Palestinian Christians: The Unknown Victims :: Essays Papers

Palestinian Christians: The Unknown Victims Johnny Yousef George Thaljieh has become known as the "Martyr of the Nativity Church." He was not a suicide bomber or even a stone thrower, just a 17-year-old kid who belonged to the small Palestinian Christian minority that is often forgotten in what is seen as a war between Muslims and Jews. There was a shooting that day in late October 2001, as there often is between Beit Jala and the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, but none near the Nativity Church. As his mother says, â€Å"Nothing was done to make the Israeli sniper think Johnny was a threat.† He had just been to church and was playing with his 4-year-old cousin in Manger Square when the bullet struck him with a fatal blow. When the siege at the Church of the Nativity ended and Johnny was forgotten, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) pulled its soldiers, tanks and armored personnel carriers from Bethlehem and lifted the curfew on the city. The remains were a fractured, disjointed and disoriented Christian community. Not only were a large number of Orthodox Christians affected directly by the closure of the Church of the Nativity, but the great majority of Christian Palestinians in general were indirectly affected by the days of curfew, and what they consider siege. Many feel abandoned by Europe and the US, humiliated by Israel, often rejected by their Muslim neighbors, and worst of all, they fear their society is just a few years from extinction. Despite the initial jubilation that erupted when Israel lifted its curfew after a 39-day grueling standoff between the IDF and gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity, reality has come crashing down on this community. Unfortunately, the Christian population of Bethlehem only serves as one example among many. Thousands of Palestinians throughout the Middle East and the world are subjected to prejudice and neglect. Often, they are not welcomed by their Jewish and Muslim neighbors, and are forced to live in communities of fear. Receiving no coverage and attent ion from the media, these Christians try day after day to survive in lands that have been forced upon them. Palestinian Christians are a people searching for an identity. An identity that has been lost in the turmoil of the Middle East. (Dan 14) The exodus of the Christians from the region of the Palestinian Authority acquires special significance when one realizes that the entire Christian-Arab population of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip currently totals only 61,000, about 2 percent of the Palestinian population of about three million.