Frankly Speaking: Are Palestinian Christians facing extinction?

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Updated 29 January 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Are Palestinian Christians facing extinction?

  • Palestinian pastor describes Israel’s Gaza war as “a genocide,” slams Western governments for failing to protect Palestinians
  • Rev. Munther Isaac insists Christians seek no special treatment, says he does not want to see Israel destroyed or Jews leave

DUBAI: Israel’s brutal war in Gaza is threatening to end the existence of Palestinian Christians in both the enclave and the occupied West Bank, Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem has said.

Appearing on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News weekly show, the Palestinian pastor did not mince words while speaking on topics ranging from the Church’s position on the conflict to whether the West has begun turning on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It is a genocide. Israel told the world what it is doing, what it wants to do, and facts speak for themselves,” he said.

“How was the killing of thousands of children self-defense? How is that related to Oct. 7? How was the displacement of close to 2 million people self-defense?”




Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem spoke with Katie Jensen on Frankly Speaking. (Arab News photo)

Militants led by the Palestinian group Hamas killed around 1,300 people, mostly civilians, in an unprecedented attack on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7 last year. Another 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israel.

The events triggered Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and reduced vast swathes of the enclave to rubble.

“It became clear to us, especially as Palestinians, in the very first few weeks of the war, even days, that this is an attempt to end life in Gaza as we know it,” Isaac said.

The war has had a ripple effect beyond Gaza, with the tens of thousands of Christians who live in the West Bank also suffering, Isaac added.




Palestinian Christians march in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Oct. 23, 2023, in solidarity with the people of Gaza amid Israeli aggression. (AFP)

“Here in the West Bank, many Palestinian Christian families have already left out of fear. They look at what was happening in Gaza and they think, ‘could this happen to us one day?’”

Isaac said it is “impossible to thrive as a community in the midst of conflict, oppression and occupation.

“Life here was so difficult before Oct. 7; it’s even more difficult now. Many have lost their jobs because there is no tourism. Jerusalem is completely blocked now, isolated from us.”




Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem spoke with Katie Jensen on Frankly Speaking. He said Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide and are completely unrelated to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack. (Arab News photo)

Isaac’s community were already a minority dealing with their own challenges even prior to Oct. 7, with just around 1,000 Christians residing in Gaza.

Though Israel often touts itself as a protector of Christians in the Middle East, the bombing campaigns in Gaza have laid waste to homes and churches of Palestinian Christians there.

“There is this illusion that Israel treats Christians favorably or in a special way. And if anything, this war made sure that this is not true,” Isaac told Katie Jensen, the host of “Frankly Speaking.”

The bombing of Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church on Oct. 19 claimed the lives of at least 18 Palestinian civilians who were sheltering in the church. Two months later, Israeli snipers reportedly shot and killed a mother and daughter as they left the sole Catholic Church in Gaza.




This picture taken on January 5, 2024, shows Gaza City's Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, damaged in Israeli bombardment during the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

“Everyone who sees what happened in Gaza realizes that everybody is a target. Churches were not safe. Christians took refuge in the churches thinking that they were safe, but evidently, they were wrong,” Isaac said.

Though the already-small Gazan Christian community has been struck a particularly severe blow with the deaths of many of its members, Isaac made it clear that he did not seek any special treatment for Palestine’s Christians.

“I don’t think we want to be treated in a special way,” he said. “We want an end to the war. We want an end to the occupation.

“We want to contribute in a reality in which there are equal rights to all citizens. We want to feel as equals to everyone else in this land, Muslims and Jews.”




Palestinians search the destroyed annex of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church that was damaged in a strike on Gaza City on October 20, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Moving on to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Isaac reiterated that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide and are completely unrelated to the Oct. 7 attack.

He expressed shock over “the fact that Western countries that boast all the time about human rights and international law are willing to turn such a blind eye to something like this.”

He praised South Africa’s initiation of the proceedings against Israel, which began at the end of December last year.

The ICJ handed down its ruling on Jan. 26, ordering Israel to “prevent genocide and desist from killing, injuring, destroying life and preventing births,” enable the provision of humanitarian services, and submit regular reports to the court.

Despite ruling in South Africa’s favor on many accounts, the judgement stopped short of ordering an immediate ceasefire — and many are skeptical that the ruling will be enforceable or anything more than symbolic.




Members of the South African legal team talks to journalists at Tambo International Airport in Ekurhuleni, South Africa, on January 14, 2024, upon their return from The Netherlands, where they represented their country in a two-day hearing against Isreal at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. (AFP)

However, for Isaac, it is important that “Israel realize that there are countries (and) leaders willing to stand firm and take courageous positions. Israel has been doing what it’s been doing because no one ever held Israel accountable.”

He said: “I was pleased just with the idea that all the crimes of Israel have been displayed in front of the whole world to see.

“I am very pleased that it’s a country like South Africa that led the efforts, because they have the moral credibility and authority to speak about such issues. A country that endured colonization and apartheid has the credibility to speak against colonization and apartheid, and a genocide.”

During his Christmas sermon last year, an emotional plea titled “Christ in the Rubble,” Isaac delivered a scathing condemnation of what he viewed as hypocrisy, double standards and silence practiced by both Western nations and the church.

“In the shadow of the empire they turn the colonizer into the victim and the colonized into the oppressor,” he said.

 

 

In his now-viral sermon, Isaac slammed what he saw as the hypocrisy of Western states, saying: “To our European friends, I never, ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again. And I mean this.”

While Palestinians have witnessed the world’s support, from the ICJ ruling to mass protests and outpourings of solidarity across the world, others were not so keen to criticize Israel for its actions. The US, UK and Germany, among others, opposed the judgment.

With more and more civilians dying as a result of its bombardment and military operations in Gaza, there are signs that even Israel’s strongest allies are beginning to distance themselves. Isaac, though, sees any signs of support from major Western powers so far as empty words.

“For months now, we’ve heard that America has put some red lines to Israel as to what it can do and what it cannot do. And all these red lines have been crossed,” he said.

For Isaac, “anything America says about the war comes to us as empty words. Until we see it, we will (not) believe it. And to be honest, this has been the most important element that empowered Israel and enabled Israel to commit such war crimes, because no one is holding them accountable. You can say whatever you want in press conferences, but it’s what facts on the ground are that matters to us.”




Jewish Americans march in midtown Manhattan, New York City, on December 28, 2023, against the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza amid Israeli bombardment. (Getty Images via AFP)

Deploring what he called Christian-majority countries’ failure to support Palestinian rights, he said: “It’s very disappointing, and disheartening, to be honest, especially when you combine that with public statements from many of these countries about their concern about the Christian presence in the Middle East.

“Yet all they do is support policies that endanger our presence. It’s so hypocritical and it’s so dismissive of our plights, our opinions, and our perspectives. They never talk to us.”

“They don’t look at us Palestinians as equals, whether we are Christians or Muslims. This is the heart of the issue,” he said.

“They have other plans. They have political ambitions. They have political alliances, and that is what they care about the most (at) the expense of our presence, our reality on the ground.”

 

 

In addition to calling out the silence or double standards of governments, Isaac criticized the stance of churches, many of whom as institutions remain silent even if congregants express their support.

“Church leaders are not speaking for their people. I think the people clearly realize there is severe injustice, and they’re very concerned about what is happening in Gaza. Yet church leaders are paralyzed to speak and to challenge Israel for what it’s doing.”

He was asked if religious position really matters in a largely secular world, where politics and upcoming elections clearly have the upper hand.

“I hope it does, and the question is, which religious position matters,” he said. “Let us not forget that Israel uses the Bible to justify what it’s doing.

“Many Christians support Israel for theological beliefs and certainly many, not just Jewish groups, use religion to justify exclusivity and fundamentalism and the denial of the rights of the other.”




Pro-Palestinian supporters wearing masks picturing Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), as well as US and British leaders march by the Houses of Parliament in London during a demonstration on Jan. 6, 2024, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. (AFP)

Isaac did not shy away from calling on faith leaders to take a strong stance on Gaza, saying “it’s time that the voices that believe in inclusivity, in peace, in justice and equality make their voices heard, and not in a diplomatic nice way.

“I’m tired, to be honest, of faith leaders just calling for peace and praying for peace,” he said.

“We need to call things out by their name. There is a system of apartheid in our country. It is time to speak to uphold these principles.”

As a religious figure, what is Isaac’s position on the right of Jews to be able to live in peace, particularly given that Jerusalem is a shared holy site for the three Abrahamic faiths?

“Everybody has the right to live in peace everywhere,” he said. “When Western Christian leaders press us on this, I say Jews should have the right and freedom to live in peace everywhere, in the United States, in Europe, even in Arab countries.

“We should be in a position where Jews don’t feel threatened anywhere.”

Elaborating on the point, he said: “It seems that the whole world is determined to make sure Jews are safe, but not in their land, in our land. And then they blame us for it as if we are antisemites, whereas antisemitism is what drove Jews from Europe to begin with, to come to our land.”




Israeli soldiers restrain Jewish settlers after they stormed the Palestinian West Bank village of Dayr Sharaf, located about seven kilometers from the Jewish Einav settlement following the death of an Israeli man on November 2, 2023. (AFP)

Isaac said he does not “want to see Israel destroyed or Jews leave,” adding that he desired a future in which his children “will have Israeli friends.

“It’s not just to end the conflict, but to live in a reality in which we are friends and neighbors with the Israelis,” he said.

While safety and equality for all is a priority, Isaac said Palestinians’ right to exist should not be negated.

“The world was okay with Israel shifting more and more and more to the right, openly saying there will never be a Palestinian state, openly saying only Jews have a right to the land, and then electing openly racist leaders, continuing with the building of settlements for all these years, making sure there can never be a Palestinian state, and then blaming the Palestinians for it,” he said.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me. So, unless we as an international community, as faith leaders, unite and call for this idea of justice and equal rights, it will not happen.”

 

 


Israel signs $5.2 bln deal to acquire 25 F-15 fighter jets from Boeing

Updated 4 sec ago
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Israel signs $5.2 bln deal to acquire 25 F-15 fighter jets from Boeing

JERUSALEM: The Israeli defense ministry said on Thursday it had signed an agreement to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing Co.
It said the $5.2 billion agreement was part of a broader package of US aid approved by the US administration and Congress earlier this year and included an option for 25 additional aircraft.
Delivery of the new F-15IA aircraft will begin in 2031, with 4-6 aircraft to be supplied annually, it said.
The aircraft will be equipped with weapons systems integrated with existing Israeli weapons as well as having increased range and payloads.
“These advantages will enable the Israeli Air Force to maintain its strategic superiority in addressing current and future challenges in the Middle East,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This F-15 squadron, alongside the third F-35 squadron procured earlier this year, represents a historic enhancement of our air power and strategic reach — capabilities that proved crucial during the current war,” the director general of the defense ministry, Eyal Zamir, said in the statement.
Zamir said that the government has secured procurement agreements worth nearly $40 billion since the onset of the war in Gaza that began Oct. 7, 2023.
“While focusing on immediate needs for advanced weaponry and ammunition at unprecedented levels, we’re simultaneously investing in long-term strategic capabilities,” he said.
For Boeing, the F-15 agreement is the second major deal this year. In August, flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines, signed a deal with Boeing for the purchase of up to 31 737 MAX aircraft worth as much as $2.5 billion, beating out rival Airbus.
Ido Nehushtan, president of Boeing Israel, said the company’s relationship dates back to Israel’s establishment and “will continue working with the US and Israeli governments to deliver the advanced F-15IA aircraft through standard military procurement channels.”

Erdogan phones Trump to discuss cooperation

Updated 56 min ago
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Erdogan phones Trump to discuss cooperation

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken by phone with US president-elect Donald Trump to discuss cooperation between the two countries, the presidency said on Thursday.
Erdogan “congratulated Trump on his election victory” and “expressed his desire to develop cooperation between Turkiye and the United States in the period ahead,” it said in a statement.
Erdogan was twice hosted at the White House by Trump during his first term, but has never been received there by current President Joe Biden.


Israel passes law that would allow it to deport the families of Palestinian attackers

Updated 07 November 2024
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Israel passes law that would allow it to deport the families of Palestinian attackers

  • They would be deported, either to the Gaza Strip or another location, for a period of 7 to 20 years

JERUSALEM: Israel’s parliament passed a law early Thursday that would allow it to deport family members of Palestinian attackers, including the country’s own citizens, to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip or other locations.
The law, which was championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies, passed with a 61-41 vote but is likely to be challenged in court.
It would apply to Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of annexed east Jerusalem who knew about their family members’ attacks beforehand or who “express support or identification with the act of terrorism.”
They would be deported, either to the Gaza Strip or another location, for a period of 7 to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced, often multiple times.
It was unclear if it would apply in the occupied West Bank, where Israel already has a longstanding policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.
Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, said that if the law comes before the Supreme Court, it is likely to be struck down based on previous Israeli cases regarding deportation.
“The bottom line is this is completely non-constitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” said Shamir-Borer.
Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. It withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but has reoccupied parts of the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community. Palestinians there have permanent residency and are allowed to apply for citizenship, but most choose not to, and those who do face a series of obstacles.
Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20 percent of the country’s population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination. Many also have close family ties to those in the territories and most sympathize with the Palestinian cause.


Israel strikes Hezbollah’s main bastion in Lebanon

Updated 15 min 2 sec ago
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Israel strikes Hezbollah’s main bastion in Lebanon

  • The Israeli army had issued evacuation orders ahead of the strikes
  • Hezbollah had pledged the result of the US election would have no bearing on the war

JERUSALEM: Israel conducted air strikes on Hezbollah’s main bastion in south Beirut on Thursday, with one raid hitting an area near Lebanon’s only international airport.
The pre-dawn raids came after Hezbollah claimed a slew of attacks on Israel, including a missile strike targeting a military base near Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
Also on Wednesday, the health ministry said Israeli strikes on the Bekaa Valley and the densely populated ancient city of Baalbek in east Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway, killed 40 people.
Hezbollah and Israel have been at war since late September, when Israel broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border.
Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israel last year, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7, 2023 attack.
The strike near the Beirut airport caused heavy damage to a heater factory warehouse, an AFP photographer reported.
Transport Minister Ali Hamie said the airport continued to operate as normal, with planes taking off and landing with no issue.
The raid caused minor damage to some of the airport’s buildings, including flag carrier Middle East Airlines’ premises.
The terminal building was safe, an airport official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Abu Elie, a taxi driver, was at the airport when the strikes hit.
“The entire car park shook. People were carrying their suitcases on their shoulders and running,” he said.
“When I made it to the street, there was so much smoke I had to turn the headlights on.”

US elections
While some in Lebanon had hoped Tuesday’s US presidential election might offer a reprieve, Hezbollah’s leader said in a speech broadcast on Wednesday that the vote would have no bearing on the future of the conflict.
He also warned that Hezbollah had tens of thousands of trained militants ready to fight, and that nowhere in Israel was “off-limits” to attacks.
Israel’s airports authority said Wednesday that operations at its main airport near commercial hub Tel Aviv were not affected after Hezbollah claimed it fired missiles at a military base nearby.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to keep fighting Hamas and Hezbollah until victory, spoke to US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday and discussed with him the threat posed by the militant group’s main backer Iran.
“The conversation was warm and cordial. The prime minister congratulated Trump on his election victory, and the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security. The two also discussed the Iranian threat,” Netanyahu’s office said.
In Lebanon, the overnight strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs were so intense many residents of the city were unable to sleep.
“We’ve had to flee our homes several times. Sometimes we sleep in the car,” said Ramzi Zaiter, a resident of south Beirut.
“Death has become a matter of luck. We can either die or survive.”

Lebanon war
Since September 23, more than 2,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to Health Minister Firass Abiad.
Many in Lebanon and beyond had been awaiting the result of the US election to gauge whether there was any hope the war could end soon.
But Hezbollah’s Qassem said in his speech: “We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments.”
For its part, Hezbollah’s main backer Iran said Thursday Trump’s election win could be a chance for the United States to reassess past “wrong policies.”
“We have very bitter experiences with the policies and approaches of different US governments in the past,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Iran and the United States have been adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Western-backed shah, but tensions peaked during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.
Tareq Hamad, a man displaced by the war from his south Lebanon village Kfar Kila, was cautious.
Trump “had said that if he wins, he would work toward a ceasefire. But these are just words,” he told AFP.
In Gaza, ravaged by 13 months of war since the deadliest attack in Israeli history, people were desperate for a solution.
“We were displaced, killed... there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,” said Mamduh Al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.
“I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough,” said the 60-year-old.

Ceasefire efforts
The United States is Israel’s main political and military backer and despite pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration for a ceasefire, the support has not wavered.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.
In Israel, recent surveys have shown that a majority of people were hoping to see Trump return to the White House.
“Now we just need him to give us weapons,” said fruit vendor Yossi Mizrachi, 51, adding he believed Trump would be able to “bring an end to the war.”
In a cafe in Jerusalem, Yechiel Hajjbi, 57, also said he was “very happy” Trump had won and felt hopeful his return to power would “bring peace.”


Israel, WHO say evacuated dozens of Gazans for medical care

Updated 07 November 2024
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Israel, WHO say evacuated dozens of Gazans for medical care

  • The WHO said the “patients included those with autoimmune diseases, blood diseases, cancer, kidney conditions and trauma injuries”

JERUSALEM: Israel and the World Health Organization said more than 200 Gazans, both patients and their carers, were evacuated to the United Arab Emirates or Romania Wednesday for medical treatment.
In total, the group numbered some 230 people, according to the WHO and COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.
“This is the largest number of patients and caregivers who have left through the Kerem Shalom crossing in recent months,” COGAT said in a statement.
The operation was carried out in cooperation with the UAE, the European Union and the WHO, it added.
The WHO said the “patients included those with autoimmune diseases, blood diseases, cancer, kidney conditions and trauma injuries.”
The patients were transferred from Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel, and then to Ramon Airport near Eilat in southern Israel.
The WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, had said Tuesday that those on the evacuation list were among up to 14,000 people currently waiting in Gaza to be evacuated for medical reasons.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
The ministry also lists 102,347 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
Peeperkorn said Tuesday that fewer than 5,000 people had been granted medical evacuations out of the territory since the war began.