Modern Day Exodus: Palestinian Christians Leaving In Droves

Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

By Eugenia Ugrinovich, Israel Today Magazine – “Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, the city of Beit Jala — located on a hill adjacent to Bethlehem — still boasts a large number of worshippers. This fact makes the town unique among Palestinian towns, which have generally seen their Christian populations decline.

‘People are leaving Palestine [sic] in droves. Jenin, Aboud, Nablus — these cities have lost much of their Christian population, some villages and towns have no more than two to three families,’ said Peter, a 25-year-old resident of Bethlehem who agreed to be interviewed for this article on condition that his real name not be used.

Statistics show that more than 60 percent of the Arab Christians born in Palestinian areas over the past several generations now live abroad. Totaling some half a million people worldwide, 360,000 of them currently reside in dispersed communities in Canada, Chile, the United States, Germany, Australia and other countries. 154,000 remain in Israel and the Palestinian-controlled territories, with about 35,000 living in the West Bank and less than 3,000 in the Gaza Strip.

The flight of Christian is a growing trend across the Middle East. In Iraq, for example, the ancient Assyrian Christian community dropped from 1.5 million people to just 250,000 since the Second Gulf War broke out in 2003. Christians are leaving Lebanon en mass, with 60 percent of their beleaguered community now living in foreign lands. The Coptic Church in Egypt has lost tens of thousands of parishioners following the dramatic events of the ‘Arab Spring.'” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Mass Exodus’: Christians in Iran, Syria Face Rising Persecution from Islamic Fundamentalism – “In an e-mail to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and author of the book A New Shoah, wrote ‘After the ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1948 from the Arab countries, Islamic fundamentalism is now trying to push away the Christians from the region. They want to establish a pure Islamic environment and the mass exodus already began under our noses.’ Meanwhile, the Pakistan Christian Post wrote last week on its website, ‘The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders’ …” Read more.

Flashback: ‘The Most Important International Story Not Being Told by the Mainstream Media’: Christian Persecution in the Middle East – “U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman Leonard Leo declared that Arab Christians face increasing persecution. ‘Christianity in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the U.S. troop withdrawal,’ Leo wrote. After Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed, 100,000 Christians fled Egypt in what the Egyptian Union of Human Rights called a ‘mass exodus.’ In the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the radical Islamic terror group Hamas, 3,000 Christians face persecution… Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace.” Read more.