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Arab Christians
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[One] source of potential growth of the non-Arab Christians within Israel is the foreign worker community estimated at present to be over 200,000. The majority of foreign workers come to Israel from Christian states such as Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Rumania, and Hungary in eastern Europe, the Philippines and Thailand in Asia, Nigeria in Africa, and several countries in South America. Although they have not been granted Israeli citizenship and are not encouraged by the Israeli authorities to settle down, some of them do—by marrying local people or by staying illegally after their working license expires. Several churches in Jaffa and Haifa that became historical monuments following the 1948 war have recently revived their active communal life. Altogether the immigration from the ex-Soviet Union countries and from Ethiopia together with the advent of Christian foreign workers have created a new group of Christians affiliated with the Israeli Jewish-Hebrew cultural identity and whose national identity is Israeli, while being unaffiliated with the Jewish religion. According to the Israeli bureau of statistics estimate, this group numbers 23,000 people, and constitutes 17 percent of the total 130,000 Christians in Israel today.9
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In the eyes of the Moslems, the Arab Christians are no more than Janissary/Mamlukes. And they will remain so, until they rise up and break away to chart their own course of action for an independent Arab Christian State. Living under foreign occupation means living in captivity. I understand their situation and empathize with their problem. They are no better than the Assyrians and Israelites except that they are given freedom of movement and are allowed to seek employment and residence in most Islamic countries, because they racially relate themselves to Arab stock. They were driven to do so to ensure their survival. Since they had lost their land, like the Israelis and Assyrians, they lost control over their resources. The non-Moslems have since become pawns in the hands of the Moslems just to survive or find a way out of their misery.
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The notion that Arab Christians have a difficult time in Israel is belied by any number of telling facts. Christian sites are scrupulously taken care of, and available to all. It has not been the Israelis who took over the Church of the Nativity, used it as a place from which to fire, and vandalized it and defecated within it -- but the usual "Palestinians" (it hardly matters to discuss which group "claimed credit" for whatever it was doing). It has not been the Israelis who have been terrorizing Christians in Bethlehem, leading to a steady drop in their numbers. So terrorized are the local Christian Arabs that it had to be the new Franciscan Guardian of the Christian Sites to tell the truth about the matter -- for only he could, given his position and authority, escape Muslim Arab punishment. The current mayor of Bethlehem is a classic islamochristian, swearing up and down the land (and to a clearly skeptical BBC interviewer) that there is "no problem" for Christians in Bethlehem, and pooh-poohing that little business about a declining Christian population, and grandly asserting that "of course" (or was it the Arab "for sure") his own children, now studying in -- guess where?
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Arab Christians still hold disproportionate economic power in almost all the societies in which they have a presence (the tragic experience of Iraq is a special case). However, that economic power is confined: it does not translate into active participation in shaping the society's future. Indeed, the opposite is happening: significant Christian interests are steadily being channelled outside their home countries. A senior Lebanese private banker has commented that swathes of Arab Christian money are poised for transfer at any hint of serious trouble. True, across the world capital abhors uncertainty and is typically conservative. Yet, the fact remains that much Arab Christian economic power has come to see its markets as just that: as markets, no longer as homes.
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The number of Arab Christians living in the Holy Land continues to dwindle and the Mideast peace effort has only made their status more uncertain, speakers at a conference here said yesterday. "It has gotten worse," said Rateb Y. Rabie, president of the Holy Land Ecumenical Foundation. "Before the peace process, [Arab Christians] at least knew where they stood." Mr. Rabie, organizer of the international conference that ended last night, said that travel, land and settlement restrictions enacted by Israel and the Palestinian Authority cut off more Arab Christians from jobs and holy sites, especially in Jerusalem. Earlier this month, Israel closed various checkpoints to prevent further violence after a wave of deadly clashes that began in late September in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Some Palestinian workers were not allowed to enter Israel and return to their jobs because of security concerns, Israeli officials said.
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Arab Christians have always existed in the Middle East, and long before the advent of Islam. In Lebanon today they number about 1.3 million (about one-third of the population) mainly of Maronite denomination. In Syria they number approximately two million (or about 10% of the population) which include a significant community of Maronites. In Egypt, Christians, mostly Copts, are about 4.5 million, or about 6% of the population. There are one million in Iraq of various denominations, or about 4% the population. The Christians of Palestine and Jordan may number 600,000, but so many population shifts had taken place that it is difficult to venture a reliable estimate.
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Arab Christians