Many people around the globe have become aware of Palestine and Israel due to the violence in and around Gaza. If one follows the legacy media, one might have been told that the conflict began on 7 October when Hamas, an attacked the ‘peaceful’ state of Israel.
Few, especially those depending on other sources of information, might have learned that Palestinians under a 16-year Israeli siege had finally broken out of Gaza, or what the Catholic Cardinal of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa has called “an open prison.”
Many of the new followers of the conflict quickly noticed the double standard of the Western governments (and Western media) and have also been appalled by the racism that Israel has towards Palestinians. But this discovery has often missed an important factor.
”The Israeli bombing of Christian facilities, churches, and hospitals has given prominence to the Palestinian Christian existence. Israel shelled a Church building where people were hiding from the Israeli onslaught causing the death of 18 Palestinian Christians.”
Israeli occupation, domination, and discrimination are not limited to a particular religion. While Hamas used the Islamic term in reference to their operation (Al Aqsa flood), the fact is that people of all backgrounds and religions have identified with the Palestinian resistance movement, not because of support for Islam.
Furthermore, members of the international community often appear surprised to learn of the existence of Palestinian Christians and may be unable to fathom the continuous existence of Christians in Palestine and the region ever since the birth of Christ in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.
Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem where Jesus was born, was raised, and was crucified are all Palestinian towns with a clear Arab
Christian presence.
The Roman Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza City is the third oldest church in the world. It lies also next to the Anglican-run hospital popularly referred to as the Baptist hospital which was also shelled causing death and destruction.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of those inside at the time were women and children and accused Israel of targeting churches.
According to reports in The Guardian, the Israeli military said it had damaged “a wall of a church” when it hit a Hamas “command and control centre” nearby but denied intentionally targeting St. Porphyrios. The Israeli military provided a video that appeared to show a powerful missile hitting a building immediately adjacent to the church and said the incident was under review.
Remembering Palestinian Christian villages
But while for many the discovery of Palestinian Christians was new; their oppression is as old as the state of Israel itself. The current attempts by Israel to force the expulsion of Palestinians from the north of Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai (under the excuse of protecting them) have refreshed the Palestinian people’s memory of having become refugees 75 years ago and never being able to return. One of the most telling cases of disenfranchisement and refusal to allow refugees to return happened to citizens of the state of Israel who were Palestinian Christians.
In the winter of 1948 six months after the creation of Israel, and when the Israeli army was dealing with cross-border attacks from Lebanon, it asked two mostly Christian Arab villagers to leave their towns temporarily promising them that they could return a few weeks later when the danger was dealt with.
The Palestinian Christians of Kirit and Biram listened to the new rulers and agreed to temporarily leave their villages only to be denied return ever since, despite being legitimate citizens of the state of Israel. Not only that but when an Israeli high court ruled in favour of their return, the Israeli Airforce shelled the entire villages to prevent any return.
The story of Palestinian Christians from these two villages is detailed in Blood Brothers, a book by a Melkite priest Father Elias Chacour. In 1994 the Washington Post ran a long article on the case, entitled: When two weeks turn into 45 years. Today, those two weeks are more like 75 years and there is no sign of the Palestinian Christian citizens of Israel ever returning.
Anti-Christian racism today
More recently though, and especially since the far-right wing Israeli government took power in October 2022, fundamentalist Israelis have taken it upon themselves to bully Palestinian Christians, damage their churches and cemeteries, and regularly assault and defame religious leaders and holy sites.
Nir Hasson, the Jerusalem reporter for Haaretz, happened to be on the scene when a particularly egregious incident took place on 5 October, just two days before the attacks on Gaza were launched. The incident which he filmed and published, showed a group of Christian pilgrims who were carrying a large wooden cross in the Old City of Jerusalem, being spat at repeatedly by adult Haredi Jewish men and boys. The video went viral, sparking outrage around the world.
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Following 7 October, however, no one was spared from Israel’s vicious revenge. A Christian-run hospital and church were shelled, with many Palestinians killed and injured. This led Palestinian Church leaders to issue a series of calls for a ceasefire.
An alarm was subsequently raised by the UN, humanitarian agencies, and human rights organisations that all issued multiple statements saying war crimes by Hamas can never justify war crimes by Israel. The law of war stipulates that civilians must be spared; bombing must not take place if it is not against a legitimate military objective.
The Hamas attacks which also included soldiers and civilian being taken hostage, produced one of the vilest Israeli responses from Israeli officials who publicly made genocidal and dehumanising statements. Early in this war an Israeli army spokesman said that their actions against Palestinians in Gaza are based on the “emphasis of damage not accuracy”. This came when Israel’s defence minister started on 9 October 9 (and implemented) the war crime of preventing water, electricity food, fuel, and medical supplies from 2.2 million Palestinians trapped in a small part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
