Since October 7, Israel and its allies have attempted to frame the war in Gaza as part of the “war on terror,” actively comparing Hamas to ISIS. Many of those who instinctively equate Palestinians with Muslims have indeed fallen for this false narrative.
But Israel’s brutal war on Gaza has not targeted “just terrorists” as it claims. Instead, he massacred Palestinian Muslims as well as Palestinian Christians in what legal experts consider a genocide.
The Christian community in Gaza has lost at least 21 members so far. This may seem like a small number, but considering there were only 1,000 before the war, these massacres threaten to eliminate the Christian presence in the Gaza Strip for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Proportionally speaking, the death rate of Palestinian Christians is double that of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza.
And yet, the leaders of predominantly Christian Western countries have remained incredibly silent on the plight of Palestinian Christians. US President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, has said or done nothing to protect his fellow Catholics in Gaza, who have also been targeted by the Israeli military.
This comes amid decades of unwavering support by Western Christians for the racist state of Israel, which has threatened the Christian presence in the Holy Land for decades.
A focused Christian story
The Israeli attack on Palestinian Christians took place long before the creation of Hamas. During the Nakba of 1948, when Jewish militias attacked Palestinian villages and towns, Palestinian Christians were targeted along with Palestinian Muslims.
Christian Palestinians were driven out of Lydda (what Israelis today call Lod). Many ended up taking refuge in Ramallah, traveling dozens of kilometers on foot while trying to avoid brutal Jewish activists.
In Jerusalem and other areas, Palestinians, regardless of their religion, were also expelled. Members of my own family – my father, my uncle and my grandmother – had to flee for their lives. My aunt and her family who lived in the Musrara neighborhood sought shelter near the Notre-Dame Catholic chapel, thinking they would be safe there, but a Jewish sniper shot her husband, leaving her a widow with seven young children.
Terror and dispossession did not stop even after the establishment of the State of Israel. For example, residents of the two predominantly Palestinian Christian villages of Iqrit and Biramwho at the end of the Arab-Israeli War were in northern Israel, were expelled in November 1948. They were told they could return “within two weeks”, but the Israeli state never allowed them to do so. .
In the following decades, Palestinian Christians remaining in Israeli-claimed territory faced the same apartheid regime as Palestinian Muslims. They were subjected to approximately 65 racist laws which deprive them of the same rights as Jewish citizens of Israel, according to a study carried out by the NGO Adalah, based in Haifa.
One of the first of these laws was the 1950 Law of Return, which enshrined the right of Jews to come to Israel, settle there and automatically receive citizenship. It denied the same right to the expelled indigenous Palestinian population, despite the fact that the United Nations had decreed in Resolution 194 that Palestinians should be allowed to return to their homeland and be compensated for the loss of their homes.
Most recently, the Knesset approved the Nation-State Bill in 2018, which officially declares Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, further cementing the legal iteration of Jewish supremacy. This has further emboldened extremist elements within Israeli society and encouraged even more anti-Palestinian violence.
Incidents of Jewish extremists harassing and intimidating Palestinian Christians, spitting on them and attacking their processions have increased. Christian properties, including churches and cemeteries, have been targeted.
Just days before the October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, a group of Jewish men and boys harassed a Christian procession carrying a cross, violently spitting at them. A video of the incident went viral and sparked international outrage, but clearly not among Western leaders. Repeated calls from Christian Church leaders to take action against Israeli Jewish violence have fallen on deaf ears for years.
Western silence on the fate of Palestinian Christians
On October 17, just days after launching its brutal war on Gaza, Israel bombed the courtyard of the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds of people who had taken refuge there to escape its bombings. The Israeli propaganda machine attempted to attribute the attack to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but subsequent investigations confirmed that the “evidence” she had produced was fabricated.
Two days later, the Israeli army bombed the nearby Church of St. Porphyry, the third oldest church in the world, killing at least 18 people.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of the people inside at the time were women and children. “Targeting churches and their institutions, in addition to the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens… constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” he said in a statement.
But attacks on Palestinian Christians continued. On December 16, two Palestinian women took refuge in the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza were shot by an Israeli sniper. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said the two women were “shot dead in cold blood,” while Pope Francis condemned the killing during his weekly Sunday homily.
British MP Layla Moran, whose relatives are stuck in the same church, said she saw the Israeli army use white phosphorous against her compound in addition to targeting its solar panels, water tanks and generators, making the incredibly difficult life for those who find refuge there. .
Over the past 80 days of war, Christian Palestinians have continually called on the world to take note of their plight and that of all Palestinians and take action to end the genocide.
A Palestinian Catholic mother posted an appeal to Biden, calling on him to base his policies on his moral convictions. “We are not the children of a lesser God, Mr. President, we are the Palestinian Christians of the Holy Land where the message of love, peace and justice began, and we call on you to end this genocide.”
Leaders of the Palestinian Christian community also sent an open letter to Western church leaders and theologians in which they challenged “Western theologians and church leaders who have expressed wholehearted support for Israel and (called) on them to repent and change.”
Unfortunately, these calls were completely ignored.
Biden and other leaders of predominantly Christian Western countries have shown remarkable disregard for the lives of Palestinians – whether Muslim or Christian. The United States has repeatedly voted against ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council and blocked any attempts to pressure Israel to stop massacring Palestinians or even to do so. criticize marginally.
Biden and his administration have indeed treated us Palestinian Christians as children of a lesser God. He and other Western leaders who supported Israel are entirely responsible for the genocide of the Palestinian people. What they did will not be forgotten.
Today we don’t celebrate Christmas. Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus Christ, is not celebrating either. All festivities have been canceled as Palestinian Christians mourn the victims of the Israeli genocide.
What gives much hope in these dark times is the fact that despite Israeli brutality and Western silence, Muslim and Christian Palestinians form a united front. Israel has long used divide-and-conquer tactics against us, but over the past two and a half months, we have demonstrated that our unity is stronger than ever in the face of Israeli colonial violence and racism.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
