using violence and threats of terror to scare Christians out of Palestinian controlled area. This is discussed more fully in the article on Persecution of Christians.
See also: Palestinian, Christian
