Interview with Justus Reid Weiner
Published August 2008
Institute for Global Jewish Affairs
No. 72, 1 September 2008 / 1 Elul 5768
www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=2406&TTL=Palestinian_Crimes_against_Christian_Arabs_and_Their_Manipulation_against_Israel
Under the Palestinian regime Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent
human rights abuses by Muslims. There are many examples of intimidation,
beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian
institutions, denial of employment, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping,
forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion. Palestinian Authority
(PA) officials are directly responsible for many of the human rights
violations. Muslims who have converted to Christianity are in the greatest
danger. They are often left defenseless against cruelty by Muslim
fundamentalists. Some have been murdered.
Christian Arabs also fall victim to the chaos and anarchy typical of PA
rule. This situation is fostered by societal rigidity, criminal gangs, lack
of education, absence of due process, incitement, unreliable courts, and the
denial of these problems-all running counter to Israel’s desire for a
prosperous and stable neighbor.
Muslim attitudes toward Christians and Jews are influenced by the concepts
and prejudices about their inferiority that the practice of dhimmitude has
spawned in Islamic society. As dhimmis, Christians living in
Palestinian-controlled territories are not treated as equals of Muslims and
are subjected to debilitating legal, political, cultural, and religious
restrictions.
The human rights violations against the Christian Arabs in the disputed
territories are committed by Muslims. Yet for political and economic reasons
many Palestinian Christian leaders blame Israel for these crimes rather than
the actual perpetrators. This motif of the transference of blame has been
adopted by several Christian leaders in the Western world. Others there who
are aware of the PA’s human rights abuses choose to remain silent.
“The disputed territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been
administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA)-and recently, in part, by
Hamas. As a result of the Oslo peace process, the Palestinians were able to
establish their own quasi-government. Under this regime the Christian Arabs
in these territories have been victims of frequent human rights abuses
including intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and
other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycott,
torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion.
“Muslims who have converted to Christianity are the ones most in danger.
They are often left defenseless against cruelty by Muslim fundamentalists.
PA and Hamas officials are directly responsible for many of the human rights
violations. Christian Arabs also fall victim to the chaos and anarchy that
typifies PA rule.”
Justus Reid Weiner is an international human rights lawyer and a member of
the Israel and New York bar associations. His professional publications have
appeared in leading law journals and intellectual magazines. Weiner lectures
widely abroad and in Israel and teaches international law and business
courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He remarks: “The human rights crimes against the Christian Arabs in the
disputed territories are committed by Muslims. Yet many Palestinian
Christian leaders accuse Israel of these crimes rather than the actual
perpetrators. This motif has been adopted by a variety of Christian leaders
in the Western world. Others who are aware of the human rights crimes choose
to remain silent about them.”
Dhimmitude and Persecution
In Weiner’s view the crimes committed against Christian Arabs result from a
way of thinking that dates back to the earliest days of Islam.
“Traditionally, Christians and Jews were given an inferior social status
known as dhimmitude in Islam. The dhimma is a legal contract of submission
that was imposed upon the indigenous non-Muslim populations in regions
conquered by the spread of Islam. Although Jews and Christians were not
forced to convert to Islam, they were not treated as the equals of Muslims.
“As dhimmis, Jews and Christians were subjected to both legal and cultural
restrictions under Islamic law.[1] For example, Muslims could ride horses
whereas Christians and Jews were limited to donkeys. Or, Muslims were
permitted to wear garments of fine cloth while Christians and Jews were only
allowed to wear clothing made from coarse fabric.
“To this day, Muslim attitudes toward Christians and Jews are influenced by
the concepts and prejudices that dhimmitude has spawned in Islamic society.
In Iraq, for example, the ancestral community of Chaldean Christians has
recently become a target of vandalism, property theft, infringement of
privacy, harassment, arbitrary and prolonged detention, kidnapping, rape,
beatings, car bombings, torture, and even murder.
“There are many examples of Christian suffering in Islamic countries. In
November 2006, six Molotov cocktails damaged a Protestant place of worship
in western Turkey, breaking windows and scorching the exterior of the
building. This attack followed months of harassment of Christians in the
town of Odemis, sixty-five miles east of Izmir. In a town near Mosul (in
Iraq) in October 2006, a fifty-nine-year-old Syrian Orthodox priest named
Father Boulos Iskander was beheaded. His kidnappers had demanded $40,000 USD
and required that the priest’s church publicly repudiate Pope Benedict XVI’s
remarks on Islam.[2] It is interesting that this demand was directed at an
Orthodox Christian priest, who would have had nothing to do with any
statement by the Catholic Pope.
“In Egypt, in October 2006, a Christian teenager escaped her Muslim
kidnappers hours after they had drugged her on a public bus. They threatened
to rape her and convert her to Islam if her family didn’t leave their Nile
Delta city of El-Mahala el-Kobra. In a similar story, a fifteen-year-old
escaped from being held captive in Cairo’s southern suburb of Helwan while
her captors were away breaking their Ramadan fast.[3]
“Such attacks have evolved into an imminent crisis for the Christian
minority in every Muslim-ruled country of the Middle East, North Africa, and
Asia. Their Christian populations are in major decline, they are constantly
under threat of violence, and there is a general feeling that they have no
future. Some examples concern the Copts in Egypt and the Maronites in
Lebanon. The scholarship of Nina Shea and Paul Marshall on the persecution
of Christians in Islamic lands brings many proofs of this.[4]
“Israel is the only exception in the Middle East where the Christian
population since 1948 has increased. It has risen by more than 400 percent.
This also includes non-Arab Christians, such as Russian Christians who have
come here as spouses of Jews and otherwise.”
Weiner adds: “Similar troubles as for the Christians have emerged for a
whole range of nonconformists in the Islamic world. For example, in July
2005, two alleged homosexual teenage boys were publicly executed in Iran.[5]
The threats are affecting many throughout the region, including owners of
internet cafes, of restaurants or stores selling alcohol, land dealers,
independent journalists, and even authors such as Salman Rushdie. The
international human rights community has thus far done virtually nothing to
protect such nonconformists.”
A Culture of Intolerance
Weiner observes: “As dhimmis, Christians living in Palestinian-controlled
territories are not treated as the equals of Muslims. They are subjected to
debilitating legal, political, cultural, and religious restrictions. This
has become a critical problem for the Palestinian Christians in the West
Bank and Gaza. Muslim groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have built a
culture of hatred upon the age-old foundations of Islamic society. Moreover,
the PA has adopted Islamic law into its draft constitution.
“In 2006, Hassan El-Masalmeh, a member of the Bethlehem City Council and
local Hamas leader, publicly advocated implementing a discriminatory tax on
non-Muslim residents, known as al-jeziya. The Koran requires the imposition
of this tax on all dhimmis. It legalizes the second-class status of such
residents. El-Masalmeh stated that, ‘We in Hamas intend to implement this
tax someday. We say it openly and we welcome everyone to Palestine, but only
if they agree to live under our rules.’ One example occurred in late 2007
when an evangelical pastor was forced to leave Ramallah under threats from
Tanzim gunmen; soon after, his congregation dispersed. Clergy under threat
by gunmen should at least make a good-faith effort to use their media
connections to publicize their plight and thereby garner a degree of
protection for themselves and their followers.
“In such an environment, Christian Arabs have found themselves victims of
prejudice and hate crimes. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians have
left their ancestral homes and emigrated to North America, Central America,
South America, Europe, and Australia. They flee to almost any country that
will issue them a visa.
“A majority of the Christians living under PA and Hamas rule are Greek
Catholic or Greek Melkite. Others are Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Anglicans,
Syriacs, Armenians, Copts, Maronites, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, as well
as several other denominations. The Palestinian Christian population has
always been concentrated in and around the cities of Jerusalem, Ramallah,
and Bethlehem.”
Developments in Bethlehem
“The demographics in these areas have changed drastically. Bethlehem is a
prime example. Estimates show a sharp demographic Christian-Muslim shift.
The Christian population went from an 80 percent majority in 1950, to a 60
percent majority in 1990, to approximately a 40 percent minority in 2000.
Today the population of Christian Arabs in Bethlehem is hovering at about 15
percent of the city’s total population. It is estimated that for the past
seven years over one thousand Christians have been emigrating from the
Bethlehem area annually. At present an estimated ten to thirteen thousand
Christians remain in the city.
“Neither the Palestinian Christian leaders nor the PA want to reveal
accurate statistics. That would mean the extent of the emigration would
become publicly known. They would then have to face questions about the
reasons for this decline.”
Weiner points out that Yasser Arafat determined the policy that led to this
demographic shift. “After the PA gained control of Bethlehem it redistricted
the municipal boundaries of the city. Arafat’s motivation for the change was
to ensure a Muslim majority in any elections to be held in the area. By
doing so, he annexed an additional thirty thousand Muslims and a few
thousand Muslim Bedouins in adjacent areas. This, combined with substantial
Muslim immigration from the nearby city of Hebron, dramatically transformed
the demographic reality.
“Arafat also defied tradition by appointing a Muslim governor of the city.
The Bethlehem City Council, which by Palestinian law must have a Christian
majority, has been taken over by Muslims. Eight of the fifteen seats on the
council are still reserved for Christians, but in the latest municipal
elections of May 2005 a coalition with crucial support from Hamas emerged
victorious.[6] Hamas today holds six of the fifteen council seats and their
Christian allies hold four.[7] Arafat crowned his efforts when he converted
the Greek Orthodox monastery next to the Church of Nativity into his
official Bethlehem residence.[8]
“The problems for Christians in Bethlehem are typical throughout the Middle
East. The Lebanese Christian community faced similar problems during the
1980s. The assassinated Christian prime minister of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel
summed up the situation: ‘A Christian, like a Jew . . . is not a full
citizen and cannot exercise political rights in any of the countries which
were once conquered by Islam.’[9]
“In Palestinian society Christian Arabs have no voice and no protection. It
is no wonder they have been leaving. Because of emigration-some of it dating
back two or three generations-seventy percent of Christian Arabs who
originally resided in the West Bank and Gaza now live abroad. Tens of
thousands live in Sydney, Berlin, Santiago, Detroit, and Toronto. The
emigration of Christian Arabs has multiplied over the last decade, with no
end in sight.
“It is currently estimated that the number of Christians living in Gaza
totals only 1,500-3,000 amid 1.2 million Muslims.[10] Probably less than
fifty thousand Christians remain in all of East Jerusalem, the West Bank,
and Gaza together.
“Taybeh, a village located deep in the West Bank, is the only all-Christian
village left in the PA. As a result of the perpetual violence, many
residents of Taybeh have gone abroad and only 1,300 remain.[11] The
situation of these Christians has become grim.”
The Abuse of Human Rights
Before giving examples of human rights abuses against Christians in the PA,
Weiner remarks: “Over this ten-year period, my research assistants and I
have interviewed scores of Christian victims. Many of those interviewed were
too terrified to tell their stories. In an effort to reassure them, I
promised to conceal their real names, professions, and places of residence.
“My first example concerns the routine extortion of Christian businessmen by
PA officials and street thugs. It involves an Armenian Christian jewelry-
store owner from Jerusalem. During a business trip to Gaza he was taken into
custody and extorted by the Palestinian police. He showed the officers the
necessary licenses and permits to sell his gold jewelry. Nevertheless, he
was forced to hand over all his money and gold jewelry and was subsequently
beaten for more than six hours.
Read the rest of this entry »
