PLO: CHRISTIAN-FREE ZONE?

George and Laura Bush with Sami Amin Al-Arian, who is
charged with 50 counts of terrorism. Al-Arian even
went to a White House briefing with Karl Rove.

MIDEAST: CHRISTIAN-FREE ZONE?

By Joseph Farah - WorldNetDaily.com - December 30, 2003

You saw the images on television this Christmas season – Israeli soldiers patrolling Bethlehem.

You heard the Jews blamed for the unrest in the city of David – the birthplace of Jesus.

This column is about what you didn't see or hear in those reports – something of an annual journalistic ritual.

The Christian population of the Palestinian Authority, once representing 20 percent of the region, is down to 2.4 percent. There are fewer than 50,000 Christian Arabs living within the Palestinian Authority.

In 1948, Bethlehem was 80 percent Christian. Today it is 80 percent Muslim. Where do they go? Are you ready for a shock?

Many of them prefer life in Israel to life under the rule of Yasser Arafat and his friends in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In fact, life would be better just about anywhere else, and those who have the ability to leave have left.

This massive display of ethnic cleansing and population movement has been totally obscured by the Palestinian Authority and covered up by the international media. Worse yet, it has even been blamed on Israel.

But Christians fleeing the Holy Land know why they are leaving. All one needs to do is ask them. It began a long time ago. I know, because my grandparents fled for the safety, security and freedom of America. Christians in the Middle East know very well who their enemy is. They know why are they are oppressed. They know who is attacking them. They know who is occupying them.

And it's not Israel.

Here are the facts. Some 2 million Christians have fled the Middle East in the past 20 years. Some estimates are much higher than this. Since Arafat took over administration of the Palestinian territories from Israel, the Christian population has dropped from 15 percent to 2 percent.

They are being driven out. They are being murdered. They are being raped. They are being systematically persecuted. They are being harassed. They are being intimidated.

Such is life for Christians now in Bethlehem and other formerly Christian towns in the West Bank. Just imagine what it will be like when Palestine becomes a real state.

If these people were fleeing Israeli oppression, why did they leave after the Israelis left? It makes no sense. The only way Israel has fed the exodus of Christians from the Middle East is by withdrawing from territories in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, southern Lebanon and elsewhere. When Israel administered those areas, Christian Arabs lived in safety and security.

The truth is the Christian population in Israel has more than quadrupled since 1948. Why? Israel guarantees religious freedom – whereas the Palestinian Authority offers an official religion of Islam.

What has happened in the Palestinian Authority is that the protective hand of Israel has been lifted as it has – under international pressure – given Arafat and the Palestinian Authority more and more autonomy to run its own territory.

Question: What's worse than being bullied, harassed, intimidated and persecuted for your faith? Answer: Being bullied, harassed, intimidated and persecuted for your faith – and watching the perpetrator of these crimes against humanity successfully blame someone else for committing them.

It's time for the whole world to recognize the mini-holocaust taking place against Christians in the Middle East. It's time to punish those guilty of these atrocities – specifically those in charge of the Palestinian Authority. For God's sake, they must not be rewarded with a state of their own.

Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer.

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