Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: No room for Christians

Friday, Dec. 21, 2001 | 4:11 a.m.

Last year Hamas and Arafat's Fatah stirred up an even bloodier intifada, and now he might be wondering why he can't conveniently turn it off. That's if he really wants it to end.

Nevertheless, like millions of Christians, I'll be thinking about Bethlehem this Tuesday night. Today it is a different town than it was in 1988. Even then, Father George Abou Khazem predicted that within three decades there would be no Christians left in the town where Christ was born. Also at that time Christians were being kept from selling their property to other Christians. I wrote about this problem, but didn't give it much more thought until two years ago, when visiting Nazareth.

Easter Sunday of 1999, the Arab Christians coming from Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth were stoned by Muslim extremists. More than two-dozen cars were damaged and the Israeli Police reluctantly intervened and received their own shower of stones. The Islamist hoodlums insisted on building a large mosque in front of the church. They claim that the land belongs to them. Despite historical evidence to the contrary, the Israeli governments of both Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak sided with the Muslims. This was purely a political decision because the Christian population of Nazareth has dropped from 60 percent down to 40 percent in the last 20 years. Yes, Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, have the right as citizens to vote and run for office in Israel.

So what about Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified? Jerusalem's Christian population is about 2 percent. Jordan's Prince El-Hassam bin Talal is quoted as saying that "There are today more Christians from Jerusalem ... living in Sydney, Australia, than in Jerusalem itself."

The Middle East Quarterly is quoted by the Columbia magazine, published by the Knights of Columbus, as reporting, "the most identifiably Christian town on Earth (Bethlehem) has lost its Christian majority." According to that article, it not only has lost its 80 percent majority of Christians, they now make up only one-third of Bethlehem's population.

Columbia writer Kathryn Jean Lopez continued to write, "The reasons for the exodus are safety and economics. Many Christians in Palestinian-controlled territories cannot get to where they once worked because of an Israel government blockade on West Bank towns. In the Palestinian-controlled territories, it is not always the law itself that forbids Christians from doing business, but terror. Fear among extremist Muslims that cooperation with Christians might lead to a revitalization of Christianity in the area, at the expense of Islam, drives their restrictions and militancy. One Christian storeowner in Galilee told a reporter, 'Most Christians will leave as soon as we can sell our houses and shops. We can't live among these people (Muslims) -- anymore.' " Franciscan Father Peter F. Vasko is quoted as saying that in Bethlehem, if a Christian wants to rent fr om a Muslim landlord, the rental agreement stipulates that the home can't display any religious pictures. "That means no pi! ctures of Mary, no pictures of Christ," according to the Franciscan. The Christians are swimming upstream to even protect religious sites in the Holy Land, where Jesus Christ walked and worked. Since the Taliban destruction of all non-Muslim artifacts and religious centers in Afghanistan, the Christians have reason to worry about what follows in the Holy Land as moderate Muslims are pushed aside by the extreme Islamists.

This Christmas Eve my thoughts will be in Bethlehem with the Christians in that area who cling to their faith that has survived for 2,000 years. Keeping the faith has never been easy but now, as in past centuries, men and women of all faiths have to struggle for survival to pass their beliefs on to future generations.