Sir, – I find it astounding that a “Friends of Israel” group can audaciously claim a monopoly on facts surrounding Palestinian Christians (April 19th), especially when its response is to an article that gives Palestinian Christian leaders a voice here in Ireland. It is intellectually dishonest to paint an image of Palestinian Christians as being persecuted by Palestinian Muslims in such a flagrantly Islamophobic style. Let us have an honest discussion.
Yes there are occasionally some murders, theft of property has also occurred, however I have lived in Palestine with a Palestinian Christian family for over 18 months of my life in total and not once when living in Beit Jala did I hear of Christian girls being attacked for refusing to wear Islamic dress.
We need to expose the terrible harm the Israeli occupation – not Muslim Palestinians – is doing to Christian Palestinians in the Holy Land. Just this week a Palestinian Christian’s restaurant business was demolished by Israeli occupation forces. Palestinian Christians are under the same discriminatory military laws as all other Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
I am appalled that any group in the UK, claiming to be Christian would misuse the genuine plight of Christians in various countries throughout the Middle East in order to sectarianise and characterise the Israel-Palestine conflict as one between religions
While living in Palestine I worked with various children from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds – none of them had been indoctrinated to “hate and kill Christians and Jews” and in fact they were taught ideas of peace, love, reconciliation and neighbourliness.
During the week of February 4th, 2013 a publication of a US-funded study cleared the Palestinians of charges that their schoolbooks “demonise” Israel.
By insisting that out of all Middle Eastern countries, Christians have it the best in Israel, the Anglican Friends of Israel are ignoring a history of dispossession that paints a more complex picture of the reality on the ground for Palestinians both Christian and Muslim alike. Israel’s discriminatory policies are the reason many Palestinian Christians are emigrating. As one Palestinian Christian I met while in Palestine just a few weeks ago put it, “Christian Palestinians are not affected differently to any other Palestinians under occupation but they are affected disproportionately by the occupation.”
Regarding religious freedom I would highlight that not even a month ago during the annual Palm Sunday procession, Palestinian Christians were protesting at the Israeli permit system that either delayed or denied a majority of Palestinian Christians their right to enter Jerusalem during the Easter season. That is not religious freedom in my book. I urge readers to look up a report that has just been published by Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel entitled Faith Under Occupation: The Plight of Indigenous Christians in the Holy Land. – Yours, etc,
GARY SPEDDING,
Founder – QUB Palestine
Solidarity Society,
Queen’s University,
Belfast.
