- Dec 6, 2009
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Amb. Michael Oren's article, 'Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians,' presents Israel as a tolerant, dove-like, and peaceful democracy. This is belied by the facts.
I am one of those Palestinian Christians living inside Israel to whom Oren refers. At no time in my life have I ever felt the respect and appreciation by the Jewish state, which Oren so glowingly references. Israels Christian minority is marginalized in much the same manner as its Muslim one or, at best, quietly tolerated. We suffer the same discrimination when we try to find a job, when we go to hospitals, when we apply for bank loans, and when we get on the bus in the same way as Palestinian Muslims.
Israels fundamental basis is as a racist state built for Jews only, and the majority of the Jewish population doesnt really care what religion we are if were not Jewish. In my daily dealings with the State, all I have felt is rudeness and overt contempt.
Orens statement that The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude is outright shocking to anyone familiar with even the basic history of how Israel was founded. I would like to remind him and others that this founding expelled thousands of Palestinian Christians from their homes in 1948 and displaced them, either forcing them to flee across the border or making them internal refugees. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that comprised the founding of Israel is, too, an injustice of historic magnitude.
Myth of Israel's Favorable Treatment of Palestinian Christians
I am one of those Palestinian Christians living inside Israel to whom Oren refers. At no time in my life have I ever felt the respect and appreciation by the Jewish state, which Oren so glowingly references. Israels Christian minority is marginalized in much the same manner as its Muslim one or, at best, quietly tolerated. We suffer the same discrimination when we try to find a job, when we go to hospitals, when we apply for bank loans, and when we get on the bus in the same way as Palestinian Muslims.
Israels fundamental basis is as a racist state built for Jews only, and the majority of the Jewish population doesnt really care what religion we are if were not Jewish. In my daily dealings with the State, all I have felt is rudeness and overt contempt.
Orens statement that The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude is outright shocking to anyone familiar with even the basic history of how Israel was founded. I would like to remind him and others that this founding expelled thousands of Palestinian Christians from their homes in 1948 and displaced them, either forcing them to flee across the border or making them internal refugees. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that comprised the founding of Israel is, too, an injustice of historic magnitude.
Myth of Israel's Favorable Treatment of Palestinian Christians