P F Tinmore
Diamond Member
- Dec 6, 2009
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Coming from a Bethlehemite Christian family, my anger rises when I hear such colonialist analysis of my city from the mouth of a respectable church official, moreover the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop portrays Bethlehemite Christians as a marginalized minority, but may I ask, has he come to Bethlehem? Has he mixed within the Bethlehem Christian community, has he sensed the feelings of those people who are taught the fear of the other by Christian schools, or more precisely by their foreign clergy?
The history of the exodus of Christian families from Bethlehem is a long one, linked many times to the occupiers of Bethlehem and not to fellow Palestinians.
Finally and most importantly, since the Nakba in 1948, Bethlehemite Christians were forced to exile by Israeli governments. When in 1948 many Bethlehemite families saw their investments in land and property in Jerusalem, in Yaffa, in al-Ramla, in Haifa vanish under confiscation by the nascent State of Israel, as the world Christians sat by and watched, they lost hope and moved on to join their uncles, aunts and cousins to other countries.
Bethlehemites Are Palestinian Christians
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8A2m5ZNr0]YouTube - ‪I am a Bethlehemite‬‏[/ame]
The Archbishop portrays Bethlehemite Christians as a marginalized minority, but may I ask, has he come to Bethlehem? Has he mixed within the Bethlehem Christian community, has he sensed the feelings of those people who are taught the fear of the other by Christian schools, or more precisely by their foreign clergy?
The history of the exodus of Christian families from Bethlehem is a long one, linked many times to the occupiers of Bethlehem and not to fellow Palestinians.
Finally and most importantly, since the Nakba in 1948, Bethlehemite Christians were forced to exile by Israeli governments. When in 1948 many Bethlehemite families saw their investments in land and property in Jerusalem, in Yaffa, in al-Ramla, in Haifa vanish under confiscation by the nascent State of Israel, as the world Christians sat by and watched, they lost hope and moved on to join their uncles, aunts and cousins to other countries.
Bethlehemites Are Palestinian Christians
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8A2m5ZNr0]YouTube - ‪I am a Bethlehemite‬‏[/ame]