To Be A Christian in the "Palestinian" Holy Land

Finally, a look at the issue of "Palestine without Jews or Israelis.

And it isn't pretty.

...In the year since Hamas came to power, some of the fears of a newly Islamist cast to Palestinian society are being borne out. Christians have begun quietly complaining that local disagreements quickly take on a sectarian flavor. And reports of beatings and property damage by Muslims have grown.

In one of the most serious cases, Palestinian gunmen in September set the Y.M.C.A. building on fire in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, where Hamas members hold all 15 local council seats. Muslim figures in the city had previously accused the Y.M.C.A. of engaging in missionary activity and warned it to close down.

...Other factors make Christians particularly vulnerable. In the Palestinian Authority areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, their numbers are now down to 55,000 or 60,000, or 1.7 percent of the Palestinian population. Those who remain must struggle to preserve their weakened communities and lands from encroachment by stronger parties. And Christians lack the protection other Palestinians claim from large clans or their own militias.

The Christians’ problems are writ large in Bethlehem, where most Palestinian Christians live. Fifty years ago, its population was 90 percent Christian; that has fallen, because of emigration and relatively low birth rates, to just 35 percent.

There, land theft — a problem in many parts of Palestinian territory — is particularly rife, in part because there is no proper registration of land. Many land owners have lived abroad for decades, and some are now selling off plots against the will of relatives who stayed behind, or vice versa.

...Other Bethlehem Palestinians say the problem with land theft has been going on since 1994, when the Palestinian Authority was established. They say it involves local figures closely connected with Fatah. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority police in Bethlehem said that three Muslims were under investigation on suspicion of land theft, and dismissed talk of Fatah involvement as “just rumors.”

Land has become an issue in Taybeh, too. Up to three-quarters of the village lands are owned by exiles, said the Rev .Raed Abusahlia, an energetic parish priest for the Latin Patriarchate, an arm of the Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land. No one is left to look after it, and the exiles’ descendents want to sell.

...“We are not fanatic, but this is the only entirely Christian village left,” he said, adding, “Those who leave weaken those who stay.”

...Nevertheless, he revealed a degree of ambivalence about the Palestinian Christians’ long-term prospects in the area. “Their children call us atheists,” he said. “The illiterates who support Hamas look at us as foreigners, not Palestinians. Many of them look at us this way.”