"The small and harassed Christian community of Gaza may simply cease to exist in the near future." Why? Because of the wicked Zionists? No. Because of the jihadists.
"Analysis: Cruelty and silence in Gaza," by Jonathan Spyer for the Jerusalem Post, December 11 (thanks to Charles M.):
Unremarked upon by the Western media, a systematic campaign of persecution is taking place in the Gaza Strip, and to a lesser extent in the West Bank. The general silence surrounding this campaign aids its perpetrators. The victims are Palestinian Christians, in particular the small Christian community of Gaza.The perpetrators are a variety of Islamist groups, all of which are manifestations of a process of growing Islamic militancy and piety taking place across the region.
The Christian population of the Gaza Strip is small - 2,000-3,000 people. Gazan politics has long been characterized by a conservative, Islamic bent. Gaza's Christians as a result have tended toward political invisibility.
Since the Hamas coup of July 2007, this position has become increasingly untenable. Islamist organizations, empowered by the indifference of the authorities, have begun to target Christian institutions and individuals in Gaza with increasing impunity. Intimidation, assault and the threat of kidnapping are now part of daily reality for Christians.
The trend became noticeable with a series of attacks on the Palestinian Bible Society's "Teacher's Bookshop" in Gaza City last year. The shop was the subject of a bomb attack in April 2007. Its owner, Rami Khader Ayyad, was abducted in broad daylight, and found dead on October 7, 2007.
Over the following year, a series of bomb attacks on Christian institutions in Gaza took place. Particular attention was paid to places of education. The Rahabat al-Wardia school run by nuns in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, and the American International School in Beit Lahiya were both bombed, most recently in May 2008. The Zahwa Rosary Sisters School and the El-Manara school, both in Gaza City, were also attacked this summer. The YMCA Library was bombed, as was the Commonwealth War Cemetery.
Most of these attacks took place at night, and hence casualties were avoided. In a number of cases guards were the victims of violence.
Who is carrying out these attacks? The perpetrators are thought to be Salafi Islamist groups like Jaish al-Islam, Jaish al-Uma and similar organizations. The larger Popular Resistance Committees terror group has also stated that the Christian presence in Gaza should be eradicated, since it exposes Gazans to a pro-Western, anti-Islamic influence.
Where are the Hamas authorities in all this?
Hamas is officially committed to tolerance toward the Christian community, and spokesmen for the authorities have criticized the attacks. In practice, however, only superficial investigations have taken place, and arrests are rare. In the few cases where arrests have been made, the suspects were not charged and were quickly released. This was the case, for example, with two members of the Jaish al-Islam who were suspected of involvement in the YMCA bombing.
The persecution of Christians is not emerging from a small Islamist fringe. Rather, it is part of a larger process of Islamization taking place in Palestinian society. The rise of Hamas is part of this.
But the cadres of the divided Fatah movement are not immune. The Popular Resistance Committees group, for example, noted above for its anti-Christian stance, was founded by ex-Fatah officers who sought an organization reflecting their religious zeal.
The situation in the West Bank is different, reflecting the larger Christian population and the greater strength of secular forces. Yet here, too, anti-Christian trends are serving to embitter lives.
A recent article in the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper drew attention to the long-simmering issue of "compulsory purchase" of land owned by Christians. This trend has been particularly noticeable in the Bethlehem, Ramallah and al-Bireh areas. Individuals with close links to the Palestinian Authority security forces, or to powerful clans, have adopted a variety of means to lay their hands on Christian-owned land. These have included false registration documents, squatters, and the involvement of senior PA security officers.
The Al-Ayyam columnist who raised this issue, Abd al-Nasser al-Najjar, lamented that no "constructive action" by the authorities to protect the Christians has taken place. Najjar listed the PA authorities, the Palestinian political factions, and the myriad of NGOs present in the West Bank among the bodies who might have been expected to take an interest in this situation, and who have not done so.
The official bodies of Palestinian nationalism continue to claim that the Palestinians are a single nation, with harmony between Christians and Muslims. The official leadership of Palestinian Arab Christianity repeats this claim.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Palestinian Christians are fearful, and are voting with their feet. Bethlehem, for example, has seen its Christian population decline from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to under 20% of the population today. The small and harassed Christian community of Gaza may simply cease to exist in the near future....
All these attacks, bombings, kidnappings, and murders, plus the daily rocket attacks on Israeli villages, and yet we're supposed to feel sorry for the Gazans? And to send them aid? And Israel is supposed to send them food and electricity? Bah! Not one more cent to these criminals.
I wonder what our highly paid special envoy to the Middle East and a recent convert to Catholicism has to say about this!
Oh sorry I forgot, he actually doesn't live there does he!
Perhaps someone could mention this to the Dhimmi Vicar in the UK who banned the singing of the Christmas Carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" because of how the nasty Israelis were treating the innocent Palestinians.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093860/The-Vicar-refuses-sing-O-Little-Town-Bethlehem.html
Off Topic:
What is really going on in Greece? Is the violence intifada?
The Israeli should permit to the Christian to flee Gaza.
Why don't they?
It is possible to study with spies which people are really Christians!
One of the best ways to determine a persons character is to see not how they treat equals, but how they treat inferiors. This can apply to cultures as well. This is being seen throughout the world with how Islam deals with minorities.
The lesson: You can live in many parts of the world as a minority and be fine. To do so as a minority in an Islamic controlled area is to place your life at risk.
OT, Greece:
The situation is rather complex. Antifa-style (left wing extremists) 'activistis' are leading the fray, but immigrants are participating. Uncontrolled illegal immigration from Albania and over the sea has had a deep impact on Greece in the last few years, and an economy in the gutter has people in fury.
Note also that even illegal immigrants have even access to Greek hospitals and other welfare services, utterly overloading an already weak system. A friend of mine just had his fourth child - his wife reported that the hospital was completely dominated by Albanians.
Gates of Vienna has done some analysis of the situation.
Possibly an Antifa-backed government may come into office soon, opening the door to rampant public spending (Greek public debt is over 100% of GNP already), fleecing business and scaring foreign investment out - thus setting the stage for a dramatic economical downturn.
Confidence in police, parliament and other institutions is crumbling under the rage. I'd expect this to go from bad to worse.
Zionist,Islamophobic,lies, all of this. I have been assured by the media and the government that islam is a religion of peace! Any educated, decent person knows that Judaism and Christianity flourish as protected peoples of the book under islamic rule; ask any college professor or leading academic on the subject. And as 'Coaltaxopeuh' has cleverly stated above, anyone that is persecuted, is persecuted because they're obviously a FILTHY,ZIONIST SPY. After all if this was really happening it would be front page news, right?
Questions:
Are these "Christians" Christians indeed? Or are they Moslems posing as Christians, all the better to show how alleged Israeli "excesses" are aimed indiscriminantly at all who are not Israeli.
Or are these people Islamochristians? If they are Islamochristians, can they be rehabilitated, i.e. brought back to a sense of identity that is consistent with their own history? In that case, would it make sense --after exercising all due diligence in establishing their identity and inclinations, their ability to take and keep an oath of allegiance-- for the Israelis to offer these people a place in Israel?
Then again, even if the basic goodwill of these people were to be established, would any take up the offer? After all, they are better prepared than most to understand that the assault upon Israel is intended to be relentless. To be unending.
Yet as Moslem migration goes unchecked, the places remaining safe from jihad are disappearing apace. The time may soon come when we all need to fight for a place in the sun. Better to recognize this now and encourage inviolable homelands for non-Moslems thorughout dar al-Islam. This, and checking Moslem migration, will do much to turn the tide against Moslem domination.
Coataxopeuh, no, they should not let the Christians flee Gaza. They're Islamochristians. If the Muslims let them they will ally themselves with them. They're a bunch of Arab supremacist Edward Saids, lobbing rocks and rockets at Israel, trashing everything they touch, screwing their cousins, practicing polygamy, voting for Hamas. They are not "Christians" in any way other than for identification and zakat-dodging purposes. They're not your normal Middle Eastern Christians in temperament and behavior, and most Middle Eastern Christians are just as rabidly Judeophobic as their Muslim counterparts. They should flee to Lebanon. These are not the kind of people you would want in your country, near your children and your property. They are not your Chaldeans, your Copts, or your Assyrians, not that any of them are to be trusted around Jews either. If I sound bigoted or paranoid, read 'Because They Hate.' Read about the kind of evil Brigitte Gabriel learned from nuns in Christian school. That wasn't a Hamas school and that was long before the spread of Salafism. I can only imagine that these Gazans are nothing more than your typical Gazans.
The sad fact is that in Hamastan only the sickest and most evil survive, Muslim or Islamochristian, and the only thing that can be done about it is pushing them into Egypt or Jordan, except they won't take them because they're too violent and psychotic for those already extremely violent, psycho, backassward hellholes. The Muslim Brotherhood created them and disowned them once they became a liability to Egypt.
A10billr, this is the best coverage I've found on the violence in Greece (I got it though thereligionofpeace.com): http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_08/12/2008_102841
So much for the "Democratic, secular Palestine in which Muslims, Christians and Jews will live side by side, peaceably"...that the Palestinians touted for years as the credible alternative to Israel.
Why would a man continue operating his bookstore till death if he wasn't a real Christian? If these people were your average Gazans, why resist to death or poverty which has been the case in many circumstances. An average chump in Gaza would simply convert. We should be lifting up to light their persecutions instead of discounting their sacrifices. To do otherwise is act according to mo's precepts. Make sure your words don't help the media justify it's page 50 reporting on islams excesses.
@ Jdamn
Thus, Israel should let them flee to Lebanon. As to me, they are welcome in Europe.
If they are partially influenced by an overwhelming islamic ideology in Gaza, such ideological illness can easily be cured once they are in a safe place.
Copts in Egypt do not behave as Copts in the West.
And, as CJK wrote, they are real Christians, ready to testify for their faith. And even those who are a little bit "dhimmitized" because of the islamic majority should be saved away from Gaza.
Israel cannot let them be slowly destroyed in Gaza.
If Israel wants to be sure that there are no terrorists trying to pretend to be Christian in order to kill, spies can check which persons are Christians.
Israel can and must protect a minority that risks to be destroyed.
I thought the "Palestinian People" were united as one against the evil "Zionists" These idiots are all about Muslim supremacy, they don't care about "Palestinians". Too bad so many in the west don't see this truth.
It should be noted that it is a Jewish human rights lawyer, Justus Reid Weiner, and also Arab reporter Khaled Abu Toameh (who 'voted with his feet', choosing to work for a Jewish newspaper inside Israel, with freedom of the press, rather than under the suffocating and indeed frequently life-threatening censorship of the local Arab Muslim gangsters) who have repeatedly blown the whistle about Muslim persecution of the local Arab/ised Christians, in Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, and even in heavily Arabised locations within Israel.
Here is Justus Reid Weiner's landmark article:
"Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society" (he should have called it 'Human Rights of Christians in 'Palestinian' Arab Society', but, nobody's perfect):
pdf format
http://www.jcpa.org/text/Christian-Persecution-Weiner.pdf
html version of same
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:bGl1bk4rLQAJ:www.jcpa.org/text/Christian-Persecution-Weiner.pdf+Justus+Weiner+Palestinian+Christians&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=au
It should be noted that Justus Reid Weiner's article is dedicated to a local Arab who had apostasised from Islam to Christianity, and who - in 2004 - became a martyr to his new faith.
"Dedication"
'This monograph is dedicated to the memory of a courageous man, Ahmad El-Achwal, a Palestinian convert to Christianity.
'El-Achwal was a married father of eight who lived in the Askar Refugee Camp.
'Despite repeated harsh treatment at the hands of the Palestinian Authority including imprisonment, severe beatings, arson, intimidation and torture, El-Achwal clung to his religious beliefs and even ran an informal church in his house.
'El-Achwal was murdered on January 21, 2004, at the entrance to his residence."
Let Ahmad El-Achwal's name stand in honor beside that of Rami Ayyad, among the saints, confessors and martyrs of the Arabic-speaking church.
Typo: in my posting above, read not 'became a martyr to his new faith' but 'became a martyr for his new faith'.
It is a sad fact that wherever Christians have been persecuted, their brothers in Christ in the West (the western governments, media) are silent about it.
The only ones in the west who care are the religious organizations who of course are being thought of as 'religious fanatics' by their own countrymen.
Sigh .............
I'm so discouraged and afraid for the future of these Christians, in Gaza, West Bank, Sudan, Indonesia ...............
jasmine
one of the things that makes me sad is that, when the Laskar Jihad were busy killing thousands of Christians in Indonesia, we Australians didn't just use the church grapevines to quietly let it be known that CHRISTIAN refugees would be welcome here...just hop in a boat and come. (And if the indonesians really start in on the Hindus in Bali, if it were up to me, the Hindu Balinese would be welcome, too...anything to help us outnumber the Mohammedan colonists).
I got so angry with Rudd when he started rabbiting on, earlier this year, about interfaith dialogue with Indonesia. He either doesn't know or just won't see how many hundreds of thousands of Christians have been murdered by Muslims in Indonesia...murdered just because they were Christians.. And then all the churches burned, and all the Christian villages wrecked, and the rapes, and the beatings, and the people driven from their homes...and the Indonesian government winking at it all. It's going on now, in Papua and the Moluccas, and nobody says anything.
I don't want Australia to give Indonesia one more cent of official aid, and certainly not to sell it any military gear or give it any military training. I'd much rather redirect those resources to the countries who, like us, are threatened by Jihad now or future - Singapore, East Timor, Philippines. Instead of herding Kilkenny cats in Afghanistan - a total waste of our precious men and money - Aussie soldiers would be much better employed helping the Philippines flatten the Muslim jihadis in Mindanao.