"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?

Hamas Invites Palestinian Authority to Control Gaza 'Unimpeded'

This is a curious step by Hamas and I can't help but wonder what they are up to. It does not seem likely that they are simply doing 'the right thing' for the people of Gaza whom they used as cannon fodder in their war against Israel. I fear something suspicious is going on.

By Ray Downs 

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory gesture upon his arrival on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The delegation of the Hamas leadership is returning from Cairo to Gaza after long meetings with the Egyptian government the agreement on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/ UPI. | License 

UPI -- The chief of Hamas' Political Bureau said Tuesday that the group is ready to receive the Palestinian Unity Government in Gaza.

"To show Hamas' seriousness to bring about reconciliation, we invite the unity government to come and assume its duties in Gaza unimpeded," Ismail Haniyeh told reporters during a press conference in the Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Monitor.

He added: "We have opened the door wide before [Fatah's] decision-makers to take courageous decisions to unite the Palestinian people as our cause faces huge challenges. We are keen to end the siege on Gaza and we have exerted much effort to do this through the gate of the reconciliation."

The announcement is a reiteration of Hamas' decision on Sunday to dissolve its governing body in the Gaza Strip to give the Palestinian Authority full governmental control in Gaza.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but recently agreed to demands set by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold elections, which haven't occurred since 2007.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of Passia, an East Jerusalem think tank, told the New York Times that Haniyeh and Yehya Sinwar, Gaza's new prime minister, are eager to work with Abbas and Fatah, the controlling party in the Palestinian Authority.

"Lift the siege, let people breathe," Abdul Hadi said. "Electricity, water, salaries, medical -- instead of explosion."

3 Days, 4 Jews Murdered - Palestinians Celebrate

Palestinians are not only hate-filled murderers,

they're downright stupid

Palestinians celebrate the murder of Jewish couple

Throngs of Palestinians took to the streets on Thursday night to celebrate the brutal slaying of an Israeli couple in a shooting attack in the West Bank.

The festivities included the launching of fireworks and the waving of flags in the streets, Ofir Gendelman, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Gendelman posted on Twitter a photo of the scene. Most of the flying banners were of the Palestinian Fatah faction, the armed wing of which claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin. Revelers in Nablus, near the site of the shooting, set off fireworks, he said, adding that Palestinians on social media networks were “ecstatic” about the killings.

The Henkins, who were in their early 30s, were shot dead on Thursday night in northern Samaria while travelling in their vehicle near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik. Paramedics found them at the scene with bullet wounds to their torsos. Their four children, who were in the backseat of the car, were unharmed. The couple was buried on Har Hamenuchot in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem on Friday morning.

Young couple, murdered by Palestinians, leave four children orphans 

Leading members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, Azzam Al-Ahmad and General Sultan Abu Al-Einen, praised the attack, Gendelman said. He added that General Al-Einen, who serves as Abbas’ adviser on NGOs, called for more attacks on Israelis.

Rival Palestinian terror group Hamas also applauded the attack. Spokesman Husam Badran congratulated Palestinians on the killings and referred to the shooting as a “heroic operation.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said on Thursday that the IDF will deploy four battalions in the West Bank to prevent an escalation of violence and to search for the gunmen. He called the incident a “ruthless, heinous barbaric attack.”

15 year old Moshe Malka stabbed by Palestinian

A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli teen outside Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday morning, in the second such attack in the past day.

The suspected assailant was reportedly shot dead by Israeli security forces.

The 15-year-old victim, later named as Moshe Malka, was moderately injured and received treated on site by paramedics. He was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital in stable condition with wounds to the chest and back.

The attack took place near the Old City’s Damascus Gate.

Israeli Police and the body of Palestinian terrorist

The attacker reportedly fled the scene after stabbing the teen. A video posted online appeared to show him several hundred yards from the site of the attack, on the light rail tracks, where he was shot by police officers.

Hamas media identified the suspected stabber as Fadi Aloon, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya. In a Facebook post from an account attributed to Aloon he expressed his intent to become a martyr (shahid) and entreated God to forgive for his sins.

Good luck with that!!!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had just taken off for Israel around the time of the stabbing early Sunday morning, told reporters that Israel would “launch a severe offensive against Palestinian terrorism.”

Palestinians living in Israel have it far, far better than those living in Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or anywhere else. But they seem determined to destroy that and make everyone's life miserable.

He was set to travel directly to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv upon his arrival in Israel on Sunday, and convene a security cabinet meeting to discuss the spike in terrorist attacks.

Sunday’s early morning stabbing came just hours after Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Bennett were killed in a terrorist attack in the Old City on Saturday night, and Benet’s wife and child were injured.

The Palestinian terrorist was identified as Muhanad Shafeq Halabi, 19, from al-Bireh, near Ramallah in the West Bank. He was shot dead by police.

Benet’s wife was in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. The mother was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and is undergoing surgery. The toddler was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where he remains in stable condition.

Just two days earlier on Thursday night, two Israelis were shot dead in their car in the West Bank in a terrorist attack claimed by the Fatah movement’s armed wing.

In response to the attacks, Israel Police limited entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem to Israeli citizens, business owners, residents and tourists for the next two days. Entrance for Muslim worshippers was limited to men over the age of 50, and access was limited the Lion’s Gate, closest to the Temple Mount.

ISIS Declares Jihad War on Hamas and Fatah

Can't decide if this is good news or bad news, but I suspect it is both; good news in the short-term as Hamas and Fatah may be somewhat occupied somewhere other than Israel, and bad news in the long term if IS replaces both groups; they will then be on the borders of Israel on 2 sides.

Islamic State (ISIS) has steadily been gaining hold in Gaza since taking part in last summer’s terror war on Israel, but an attack Friday indicates the terror group may have turned its sights on Hamas to vie for leadership of the coastal enclave.

The car of a Hamas official was detonated on Friday night,
according to Al-Akhbar and other Arabic reports

“Police have opened an investigation after a makeshift bomb blew up the car of Sheikh Sami Hams in Nuseirat refugee camp,” south of Gaza City, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.While some reports indicate the bombing is part of an internal feud, other local reports significantly reveal that Hams recently delivered a sermon criticizing ISIS, possibly running him afoul of the brutal group.

The official of the Hamas terror organization was not in the vehicle when it detonated and only the car was apparently damaged. Pictures of the mangled wreckage were posted to Twitter.

If the bombing was indeed the handiwork of ISIS, it comes after the group hinted in a publication distributed in Gaza, Judea and Samaria last month that it intends to depose Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The publication emphasizes that there’s an obligation for jihad holy war in fighting the police and army of “the rule of tyranny and heresy,” giving a not-so-subtle call for ISIS followers to attack Hamas and the PA, and further framing such a coup as a religious command.

Israeli security sources estimate hundreds of Hamas terrorists have been steadily switching over to ISIS, viewing Hamas as “too moderate” in comparison.

Hevron, West Bank

An ISIS terror cell was recently busted in Hevron, showing its presence in an area controlled by the PA, and last October ISIS showed its power in Gaza by claiming a bombing attack on the local French Cultural Center.

The car bombing last Friday is in fact the latest in a series of similar blasts, after late last month a Fatah leader’s car was similarly targeted, just two days after the car of the Administrative and Financial Manager of the Hamas-run military police, Helmi Khalaf, was blown up.

It remains unclear who perpetrated the various attacks, as no credit has yet been claimed.