Sir, – Anglican Friends of Israel were astonished to read the article “Palestinian Christians dwindling in number due to political situation” (World News, April 16th).
It is utterly wrong to suggest Israel is at fault for the decline in Christian communities in the Palestinian territories. This is because of the systematic persecution of Christians by their Muslim neighbours since 1994 including murder, theft of their property under tribal law and assaults on Christian girls for refusing to wear Islamic dress. Anglican Friends of Israel work with grass-roots Palestinian Christians who have left because they are, simply, not safe under any form of Islamic rule. Fatah only pays lip service to secularism while indoctrinating school children to hate and kill Christians and Jews.
On the other hand, Christians in Israel are probably the best educated and most affluent segment of society. They have thriving churches, and they are increasingly thoroughly integrated into the reality of Israeli society, with many living in the supposedly “Jewish” settlements in the West Bank and their children speaking Hebrew, serving in the Army and supporting Israeli football teams.
Was it Israelis who took over the Church of the Nativity and desecrated it? No! It was terrorists using it as a sanctuary from the Israeli security forces trying to catch suicide terrorists.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East whose Christian population is growing. It is the only country with genuine religious freedom.
If Christians in the Palestinian Authority have nothing to fear from their Muslim neighbours, what then is the magic ingredient that makes Palestinian Muslims immune to the depressing drive to torment Christians which so characterises the rest of the Muslim world today, especially in the Arab world? – Yours, etc,
SIMON McILWAINE,
Anglican Friends of Israel,
Autumn Drive,
Sutton, Surrey, England.