Israeli Christians: A Minority in a Minority?

When one thinks of Israel in a religious sense, the image of the three great monotheistic religions come to mind. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all in one spot, and not always agreeing. (Rosenthal, 305) Worldwide, Christianity is the largest religion, followed by Islam, and with Judaism being the smallest. It is the complete opposite in Israel, the situation completely reversed. The Christian community in Israel is largely Arab, and by Israeli standards successful. They are by far much closer and much more Westernized than their Muslim brethren. (Rosenthal, 309) Yet it is not without its problems, whether it Jews thinking them as the same as the Muslim Arabs, or the Muslims targeting the "other" Arabs in their midst.

So who are these Arab Christians? Citizens of Israel (we're not talking about the Palestinian Christians), they live in villages and mixed cities through the country. They live in an awkward position. Being Arab means distrust on the Israeli side. To get on the Jews' good side, some wear crucifixes to show that they are the "good" Arabs. (Rosenthal, 309) Yet as Arabs, they face to some extent even more distrust from the Arab Muslims, who continuously target and harass them.

A piece of graffiti on a wall illustrates what many Arab Muslims want: "After Saturday comes Sunday". This means after they deal with the Jews the Christians are next. (Rosenthal, 308)

Another problem Sunday brings to Christians in Israel is that it is the first day of the week their; its when work and school begins. This of course conflicts with the Christian Sabbath. But when work begins or ends is trivial compared to the frustration Christians have with the Jews. Many do not know about the Christian holidays, and many must explain to their bosses why they want the day off if a holiday comes up. (Rosenthal, 310) In contrast with the United States, even secularists and/or atheists know what Easter and Christmas is or when it is celebrated.

Yet they experience a uninque version of  the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Inter-Arab conlfict plays out along many lines, tribal and ideological amoung them. But it also can be religious. Many times this would lead to violent confrontation. Using extorition, threats, and violence, many Arab Christians are under seige by their own people, fleeing the violence and chaos.

When excavations uncovered what were the remains of Saladin's nephew in Nazareth, Muslims wanted to build a mosque on that site immediately. (Rosenthal, 312) It would have been one of the largest mosques in the world. The only problem was that it was right next to the Church of Annunciation, which would have been eclipsed by the proposed mosque's minarets. Aside from the actual church being in its way, the religious implications were strong: Islam is superior, and that it must conqueror the other holy sites. This offended many people, including the Pope himself, who was already worried about the deteriorating situation in the Middle East for Christians. It took the Israelis to stop the mosque's construction and to diffuse this situation. (Rosenthal, 314) Most confrontations between the Christians and Muslims are not of this size, but largely proportional to its own unique situation. The idea of evicting the Christians in the municipality achieves the same goals, even a more humble version of it.



Even so, not all Christians are Arab. Many in fact represent their church's country of origin ethnically (i.e. Ethiopian, Armenian). This can lead to tensions between churches thats origins are non-Arab when their flock is. The Greek Orthodox Church in Israel for instanse has an all Greek hierarchy. This exculsionist additude towards the Arabs leads to some refereing themselves as "Arab" Orthodox. (Rosenthal, 310)

In the Holy Land, almost every version of Christianity has some sort of physical presence. Some versions of Christianity have their own individual church, and are located in areas where the issue of significance to Christianity is not an issue (a church in Haifa as opposed to Nazareth). Yet certain churches are too important to let one sect have full control of. One such church is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.Here awkward arrangements sometimes lead to fights. (Rosenthal, 307)

I feel that the news article gives a good impression of what Israeli Christians face and deal with. Much of it parallels the Rosenthal book, which is also a very useful source of information. It is very neutral and does not easily sway to some political agenda or ideology. It is an honest look at who they are and what they feel must be done.