The Forgotten Faithful of Bethlehem
Photo Credit: Antoine Taveneaux
A Reflection by Rev. Fahed Abu-akel
This Advent season, we will turn our eyes to the Shepherd’s Fields in Beit Sahour and the manger in Bethlehem. We will sing the songs that remind us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. We will enjoy Christmas plays and musicals that will praise the child of Bethlehem. And we will exchange gifts that will help us remember God’s greatest gift. Regrettably, most United States Christians will not give a thought about the current population of Bethlehem and the challenges that they are facing. Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land have been suffering and will continue to suffer harm as western Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is my prayer that, in this article, I will highlight the challenges faced by the Palestinian Christian community.
I first arrived in the United States on January 29, 1966. I went to Florida for my undergraduate studies and to Georgia for my seminary education. I became a US citizen in 1981. Soon, in the US, I discovered that fellow students and citizens think about Palestine and the Middle East from one frame of reference. They consider that the region is inhabited by Israeli Jews and Arab Muslims, but they have no clue or knowledge of the Palestinian Christian population of the Holy Land or the millions of Arab Christians living in the Middle East and North Africa. People are surprised when I introduce myself as a Palestinian Christian and add that we have been living in the Holy Land since the day of Pentecost and even before. As the Book of Acts of the Apostles (2:11) tells us,
“Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own language.”
Western Christians need to be mindful that there are about fourteen million Arab Christians in the Middle East and in North Africa and they need to stand in solidarity with them. Arab Christians can belong to the Coptic Church, to the Catholic or Orthodox Churches, or they may belong to Protestant denominations. In Egypt there are a million Presbyterians. These are today’s forgotten faithful.
This reality came to me in January 2002 when the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the widow of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, invited me to pray the invocation during the Martin Luther King’s birthday celebration at The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.
I began to pray by saying,
“God almighty, God of nonviolence, we come to you in prayer in the name of Jesus the Holy One that Martin Luther King served all his life.”
While I was praying, the National Public Radio journalist who was sitting in the balcony introduced me and my prayer on radio and TV as a Muslim clergyman.
To my dismay, that journalist had two items of journalistic knowledge to prevent him from making this mistake. The program in his hand read, “Rev. Fahed Abu-akel, Presbyterian minister on the staff of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.” To be a Presbyterian minister means you are a Christian - that reality did not cross his mind. I also prayed in the name of Jesus - a Muslim clergyman will never pray in the name of Jesus. The fact that my last name is ‘Abu-akel’ made him think that I am a Muslim.
After 55 years of living and serving in the USA, I still face this lack of understanding. I want to challenge the reader during this Christmas season to:
First, pray for the Palestinian Arab Christians.
In 1900 Palestine, 25% of the Palestinian people were Christians and today we are less than 2%. That means that the British colonial military occupation of Palestine affected the Palestinian Arab Christians in negative ways. As Israel became a state in 1948, thousands of Palestinians Christians became refugees. They fled to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and around the world. During the 1967 war, Israel defeated Egypt and occupied Gaza; then they defeated Jordan and occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank; and then defeated Syria and occupied the Golan Heights. As these events unfolded, the Palestinian Christian numbers got smaller and smaller. In the last 54 years of Israel’s brutal military occupation over Palestine, Christians became less than 2% of the Palestinian population in all of Israel and the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Pray for the Palestinian church to continue its ministry and mission despite the occupation.
Second, remember the suffering of the all the Palestinian people.
Please remember the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 which Professor Ilan Pappe highlights in his book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” The book gives a detailed account of what happened in 1948 when the new State of Israel destroyed 530 Palestinian villages and towns and exiled close to 800,000 Palestinian people who became and are still refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and around the world.
When Israel became a state, I was 4 years old. My elementary and high school education took place in my village which was twenty-five miles northwest of Nazareth in Galilee. I experienced the Israeli military occupation until I came to the US in 1966. Imagine any person from my village that wanted to leave the village to work, or visit anywhere, had to go to the Israeli military office and get a permit. If a police officer or military official caught a Palestinian without that permit, the captured person would be taken to court and then to jail.
After the 1967 Israeli victory over the Arab countries and after the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, all the Israeli military power shifted to control the Palestinians under occupation. Today, a 54-year-old Palestinian woman or man living in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip knows nothing but the Israeli military occupation.
As list of the abuses of the occupation would be too long for this reflection, I will give just a few:
Anytime a Palestinian in the West Bank or in Gaza wants to go anywhere outside the territories, he or she must first get a permit from the Israeli military authorities.
Going to a hospital in another city, he or she needs a permit
Going to a university in another city, he or she needs a permit
Going to cultivate their own field and land, they need a permit
Since our US media will hardly mention the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli military occupation, I look to the church to speak out and share personal stories about the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Third, support and advocate for justice and freedom for all Palestinians.
There is no way Israel can control seven million Palestinian people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea without our US support that gives Israel the green light:
to continue the 54 years Israeli military occupation
to continue to steal the Palestinian land and build homes for Jews only
to continue to have one road for Palestinians and one road for Israelis
to continue to uproot the Palestinian olive trees all over the West Bank
to continue to have more than 250 checkpoints to control the Palestinians on their own land
Your support and advocacy in the USA will help Palestinians find justice and freedom on their own historic land. Let this Christmas be a time of seeking freedom, peace, and justice for all the people who live in the Holy Land, but especially for the Palestinian Christian community.