Bethlehemites Are Palestinian Christians

[P F Tinmore]

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]

 

[uscitizen]

So Jews did to others what had been done to them?

 

[felixadvocates]

PF,

Throw more light on this news , so that we can understand the history of Bethlehemite Christians.

 

[abu afak]

1994 Oslo, PA/Muslim control was the Death Knell for Palestinian Christians.

YASSER ARAFAT'S EXEMPLARY CHRISTIAN SPIRIT
By Avi Davis/2002
[....]
The fate of Bethlehem offers a fine example.
Since 1994, when Arafat first came to administer Bethlehem the Christian population has gradually been reduced from a 60% majority to a mere 20%.
This Arafat ensured by first gerrymandering the municipal boundaries of the city, extending them to include the neighboring refugee camps;
al- Dehaisheh, El-Ayda and El-Azeh and adding a few thousand from the Ta'amarah Bedouin tribe.

Concurrently Arafat fired the city council which was composed of 9 Christians and 2 Moslems while appointing Muhammed A- Hjabari, a Moslem from Hebron as mayor.
The entire political structure of the city; in the bureaucratic, security and political spheres were eventually cleansed of Christians.
Today the Bethlehem region is in reality run by the local Fatah leader and his thugs.

The physical and psychological intimidation of Palestinian Chrisitian Arabs throughout the territory then proceeded rapidly.
Mosques were erected in close proximity to churches in order to obscure and dominate them.
This is the case with the Al Khanga and Abdul Malek mosques which today tower over the Church of the Nativity.
Christian cemeteries, convents and monasteries were desecrated, their personnel intimidated and in places, their land confiscated.
Moslem gunmen, shooting at southern Jerusalem from neighboring Beit Jalah have regularly located their positions either in or next to Christian homes,
churches and hotels in order to provoke a harsh Israeli retaliation that could then be interpreted by the world as an attack on Christians.

Then there is the rapid Lebanonization of the West Bank and Gaza.
In the 1970s the PLO occupied southern Lebanon, carrying out a campaign of terror involving summary executions of perceived Christian collaborators,
rapes of Christian women and theft of Church property. Christian Palestinians in such towns as Bethlehem, Beit Sakhur and Beit Jallah live with similar fears.
Rapes of Christian women have occurred repeatedly in Beit Sakhur while the Palestinian police turn a blind eye.
Christian shopkeepers and businessmen, who are among the most prosperous Arabs in the region have seen their businesses devastated by the violence of the Intifada -
the lucrative tourist trade being practically wiped out.
Added to this privation is the protection money now demanded by Fatah activists who insist that Christians must be shielded from the excesses of Muslim fundamentalists.
Is it then any wonder that close to 40,000 Christian Arabs have fled Bethlehem in the past 8 years?

Not that it wasn't expected. The late Christian mayor of Bethlehem Elias Friej warned that the implementation of the Oslo Accords
would result in Bethlehem becoming a town with churches but no Christians.
For over 7 years Christian Arabs in East Jerusalem and other West Bank towns have besieged Israeli officials with requests for Israeli I. D. cards
knowing full well that the institution of Palestinian rule would result in the kind of extortion and corruption seen wherever the PLO has hoisted its tent.
[.......]
Yasser Arafat's Exemplary Christian Spirit (Avi Davis) February, 2002

 

[P F Tinmore]

Oslo sucks. It was a terrible agreement. Arafat and Fatah were brought back to Palestine by Israel to work for Israel.

 

[P F Tinmore]

1994 Oslo, PA/Muslim control was the Death Knell for Palestinian Christians.

YASSER ARAFAT'S EXEMPLARY CHRISTIAN SPIRIT
By Avi Davis/2002
[....]
The fate of Bethlehem offers a fine example.
Since 1994, when Arafat first came to administer Bethlehem the Christian population has gradually been reduced from a 60% majority to a mere 20%.
This Arafat ensured by first gerrymandering the municipal boundaries of the city, extending them to include the neighboring refugee camps;
al- Dehaisheh, El-Ayda and El-Azeh and adding a few thousand from the Ta'amarah Bedouin tribe.

Concurrently Arafat fired the city council which was composed of 9 Christians and 2 Moslems while appointing Muhammed A- Hjabari, a Moslem from Hebron as mayor.
The entire political structure of the city; in the bureaucratic, security and political spheres were eventually cleansed of Christians.
Today the Bethlehem region is in reality run by the local Fatah leader and his thugs.

The physical and psychological intimidation of Palestinian Chrisitian Arabs throughout the territory then proceeded rapidly.
Mosques were erected in close proximity to churches in order to obscure and dominate them.
This is the case with the Al Khanga and Abdul Malek mosques which today tower over the Church of the Nativity.
Christian cemeteries, convents and monasteries were desecrated, their personnel intimidated and in places, their land confiscated.
Moslem gunmen, shooting at southern Jerusalem from neighboring Beit Jalah have regularly located their positions either in or next to Christian homes,
churches and hotels in order to provoke a harsh Israeli retaliation that could then be interpreted by the world as an attack on Christians.

Then there is the rapid Lebanonization of the West Bank and Gaza.
In the 1970s the PLO occupied southern Lebanon, carrying out a campaign of terror involving summary executions of perceived Christian collaborators,
rapes of Christian women and theft of Church property. Christian Palestinians in such towns as Bethlehem, Beit Sakhur and Beit Jallah live with similar fears.
Rapes of Christian women have occurred repeatedly in Beit Sakhur while the Palestinian police turn a blind eye.
Christian shopkeepers and businessmen, who are among the most prosperous Arabs in the region have seen their businesses devastated by the violence of the Intifada -
the lucrative tourist trade being practically wiped out.
Added to this privation is the protection money now demanded by Fatah activists who insist that Christians must be shielded from the excesses of Muslim fundamentalists.
Is it then any wonder that close to 40,000 Christian Arabs have fled Bethlehem in the past 8 years?

Not that it wasn't expected. The late Christian mayor of Bethlehem Elias Friej warned that the implementation of the Oslo Accords
would result in Bethlehem becoming a town with churches but no Christians.
For over 7 years Christian Arabs in East Jerusalem and other West Bank towns have besieged Israeli officials with requests for Israeli I. D. cards
knowing full well that the institution of Palestinian rule would result in the kind of extortion and corruption seen wherever the PLO has hoisted its tent.
[.......]
Yasser Arafat's Exemplary Christian Spirit (Avi Davis) February, 2002

Freeman.org is an Israeli propaganda site

Freeman Center for Strategic Studies

 

[abu afak]

Freeman.org is an Israeli propaganda site

Freeman Center for Strategic Studies

The it should be easy for you to Refute the Numerous FACTS Cited within!
The overall population of Bethlehem in just 7 years?
What happened to the City Council?
The New Mayor?
Al-Khanga Mosque,
etc
etc
etc

NOTHING Tinhead?

And this is really FUNNY from YOU TinHead-- who quotes 'palestine-info' EVERY DAY.
What a Hypocritical Jerkoff!
-
-

 

[P F Tinmore]

Freeman.org is an Israeli propaganda site

Freeman Center for Strategic Studies

The it should be easy for you to Refute the Numerous FACTS Cited within!
The overall population of Bethlehem in just 7 years?
What happened to the City Council?
The New Mayor?
Al-Khanga Mosque,
etc
etc
etc

NOTHING Tinhead?

And this is really FUNNY from YOU TinHead-- who quotes 'palestine-info' EVERY DAY.
What a Hypocritiocal Jerkoff!
-
-

OK, but Arafat and Fatah work for Israel. Don't blame the Palestinians for that.

 

[P F Tinmore]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xHU2xrnvZA]YouTube - ‪One on One - Hanan Ashrawi - 26 Sep 09 - Part 1‬‏[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuNVwCiU1SM&feature=fvst]YouTube - ‪One on One - Hanan Ashrawi - 26 Sep 09 - Part 2‬‏[/ame]

 

[docmauser1]

One on One - Hanan Ashrawi - 26 Sep 09 - Part 1

More toob spam.

 

[JStone]

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.

The history of the exodus continues of Christians from the Middle East persecuted by their Muslim tormentors.