"O Little Town of Bethlehem, How Islamic You've Become"

 

The Christians in Bethlehem Now Live in an Overwhelmingly Muslim Town

Jan 4, 2025 2:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

A report on the increasing despair of Christians in Bethlehem:

 ‘We may face extinction’: Bethlehem’s clergy sound alarm

on exodus and extremism amid ongoing war

by Giorgia Valente, The Media Line, December 26, 2024:

Anna, an Aramean Christian tour operator, told The Media Line, “I have been jobless since October 7. I am currently economically relying on my husband, who sells electronic devices in his shop here, but we have been struggling since neither the PA [Palestinian Authority] nor Israel has been able to help us financially. I used to take tourists on tours in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, but everything changed.”

Anna criticized polarized narratives about the conflict, saying, “I am against any form of violence, and what both sides did to one another is unacceptable. For this reason, I am against the choice of each side to portray itself as the ‘only victims’ because, in this way, they are just polarizing, even more, the perception of this conflict abroad.”

Anna, a Christian living in a Muslim sea, is careful not to lay the blame for Bethlehem’s economic misery on either side —-the Israelis or the Palestinians — though she surely knows that the violence of the Muslim terrorists provoked the Gaza War, and in the West Bank has made necessary the frequent IDF raids. The violence in both places have led foreign tourists to stay away from Bethlehem this year. But Anna can’t allow herself to say that openly. She’s going to sit on the fence, claiming that “what both sides did to one another is unacceptable.” She’s wrong. What Hamas did on October 7, 2023, when 6,000 Hamas members smashed into Israel, torturing, raping, mutilating, and murdering 1,200 Israelis is “unacceptable.. The IDF’s response — a careful campaign in Gaza to kill as many terrorists, and spare as many civilians, as possible — is not only acceptable but admirable, for the tremendous efforts the IDF makes to warn civilians away from sites about to be targeted, by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, and making millions of robocalls. But Anna is a Christian living in a town that is 90% Muslim. She doesn’t want trouble. She can’t possibly tell the truth.

“The beauty of our Holy Land, which I gladly define as a whole, despite walls dividing one side from the other, is that there is no black and white, but different shades, that people from the outside often do not see,” she added.

Her husband, a Palestinian ID holder, cannot travel freely as Anna and their children can. She emphasized teaching her children tolerance: “My goal was to teach my kids no resentment toward anyone. The problem of many living here is that they pass their trauma to younger generations and teach hate instead of forgiveness. If we keep doing like this, we will be stuck in this loop of violence forever—Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike,” she noted.

The only children who are raised up to hate “the other” are the Muslim children. The schoolbooks of the Jews and the Christians are not full of the venomous violence found in the schoolbooks provided by UNRWA to Muslim children.

Abood Sobha, a Muslim tour guide and souvenir shop owner, echoed Anna’s struggles. “I am a Muslim Palestinian who benefited from tourism and loved engaging with people from all over the world. I was comfortable economically before the war, and I loved to move from my city to other places like Haifa and Tel Aviv [he was clearly not living in an “open-air prison”] but since I own a Palestinian ID, I have been stuck here for more than a year, and I am mentally exhausted,” he told The Media Line.

“We need and want peace, and we cannot keep going like this. Unfortunately, it seems that here in the West Bank, it may even get worse. Look at Jenin and Tulkarem these days,” he added….

In Jenin, there is a war going on between Hamas and Islamic Jihad on one side, and Fatah — the armed wing of the Palestinian Authority — on the other. Right now, the IDF is letting Fatah attempt on its own to suppress Hamas and the PIJ in Jenin camp. In Tulkarem, it is the IDF itself that is taking on Hamas and PIJ combatants. What Abood Sobha fears is that as long as there is violence in Judea and Samaria, tourists will stay away from Bethlehem, but he is unwilling to blame Hamas and PIJ for stirring up strife by attacking both Fatah and the IDF.

The steady stillicide of Christians moving out of Bethlehem continues. In 2017, there were 23,000 Christians in Bethlehem. In 2024, that figure has dropped to fewer than 10,000. How can religious tourism in Bethlehem by foreign Christians be expected to flourish when there are only a few thousand Christians left in the city? Will Christians from abroad, once made aware of the reasons for the precipitous decline in Bethlehem’s Christian population, want to buy Christian souvenirs from Muslim shopkeepers, the very people who helped drive Christians out of one of the most sacred sites in Christendom?

The Christians in Bethlehem live now in an overwhelmingly Muslim town, a town that was 85% Christian in 1947 is now 90% Muslim, and the Muslim percentage of the population grows with each passing year. The Christians have been leaving the city to avoid the constant pressure of trying to thrive in the midst of a hostile population. Even if religious tourism returns, and the handful of Christian-owned souvenir shops sell their olive-wood creches and crucifixes, and Christian tour guides resume their occupation, how long can the dwindling Christian community withstand the pressures of living in a Muslim sea? And how many foreign Christians will want to frequent Muslim-owned shops in Bethlehem where their coreligionists are close to disappearing?

Pope Francis accused of Genocide Blood Libel against Israel

 

Far-Left people tend to think with their feelings rather than their intelligence. They become convinced that they are right even when they have crossed over the line from good to evil. Pope Francis is very close to that line, and if he crosses it, the Whore of Babylon will be right behind him. More evidence that we are in the End Times.

Israel Accuses Pope Francis of ‘Genocide Blood Libel

Against the Jewish State’

Dec 28, 2024 3:00 pm By Jules Gomes

Minister for combating antisemitism gives pontiff a robust history lesson on the Jewishness of Jesus.

Israel is rebuking Pope Francis for committing a “genocide blood libel against the Jewish state” and reminding the pontiff of the Vatican’s silence during the Nazi Holocaust amid an escalating diplomatic row between the Holy See and Israel.

In a strongly worded letter to the pontiff dated December 18, Amichai Chikli, minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, reprimands Francis for his part in a recent display portraying Jesus as a Palestinian Arab and schools the pope on the Jewishness of Jesus.

“There is no other way to understand the decision to present his image in a cradle, wrapped in a keffiyeh,” Chikli stresses. “Had this been a one-time matter, I would not have written. However, just a few weeks before this strange and false homage, in a more severe expression, you echoed the new blood libel, insinuating that the State of Israel ‘might be’ committing genocide in Gaza.

“It is a well-known fact that Jesus was born to a Jewish mother, lived as a Jew, and died as a Jew,” Chikli writes in his three-page missive. He cites Matthew’s gospel, reminding Francis of the “well-known fact” that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”

Lessons in Jewish and Roman History

Chikli quotes other biblical texts reiterating to Francis the significance of “Bethlehem” and “Judah” in Jewish history. He notes that Bethlehem is both the city of Rachel’s death and David’s birth, explaining that Rachel is Israel’s matriach and David is Israel’s archetypal king.

“It is also a well-known fact that the term ‘Jew’ originates from Judah, the fourth son of Leah, from whom the Tribe of Judah descended,” the minister points out.

Chikli proceeds to give the pope a lesson in Roman history and the empire’s attempts “to eradicate the connection between the Jews and Judah; one of the most prominent of these was Emperor Hadrian.” He records details of Titus’s destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba Revolt, which resulted in the massacre of 580,000 Jews.

“Hadrian was not satisfied with the physical destruction of the Jewish settlement; he anticipated the future, to the day when the Jews would seek to return to Judea. Therefore, he renamed the province of Judea ‘Syria Palestina,’ after the Philistines, the arch-enemy of Israel,” he writes, explaining the origin of the name “Palestine.”

In a dig at Francis, Chikli also notes that the pope can verify the evidence for himself by driving just “13 minutes by car from St. Peter’s Basilica” and examining the Arch of Titus with its depiction of Israel’s conquest and humiliation by the Romans.

Papal Rewriting of History

Referring to the pope’s recent comments calling for an investigation into the alleged genocide in Gaza, reported by The Stream, the minister contends: “This is a desperate and disgusting attempt to rewrite history.”

“As a nation that lost six million of its sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are especially sensitive to the trivialization of the term ‘genocide’ — a trivialization that is dangerously close to Holocaust denial,” he notes.

Chikli details how the term “genocide” can be aptly applied to Nazi Germany, which “for the first time in the history of nations, set as its ultimate goal the complete annihilation of an unarmed people with whom it had no conflict, and most of whom were not even living in its territory.

“Let us recall that between the Jews, who made up less than 1% of the population of Germany in the 1930s, and the Germans, there had been no prior violent, territorial, religious, or political conflict,” he notes.Recalling the “sickening strategy” of the “Final Solution,” the minister cites as one example the Treblinka death camp, where 845,000 Jews from Poland, including children and elderly people, were murdered in gas chambers and then dumped into execution pits, concluding: “This is what genocide looks like.”

Vatican Silent During the Holocaust

“The Vatican’s silence during those dark days of the Shoah is still deafening,” he writes, asking Francis to “clarify your stand regarding the genocide blood libel against the Jewish state,” a “new blood libel” recently promoted against Israel by the human rights organization Amnesty.

Chikli concludes by drawing Francis’s attention to the the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate Declaration from the Second Vatican Council, which will be celebrated in 2025. The declaration marked a “significant milestone in the relationship between the Jewish people and Christianity,” he maintains, noting that Francis is known to be “a close friend of the Jewish people.”

The Vatican has maintained a diplomatic silence on the minister’s letter, with neither Vatican News nor Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ media, reporting on it.

In response, the pope has doubled down on Israel since Chikli’s letter, twice in public remarks last weekend accusing the Jewish state of massacring children in Gaza.

Francis Falsely Claims Cardinal Banned from Gaza

On Saturday, in his annual Christmas greetings to the Roman curia, Francis claimed that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa “was not allowed into Gaza, as had been promised.”

“Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to tell you this because it touches my heart,” the pope told members of the Vatican bureaucracy.

Citing the monk Dorotheus of Gaza, Francis added: “Yes, Gaza, the very place that is presently synonymous with death and destruction, is a quite ancient city, where monasteries and outstanding saints and teachers flourished in the first centuries of Christianity.”

However, a day later Vatican News confirmed that Pizzaballa had visited Gaza and presided at Mass as well as administered the sacrament of confirmation to several young people. The pope’s media did not refer to the Israeli ban on the cardinal’s visit to Gaza.

Instead, it acknowledged that “this is the second time that Cardinal Pizzaballa has managed to enter Gaza and visit the community led by the parish priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, following his visit on 16 May last.

“To ensure maximum security on the route, news of the visit was only given after arrival in the community,” Vatican News explained, hinting at the possibility that the pontiff may have been misinformed about Pizzaballa’s visit to Gaza.

The Holy See mouthpiece also confirmed that the Latin Patriarch “will make his solemn entry into Bethlehem, where he will be welcomed by another suffering community and where he will celebrate Christmas Eve Mass in St. Catherine’s Church,” debunking rumors that Israel was restricting Pizzaballa’s visits to his Catholic flock in Judea and Samaria or the Gaza strip.

Undaunted, in his Angelus address at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Francis attacked Israel again, stating: “And with sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals… So much cruelty!”

Severing Jesus from His Jewish Roots

Commentators previously slammed the de-Judaization of Jesus under the Francis pontificate.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), a holocaust denier and terrorism sponsor whom Francis warmly welcomed to the Vatican on December 12 as The Stream reported, has redefined Jesus as “a Palestinian messenger” of hope in his 2023 Christmas address. Palestinian officials have also described Jesus as “the first Palestinian martyr,” and as a Palestinian jihadist.

“In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat activist and politician, posted on social media on Christmas 2023.

“Rewriting history that Jesus wasn’t a Jewish resident of the Jewish country of Judea but rather a Palestinian man who was persecuted by Jews is gaining ground around the world, including in the Vatican,” international relations expert Dr. Yvette Alt Miller wrote in response to the Vatican featuring Jesus on a keffiyeh.

“Jesus was a Jew. If he were alive today, the world’s elites would be clamoring for him to be thrown out of Judea as a settler,” wrote British columnist Melanie Phillips in 2015, after the Vatican agreed to recognize Palestine as a state. “And Jorge Mario Bergoglio, aka Pope Francis, would be amongst them.”

Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral. This article was cross-posted with the author’s permission from The Stream.

Ozzone 5-31 > Three brilliant concepts that need to be studied and absorbed

 

These are powerful lessons and each one deserves much time studying, researching, and meditating upon.

I think, before you realize that other people cannot be perfect, you have to come to the conclusion that you are not perfect. Are you there yet?

Note that Moses spent 40 years in the desert preparing for the exodus. Paul spent 3 years in the desert preparing for his ministry. And Jesus spent 40 days/nights in the wilderness getting ready for His. If you are feeling like you are lost in a desert place, praise God and keep walking, you’re almost ready.

Tinker with the idea that Jesus came into us as a seed, a spiritual seed Who needs to be cared for as He is born in us at our own Bethlehem, and then grows to maturity so we might display His character in our lives. 

A Christian Crisis in Gaza and the West Bank

War on Christianity in the Middle East is mostly Islamic driven

..

In the Gaza Strip, the Christian population has plummeted from about 3,000 a decade ago to an estimated 1,000 today, most of them Greek Orthodox

By JPOST EDITORIAL 

Palestinians light Christmas tree in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, November 30, 2019 (photo credit: REUTERS/MUSSA QAWASMA)

As Christians celebrate Christmas around the world, it’s worthwhile to focus on the Christian population in the region.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are some 177,000 Christians in Israel, a growth of 1.5% from last year. More than three-quarters (77.5%) of Christians living in Israel are Arabs, representing 7.2% of all Arab Israeli citizens, the CBS said. The majority of non-Arab Christians living in Israel immigrated together with Jewish family members under the Law of Return.

Contrast these data with the figures in a report published by then-British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in July. The report found that the number of Christians in the Middle East has dwindled from 20% of the population a century ago to just 5% – most notably in the Palestinian territories, where they have dropped to below 1.5%.

“We’ve all been asleep on the watch when it comes to

the persecution of Christians,”  Hunt said.

The organization Open Doors put “the Palestinian Territories” in 49th place – out of 50 – on its World Watch List, an annual report on the global persecution of Christians. The report cited “Islamic oppression” as the main source of persecution, adding that “Islamic extremist militants are also present in the West Bank, causing Christians to fear being attacked,” and that the persecution is particularly brutal for converts to Christianity.

At least three incidents have affected Christians living under Palestinian Authority rule this year, according to a report by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies: A mob targeted the Christian village of Jifna near Ramallah, causing significant property damage and terrifying its residents, and a Maronite church in Bethlehem and an Anglican church near Ramallah were vandalized.

“Though the Christians in the PA avoid saying so publicly, many of them fear – with good reason – that Muslim aggression against them will only escalate,” wrote Edy Cohen, a researcher at the center. “Such fears are all the stronger in light of the thunderous silence of the Western [and Israeli] media, in the face of the Christian minority’s ongoing disappearance from the PA and Islamic lands in general.”

He added, pointedly, that “the ongoing international neglect of the plight of the Christians under PA rule can only lead to the vanishing of Christianity from the place where it emerged.”

In the Gaza Strip, the Christian population has plummeted from about 3,000 a decade ago to an estimated 1,000 today, most of them Greek Orthodox.

On Sunday, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reversed a decision made earlier this month, making the welcome announcement that in accordance with “security orders,” Gaza Christians would be allowed to travel to the holy cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, for Christmas.

The situation of Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has deteriorated dramatically in the last century, and especially since the PA took control of the city in 1995. In 1947, Christians comprised about 85% of the city’s population, but that figure had plunged to 16% by 2016, and is estimated since then.

Bethlehem’s mayor at the time said that, “Due to the stress – either physical or psychological – and the bad economic situation, many people are emigrating: either Christians or Muslims, but it is more apparent among Christians because they already are a minority.”

A study by the Pew Research Center found that the decline in the Arab Christian population was both a result of a lower birth rate among Christians compared to Muslims and the fact that Christians were more likely to emigrate than any other religious group. A statistical analysis of the Christian exodus cited a lack of economic and educational opportunities among a community known for its middle-class status and higher education.

Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.4 billion adherents (almost a third of the world’s 7.8 billion people). While it may seem ironic that the only place in the Middle East where Christians are thriving is the Jewish state, it is also a cause for concern. 

We wish our Christian readers a happy Christmas – and pray along with them for those undergoing persecution for practicing their faith.

Abortions Banned in Russian City for 1 Day in Memory of Biblical ‘Massacre of Innocents’

© Lesya Polyakova / Sputnik

Abortions have been banned for one day at all public medical institutions in a central Russian city, in symbolic memory of the biblical ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ in Bethlehem by King Herod.

The step was taken at the initiative of the local diocese and regional health authorities.

“On this day all public health institutions of the Yaroslavl Region are prohibited to perform abortions; certain events have been scheduled aimed at combating the murder of babies in the womb and protecting the priceless value of motherhood,” the press service of the Archdiocese of Yaroslavl said on Wednesday. 

The organizers behind the initiative have also urged private clinics to join the abortion ban.

I don't think that's going to happen! It's about money and religion. Abortion clinics are all about money and reject anything to do with religion.

The campaign was launched in symbolic memory of the “Bethlehem babies murdered by King Herod, who wanted to kill the infant Jesus when he was born.” 

Although there is no information about the massacre of the infants on the orders of Roman King Herod in ancient historical sources, it is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew and later Christian texts. The Bethlehem innocents are revered by Christians as saints, as they were the first to suffer for Christ. 

The Yaroslavl diocese also plans to carry out a ‘Candle of Memory’ campaign both for the infants killed by Herod and those who die as a result of abortion.

37% or 70% - It's Russia; official numbers are always wrong

According to Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs Olga Golodets, for every 1.9 million newborn babies in Russia, there are 700,000 abortions.

The head of the Women for Life movement, Natalya Moskvitina, has other figures, however – she claims some 70 percent of pregnancies in Russia are consciously aborted.

"Seventy percent of pregnancies end in abortion. Three-quarters of marriages end in divorce during the first four years of life together. Every three seconds a baby is killed in abortion clinics," Moskvitina said, referring to figures obtained in the fall of 2016, as cited by Interfax news agency. 

Rostov Kremlin, Yaroslavl Region, Russia

According to Moskvitina, “abortions are business" in the first place, and those who are involved in it tell people that it is a "principle of freedom."

"It is legalized, and every woman faces this terrible choice. No one tells her […] the norm is to fight for your child," she said.

The Interreligious Council of Russia has expressed concern over mass abortion. Last summer, the council - consisting of leaders and representatives of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism - pointed out in a statement that Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, stating that "the number of the violently aborted lives in mothers' womb on various estimations totals to a million or even exceeds a million." 

In September last year, Patriarch Kirill signed a petition calling for a ban on abortions covered by Russian medical insurance. It had been launched by the public movement For Life and was backed by over 300,000 people, including Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar, Supreme Mufti of Russia Talgat Tadjuddin, and Russian Ombudsman for Children Rights Anna Kuznetsova. 

Kuznetsova, who is herself a mother of six, noted Russia already has an anti-abortion program in the form of special consultation rooms at medical centers, yet in 2015, only some 266 women consulted specialists in this program, a mere 25 percent of them deciding against having an abortion. 

Although the petition only called for abortions to be excluded from the list of medical services covered by universal healthcare, Christian pro-life activists behind it said it was only the first step towards a full ban on abortion, which they will be pushing for in future. 

However, a nationwide public opinion poll conducted soon after the petition was launched showed that an overwhelming majority of Russians are against the initiative. According to the results of the research conducted by state-owned VTSIOM, 72 percent of Russians are currently against a legislative ban on abortions, while 21 percent said that they would support such move. Only 4 percent of respondents said they considered the procedure unacceptable under any circumstances.

Yaroslavl Region, Russia

Stones Thrown at Jerusalem Patriarch's Car as PA Crack Down on Radicals

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem greeted in Bethlehem 

by hail of stones

PA reportedly arrests 16 ‘Salafi radicals’ who were planning to carry out terror attack against tourists celebrating Christmas

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal attends Christmas celebrations in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015. (FLASH90)Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal attends Christmas celebrations in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015. (FLASH90)NEWSROOM

The car taking Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, was struck Friday, Christmas Day, in Bethlehem by rocks thrown by Palestinian rioters.

None of the passengers in the patriarch’s vehicle was injured in the incident, but his car sustained damage, according to a Ynet news report.

Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators erupted following his departure from the city, known as the birthplace of Jesus, the news site said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces said Friday that they arrested two suspected Islamic radicals for burning a Christmas tree in the northern West Bank.

A Palestinian security officer said Friday the suspects set fire Wednesday to the tree in Zababdeh, a village near Jenin populated mainly by Christians. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters.

He said both suspects were under investigation for possible ties to extremist Islamist groups.

He also said Palestinian security forces arrested Wednesday about a dozen suspected radical Islamists in Bethlehem.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) attends a Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on December 25, 2015. (AFP PHOTO/ Fadi Arouri)

A report in the Palestinian Ma’an news agency put the number of detainees at 16. According to the report, the group are Salafi radicals who were preparing to carry out a terror attack against Western tourists arriving in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas there.

The report did not identify the detainees as being affiliated with any known jihadist groups.

It is a positive development that the Palestinian Authority are arresting terrorists of all persuasion. If they have been doing this all along, it is the first I have heard of it. It may be self-serving in protecting the lucrative Christian tourism industry, especially at Christmas, but regardless, it is a good thing for Israel.

A report in the Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv said that senior PA officials met in Bethlehem earlier this week in order to formulate a strategy against the threat posed by extremists to the Christian celebrations in the city.

At least four people are being held in detention without trial in Bethlehem and four others, supporters of Islamic State, were arrested elsewhere in the West Bank. It was not clear where eight other people were being held.

On Thursday night, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the authority’s prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, participated in a midnight mass at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, Ma’an reported.

In a statement released by his office before the visit, Abbas praised Palestinian Christians for their role in creating a “rich and diverse society.” (Not to mention a lot of tourist dollars).

“This year, we witnessed more churches around the world supporting the call for recognition of the State of Palestine, and an increasing number of Christian groups campaigning to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of our land,” Abbas said.

The Christian Palestinian population dwindled significantly over the past years. Christians today make only 2 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.

AP contributed to this report.