Throwing Stones
On March 9, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street journal titled Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians. In it he tried to make the case that the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries was similar to the way that Christians are being forced from their lands now in the Middle East. Mr. Oren blames Muslims out right for the suffering and decline of Palestinian Christians in the Mid East and in particular Israel.
A number of Christians responded to his comments including Lutheran minister, Rev. Robert Smith, who pointed out that Mr. Oren did not check his facts with current studies like the Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem who has documented that most Christians have migrated from the West Bank due to lack of freedom and security. Furthermore, Rev. Smith says that “Mr. Oren is using anti-Muslim sentiments among some Americans to hide the effects of Israel’s policy.”
It is no coincidence that this Op Ed piece comes just days after the annual APIAC gathering in Washington where US policy makers are wooed by the largest Jewish lobby group in the country to keep on supporting Israel at all cost including a possible war with Iran. Mr. Oren also neglected to mention Israeli Zionist policies and laws which strip Christian Palestinians, like their Muslim Palestinian counterparts, of most of their rights including freedom of movement, property destruction, and land confiscation. It is more than ironic that Mr. Oren asks up to applaud Israel for allowing Christians to travel to visit their holy sites during their holy days. Really, Mr. Oren? Why should we applaud the right of Palestinians to travel across what was once their own country to visit their families or holy sites?
Also I know for a fact, since I was on duty during Lent and Easter last year in Bethlehem that very few Christians are given these precious permits to come to Bethlehem or Jerusalem and even fewer are given permits to visit family members in either Jerusalem or Gaza. And speaking of Jerusalem, how convenient, Mr. Oren, that you forgot to mention the revoking of rights for any Jerusalemite who leaves the country for more than two years. If they do, they might have their residency revoked or their passport taken. And you seem to have also overlooked the fact that many families---Christian and Muslim cannot even live together if one family member comes from outside of Jerusalem. Who is forcing whom out?
However the biggest oversight is what happened to thousands of Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, in the founding of Israel. You say that “The extinction of the Middle East’s Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude” but then forget to mention how 80% of Palestinian Christians were forced into exile. Prior to 1948, Jerusalem alone had a population of about 32,000 and now only about 8,000. According to Yusef Daher, Executive Secretary of the World Council of Churches, "The Israeli government policy throughout the whole history has been unilateral: turning Jerusalem into a Jewish City and into the capital of Israel, while getting rid of all the Christian (and Muslim) Palestinians."
The extinction of the Middle East Christian community from Palestine is an injustice of historic magnitude but I must join my Palestinian sister, Fida Jiryis from the Arab village of Fassuta in Galilee, in calling attention to both the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948 and the ongoing illegal and inhumane occupation as the main source of this suffering and exile for Palestinian Christians. I also agree with her when she says, “…if Oren is so concerned for Palestinian Christians, would he kindly give the green light for the return of Christian refugees from Igirth, Bir’am, Tarshiha, Shumata, Haifa, Jaffa and tens of other Palestinian towns and villages as they were expelled in 1948.” And finally, as one who went to the Holy Land to see the historic sites, the “old stones”, and to meet Palestinian Christians, “the Living Stones, “a man living in a glass home or a home stolen from Palestinians---should think very carefully before tossing stones.”
The extinction of the Middle East Christian community from Palestine is an injustice of historic magnitude but I must join my Palestinian sister, Fida Jiryis from the Arab village of Fassuta in Galilee, in calling attention to both the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948 and the ongoing illegal and inhumane occupation as the main source of this suffering and exile for Palestinian Christians. I also agree with her when she says, “…if Oren is so concerned for Palestinian Christians, would he kindly give the green light for the return of Christian refugees from Igirth, Bir’am, Tarshiha, Shumata, Haifa, Jaffa and tens of other Palestinian towns and villages as they were expelled in 1948.” And finally, as one who went to the Holy Land to see the historic sites, the “old stones”, and to meet Palestinian Christians, “the Living Stones, “a man living in a glass home or a home stolen from Palestinians---should think very carefully before tossing stones.”
As you well know from Israel’s policies towards the administrative detention or imprionsonment of so many Palestinian youth, rock throwing is a sign of provocation for a stone can be a weapon. I believe your irresponsible and incendiary comments were meant to wound, to confuse people in the United States, particularly Christians into believing that Israel is blameless with regards to the forced exile of so many Christians so therefore it must the be those “terrorist” Palestinian Muslims.
Shame on you Mr. Oren for deliberately trying to misguide and incite historically naïve Christians into believing your misrepresentation of past and present history and the undeniable “facts on the ground” of the Judaization of Jerusalem by annexing East Jerusalem and continuing to build illegal settlements.
All of this is especially egregious in light of the recent attacks on Gazans over the past two weeks. Was Netanyahu’s speech at APIAC not strong enough to secure Israel’s more than 30 billion worth of military aid (over the next 10 years) or were you trying to firm up anti-Muslim sentiment for another war in the Mid East?
See Fida Jirysis’ Myth of Israel’s Favorable Treatment of Palestinian Christians at Mondoweiss
For more information about why Palestinian Christians are leaving check out Elizabeth Burr’s article, “Out of Palestine” in America Magazine
http://www.americmagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13275
http://www.americmagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13275
Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel has a new document on Palestinian Christians called “Faith Under Occupation”. It is a PDF file and can be found here at
“Faith Under Occupation”. It’s available freely online as a PDF.
The conversation about who speaks for Palestinian Christians continued this week, as Kairos Palestine responded to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. In the Kairos response , they said:
As Kairos Palestine, we refuse to be marginalized in the way Oren defines our marginalization; we refuse to be pitted against our Palestinian Muslim neighbours and friends; and we refuse to let our collective oppression be manipulated in a way that fragments us, obscures us, or masks the oppression’s true cause, which is the Israeli occupation.
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