The Holy Land A Modern Exodus

Saturday, March 8th 2008

Chelmsford Meeting House

WHOSE HOLY LAND, WHOSE EXODUS?

A Holy Land is a place where the resonances of history speak loudly about the origins of one’s faith. In this respect the land that under girds our Christian faith could include the birthplace of Abraham and the land where other mythopoeic figures in the Bible were said to originate but primarily it is the land where Jesus was born, lived, died and where his disciples recognized his resurrection. This same land is also holy for the Jewish people as an historic homeland of the Old and New Testament times and the place where Solomon’s temple was first built. For Muslims it is the place where many of their and our great prophets are buried and the place where Mohammad completed his night journey ‘isra ’ ’ to Jerusalem and his moment of transcendence in Jerusalem where he meets God ‘mi’ raj’ above the present al Aqsa mosque.

The use of the word exodus usually refers to the biblical account of the release from slavery under the Pharoah of the Hebrews. This period in Biblical history is often used to highlight the physical movement out of oppression of a people to a new land. In this sense it could be used to describe the movement of Palestinian Christians and others from Israel/Palestine to a place of safety.

The intention of this presentation is to examine the movement of Christians from the Holy Land in recent times, put this movement into some kind of historical context and reflect on whether the word exodus is appropriate.

A POTTED HISTORY

The birth of Christianity

Following the death of Jesus, the number of followers of the Way who became known as Christians multiplied both in the Holy Land and in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean through the work of Paul and the disciples and their followers. Jesus himself and the first disciples and, of course, Paul were all semitic peoples, Jewish by culture and tradition and probably did not see following Jesus as a departure from Judaism but more a fulfillment of it. Such a group of Jewish believers continues today as independent Messianic Jews unassociated with other structures of the Christian church whilst other Jewish believers were long ago integrated into the Christian church.

Within the growth of the Gentile/Jewish Christian church, Bishops were recognized in Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch from the first century. Persecution of the church in the Roman empire only helped to deepen and establish its hold.

From the fourth century, during the reign of Constantine, the new Rome of Constantinople (Byzantium) and with his endorsement of Christianity, Christianity began a period of renewed growth throughout the Roman world. From the end of the fourth century, Christianity was the major religion in these areas.

Schisms

The church was one church up to about 400 AD focused around the major church centres or ‘sees’ of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem where leadership of the regional clusters of churches was based. There were struggles around the central authority of the Roman see as this church had been historically founded by Peter and Paul. The movement of the capital of the Roman empire to Constantinople only served to heighten these struggles. Then various theological struggles largely about the divinity and humanity of Christ sometimes combined with issues related to independence issues and nationalism helped a process of schism that divided the one church into particular independent and somewhat hostile traditions.

By the beginning of the seventh century these struggles were still well under way and several independent churches could be recognized; the Assyrian Orthodox Church (Nestorian – schism Council of Ephesus 433) and the Melkite, Syriac and Coptic Churches (Monophysite – schism Council of Chalcedon 451). Many of these churches were very successful; there were, for example, over seventy monasteries in the Holy Land under the authority of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate alone by the mid seventh century.

Islam and further schisms

With the emergence of Islam its subsequent conquests within the Byzantine empire, the establishment of a caliphate in Jerusalem brought the growth of Christianity sharply to a halt in the region. Nevertheless the established churches gained privileges and rights in negotiation with the caliphate particularly over land they owned and in particular the holy sites that they had located and protected over the years. However the cost of theological and political struggles in the Christian church in this period and over the next millennia meant that 75% of the Christians in the Holy Land converted to Islam. (Bishop Riah Abu El Asal; 20/02/08)

One of these continuing major schisms was at the turn of the first millennium, where the see in Rome excommunicated the see in Constantinople and vice versa superficially over the nature of the religious rites, the clauses to be accepted in the Nicene creed and the use of icons. It was in fact more of a naked struggle for power and the independent Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic sees resulted.

Later as a consequence of military victories and defeats between the Byzantine and Islamic forces and later the Crusades, the Roman Catholic church made gains among some of the orthodox communities by helping these communities with independence issues in relation to the Greek Orthodox see in Constantinople. By some compromise on theological issues, these churches came into communion with Rome. The consequence was to split these churches between those in communion with Rome and those in communion with Constantinople. (ref ii)

It should be said that the presence of the Caliphates in the Middle East gave ‘rogue’ churches the freedom to be more independent from Constantinople and allow their frustrations some space and in some cases these churches welcomed the Islamic era and supported it against the Byzantine forces for just that reason.

Heading towards recent times

By the early 19th century, there were a large number of different churches, some in communion with Rome, some with Constantinople in the Holy Land. The mix was already seriously troubled. There were internal conflicts within these local churches too... for example, the Greek Orthodox Church, until recently, insisted on only Greeks rather than Palestinians being in the top hierarchy of the local leadership and this has caused resentment.

The churches that grew out of the Reformation in England and in the rest of Europe had little impact on the Holy Land until nineteenth century when an evangelical revival in Europe and the United States caused many missionary societies to be founded and churches to send missionaries all over the world including Israel/Palestine.

There are today many Arab evangelical churches that have grown out of previous and present evangelical missionary activity from the rest of the world including Korea. The Anglican or Arab Episcopal Church, the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of the USA and the Lutheran Church have founded congregations largely by conversion from the historic Christian churches. The Baptists, the Church of God, the Church of the Nazarene, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quakers, Open Brethren, Plymouth Brethren, Assemblies of God; also have small congregations within Israel/Palestine today.

MODERN DAY PALESTINE/ISRAEL

Romell Soudah states that the Christian population was recorded as 143,000 in British mandated Palestine in 1946, about 7.3% of the total population. The Sabeel survey in the Summer of 2006, suggested that there were less than 160,000 Christians, just over 1.0% of the total present population of Israel and Palestine.

Although the total number has hardly changed, the relative numbers of Christians have dropped significantly and have not kept pace with net immigration and net natural population growth rates of the Muslim and Jewish communities.

Of the sample of 1500 Christian families taking part in the Sabeel survey in the West Bank and Israel the Christian population comprised;

Church West BankIsrael

Greek Orthodox

25.0

21.0

Greek Catholics

2.5

13.5

Latins

18.0

4.0

Others (principally Copt, Anglican,

Assyrian, Maronite, Armenian

and Lutheran)

5.0

11.0

Totals 50.5 49.5

Figures compiled from the data presented in the Sabeel Survey, 2006

Of the 160,000 Christians in the Israel and the whole of Palestine, Gaza’s Christian population is roughly 2500-3000 strong of whom most are Greek Orthodox.

If you divide this population into age ranges; the highest proportions of the population are in the range of 10-24 years old. A few village communities can still be found that are 100% Christian (Taybeh) or have a majority Christian population (Zababneh).

INTERNAL CHALLENGES TO THE LOCAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

I am very grateful to Naim Ateek for highlighting these issues as challenges so effectively in the 2006 Sabeel Conference in Jerusalem. I am paraphrasing and adding my own appreciation of these problems as threats.

1. Responsiveness to Change

The problem with an historic church is that it has the danger of being locked into its history to such an extent that it sees being a guardian of its history as its principle function. The historic church finds itself preciously defending historical agreements with the original caliphs and later the Ottoman empire and putting all its energy into reestablishing such privileges as it has with the present government of Israel. This causes political argument and even physical scuffles over rights, duties and privileges in the Holy places.

Whilst it is good that the Christian heritage in the Holy Land is kept for the future Christian community, the Christian community should not allow itself to be dominated by defending a status quo with its embedded resentments and jealousies whilst the political and social problems that need Christian leadership are sidelined or buried.

This same attitude spills over to confidence in building ecumenical relationships and such possibilities suffer as a consequence. Thus the opportunities to share resources, come to a common mind and focus energy and attention on the issues of the day that affect ordinary people are lost. So much could be achieved by a common witness, shared resources (people, money, access), a unified identity in the respect with which the Christian community is held and in its effectiveness as Christian messengers of faith, hope, love and truth.

Some churches have much in common liturgically but because of split loyalties between Istanbul (Constantinople) and Rome which do not always have at their root theological issues but historic political issues are unnecessarily living parallel lives. (Melkite and Greek Orthodox in Jerusalem).

There is also a need to engage with Messianic Christianity, evangelical Christianity and with Russian Christians now present in the land as brother and sisters in Christ seeking to find areas of agreement in a faith defined by faith, hope, love, justice and truth.

2. Empowerment of local communities

The Protestant churches until recently and throughout its long history, the Greek Orthodox church, have relied on ‘foreign’ leadership of the local church community and have not allowed local Palestinian clergy into the senior hierarchy of the Church in Israel/Palestine. This ‘colonial’ attitude sends not so subtle messages to local people about their ‘acceptability’ within the Christian Church and causes friction. It also paradoxically helps label the Christian Church as ‘foreign’ to the Holy Land.

3. The Holy Land as a focus for international pilgrimage

Pilgrims have been coming to the Holy Land for most of the Christian era. The chance to be in the same place where the story of the Church and the life of Jesus was written is very special and is a spiritual experience in itself. Whether it is an innate quality of the land or a symbol of ones investment in faith and hope, the Holy Land is Holy.

However, for pilgrims to visit disinterested in the Christians who live in the land and whose ancestors were among those first believers, is at least a missed opportunity and is seen as discourteous if not deliberately provocative and damaging. The people of the church in Israel/Palestine face challenges of which most of us have no experience. They live as minorities in an often hostile political environment and ask, at least, to be noticed. To do otherwise is to contribute to the marginalization of a vulnerable community.

The whole issue of the meaning of pilgrimage and its engagement with local Christian people is not new but needs to be revisited as a living expression of Christian fellowship and mutual spiritual encouragement.

Summary so far.

This presentation so far has tried to highlight the weight and complexity of the history of the Christian community and some of its internal associated challenges. When my wife and I first went to Palestine, our young Christian Palestinian tour guide told us that he was fed up with the Church, that it was thwart with internal struggles, that he felt that it did not speak for him or speak up for him, and he had abandoned the practice of his faith as a consequence. This was one individual but there is no smoke without fire and these are difficult times.

The Christian community is buffeted by other challenges which are less subtle and more serious; to the extent that they are more obvious threats to the presence of the Christian community in Israel/Palestine.

OTHER THREATS TO THE LOCAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

•

Relations with the State of Israel

Foundation dispossessions

There is no doubt that the struggle to establish the State of Israel has had a major impact on the Christian Church first as a consequence of El Nakba’ in 1947 with the first wave of dispossessions resulting in the growth of the Palestinian diaspora. Whole Christian villages disappeared in the land that was to become the State of Israel. Then there was over a million refugees in Lebanon, the West Bank (as it came to be known) and in Jordan.

The consequence of the 1967 war was another milestone with a further flight of Palestinians as Israel became the occupying power of the West Bank ousting Jordan and ousting Egypt from Gaza.

The occupation, from the beginning, was not an easy period with growing Palestinian nationalism from politically disparate groups coalescing around Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

Civil Unrest

The first Intifada in 1987, led to the Oslo Accords in 1993 and a significant return of Palestinians, Christians among them, from the diaspora to the West Bank full of hope and vigour. The Second Intifada breaking out in 2000 was at least in part a symbol of frustrated hope in an independent Palestine as was the fair and democratic election of Hamas to a new government in January, 2006.

Land Issues

All of this has had implications for difficult relationships between the State of Israel, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians particularly in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel has pursued a policy of Arab depopulation of Jerusalem by not granting building and development permits and by progressively restricting the right of a Jerusalem identity to Arab Palestinians and their children. All of this has affected Christians and Muslims alike.

The State of Israel has also been circumspect when recognizing Christian claims to newly excavated Christian sites and has sometimes built over them, It has reputedly persuaded/put pressure on the Greek Orthodox Church to sell land or provide additional leases to land to the State of Israel.

Mobility issues

The present political impass and the building of the wall and security fence within the West Bank and on the 1967 cease fire line has made matters worse. Travelling outside of enclosed Palestinian cantons and between villages in the West Bank has been difficult or impossible depending on the exegencies of the moment. Access to the holy sites to Muslims and Christians alike has been denied or severely restricted. It should also be said that access of most Jews to the West Bank or Gaza has been denied since the outbreak of the second Intifada.

Western Stigmata

As the State of Israel and the Israeli Defense Force are both heavily subsidized and/or politically supported by the US government and to a lesser extent by the European Union, the local Christian community has experienced some mistrust and suspicion in all of these political exegencies as the US and the UK are often seen as Christian nations led by politicians who openly wear their Christianity.

It has been said that the State of Israel has played on this suspicion in a policy of divide and rule to undermine resistance and any Christian leadership or advocacy to the West. There is a need for an honest dialogue over these issues with the State of Israel supported by the international community.

•

Engagement with Christian Zionism.

Whose promised land

Very often, but not always, those who espouse an evangelical Christianity or a Messianic Judaism or no doubt some Russian Christians who have achieved ‘aliyah’ in Israel understand the Bible as establishing the Jewish people exclusively in the Land of Israel by an eternal covenant which embraces the present day Israel and the Judea/Samaria of the occupied territories of present day Palestine.

This interpretation of scripture seemingly offers validity to discriminatory practice particular in relation to land rights justifying ultimately the dispossession of Arab Palestinians of the land that they have lived in for centuries and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, in particular. This adds insult to injury for Muslims who see the promises to Abraham as promises made to progenitor of Palestinians (through Ishmael) and Jews (through Isaac).

The rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount

The second level of interpretation allowed by a literal and eschatological treatment of the book of Revelations, allows and promotes the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple on its supposedly historic site at the Wailing Wall as a necessary goal to be achieved before the second coming of Christ. This regardless of the fact that it is also one of the holiest sites within Islam.

Neither of these interpretations endear Christians or Christianity to the local Palestinian population who have sought to live in harmony for centuries with their Muslim majority.

There is a further need for honest dialogue with those that interpret scripture this way. It is wrong for the Christian community to be so painfully divided.

•

Competition between religious faiths

A history of tolerance and cooperation

The history of relationships between Christian and Muslim in the Levant and Israel/Palestine in particular has been good. There has been co-operation and goodwill on both sides.

Evangelism

The local Christian community and the Muslim majority have observed a truce when it came to evangelism...neither side generally speaking attempting to convert the other. Evangelism is illegal in both the Jewish state of Israel and in the predominantly Muslim West Bank and Gaza. Conversion receives the opprobrium of any of the religious communities from which the convert comes and can be a life threatening event... the reality of this delicate situation is generally observed. Transfer, however, between Christian denominations has been frequent and caused, in itself, much division.

However the advent of evangelistic expatriate Christian groups usually from the West or from Korea have rocked the boat a little and expulsions from Israel/Palestine have occurred as a consequence and death threats have been made to local Christians and/or expatriate Christians who have tried to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Socio-Economic Advantage

The situation is aggravated as in Ireland, perhaps, by disparities in wealth distribution. Access to western education by the local Christian community has historically been easier and this combined with the close knit nature of the Christian minority and the historical Christian families involved has supported the growth of class distinction and an economic if not social elite. This has caused friction in some communities.

Perceptions of Western Christianity

The ‘apparently’ unquestioning support of the government of Israel by the government of the US in aid for infrastructure development (including settler roads) and in military co-operation (helicopters, aircraft, weaponry) has been noted. Other Western governments, particularly Britain perhaps less fairly, also has a reputation of unqualified support for the government of Israel. The perceptions and reality of these countries having Christian leadership has exacerbated tension.

The invasion of Iraq and to a lesser extent the conflicts in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Afghanistan and the cartoons of Mohammad issue also increase the perception generally of the intention of Christian communities to oppress Muslim communities.

Election of Hamas

Although the election of Hamas to government in Palestine was more a protest vote against corruption and the lack of progress by the Fatah led government of Arafat and later Mahmoud Abas, the message that this has given to young acivists has been to support and consolidate some aspects of Islamic extremism.

It would be foolish, I feel, to ignore the incidents that do occur of prejudice and destabilization of the Christian community that do happen overtly sometimes and more subtly at other times. The work of fiction ‘The Bethlehem Murders’ by Matt Rees is a work of fiction but it does have more than an element of truth in it. The murder of the Baptist pastor in Gaza and the ransacking of YMCAs in Gaza and in the West Bank are indicators of religious and not just sectarian rivalries.

EMIGRATION AS A RESPONSE TO ALL OF THESE THREATS

The question I asked myself when living in Ramallah (2000- 2004)and responsible for the educational provision of over 1000 Palestinian pupils was ‘why would anyone stay here if they have the option to leave?’

The extent of the ‘exodus’ in Ramallah was described by Violet Zarou, an older Quaker Palestinian resident in Ramallah all her life until the end when she too reluctantly became part of the exodus community living in Amman, Jordan. In her childhood she remembered a time at the turn of the 20C when the only non Christian family in Ramallah was the baker. Today, the community of 20,000 people is probably less than 15% Christian and you hear from young and old alike regret at the loss of that identity.

The reasons for Christians leaving Israel/Palestine are complex but the primary reasons have been political instability and the experience of dispossession.

750,000 refugees from the British mandated territories on the declaration of the State of Israel were created in 1947. According to the sources quoted by Elaine Hagopian, a further 350,000 were forced out of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967 and in WBG approximately a further 200,000 left the UNRWA Refugee camps for Jordan faced with the increasing hardships imposed upon them by the political situation until the border of Jordan was closed to them. The proportion of Christians was greatest in the first el Nakba period.

Separately from the issue of refugees, the occupation of the West Bank by Israel post 1967 drove many Christians out of the West Bank. They were largely economic migrants some of whom returned to the West Bank with their children after the Oslo Accords were signed only to face further economic ruin in the period of the Second Intifada starting in 2000 causing some who could afford it to return to the country that had hosted them previously, usually the US. There has been and there is a policy in operation by the Government of Israel of transfer..encouraging by any means the local Palestinian population of East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank to leave. Dispossession by the discriminatory use of building legislation has been and is part of that policy and this adds yet another pressure on Palestinian families.

An analysis of the Sabeel Survey (Dr. Bernard Sabella) of the summer of 2006 gives some insight into the departure of Christians from the Holy Land.

Reasons for Emigration by residence

Reasons for Emigration by ResidenceWest BankIsrael

Political conditions

42%

30%

Employment

44%

22%

Joys of Life

12%

Education

13%

Religious Fanatacism

3% 14%

Joining Family Members Abroad

Challenges confronting Christians in the Holy Land by residence

Challenges West BankIsrael

Job Opportunities

39%

11%

Housing Projects

19%

22%

Emigration

23%

13%

Justice and Peace

27%

Religious Fanaticism

14%

Education

13%

CONCLUSION

The original exodus was of an oppressed people who took the initiative and left on mass their enslavers, wandered in the desert for many years and then made it eventually to the land of Canaan where they settled....the OT says that some of it at least was taken by force and some by local agreement.

Do we have a modern exodus? Most of the Palestinian refugees were forced out of their homes and left under duress. Over the years of oppression under Israeli Occupation, many more have left some as a consequence of dispossession and hardship. Many Christians have also left as they have had no other choice in bringing up their children safely. The rate of departure of Christians from the Holy Land is worrying and the Christian community in the Holy Land needs our understanding, our support and our encouragement.

REFERENCES

‘Journeys of the Muslim Nations and the Christian Church’ David W. Shenk, Herald Press

1937

‘Christianity in the Arab World’, El Hassan Bin Talal, SCM 1978

‘The Forgotten Faithful’ ed Ateek et alii, Sabeel, 2007: article ‘Arab Christianity in Byzantine

Palestine’ Irfan Shahid.

‘Christians in the Holy Land – across the Political and Economic Divide’ Romell Soudah

(Sabeel published paper)

‘The Forgotten Faithful’ ed Ateek et alii, Sabeel, 2007: article ‘The Future of Palestinian

Christianity’ by Niam Ateek.

‘Christianity in the Middle East’ ed. Anthony O’Mahoney, Melisende, 2008 ; article

‘Palestinian Christians: Theology and Politics in the Holy Land.’ Leonard Marsh.

‘How Long O Lord’, ed. Maurine and Robert Tobin, Cowley Publications 2002 article

‘Palestinian Refugees: Victims of Zionist Ideology’ , Elaine Hagopian p37

‘Palestinian Christians: Historical Demogrpahic Developments, Current Politics and Attitudes

towards Church, Society and Human Rights.’ Dr. Bernard Sabella

THE HOLY LAND – A MODERN EXODUS