http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-sad-exodus-of-christians-from-the-birthplace-of-jesus-1210079.html

Impoverished by Israel's economic squeeze and persecuted by the Muslim majority, Christians are deserting Bethlehem

By Kim Sengupta and Donald Macintyre
Wednesday, 24 December 2008

Quique Kierszenbaum

A Palestinian Christian woman lights candles in the Latin Patriarchal Seminar "Bishara" church in the West Bank town of Bethlehem*

The morning service at the Latin church in Beit Jala was packed, the enthusiastic congregation spanning generations filling the aisles and spilling out of the door, a powerful testimony of belief and faith. But, for many of the worshippers in the suburb of Bethlehem the driving wish was to secure their futures abroad, joining a Christian exodus from the land of the Bible.

According to Victor Batarseh, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem, the proportion of Christians here has slumped from 92 per cent in 1948 to 40 per cent. "It is a sad fact, but it remains a fact, that a lot of Christians are leaving," he says. One charge is that Muslims have been taking over Christian lands with the Palestinian authorities turning a blind eye.

Bethlehem has also been badly affected by Israel's separation barrier causing widespread economic hardship among both Muslims and Christians. Yusuf Nassir 57, is looking for a way to emigrate. "The problem is that we are a minority and minorities always suffer in times like these. My house was attacked [by Muslims] over nothing. There was a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian boy, this turned into a communal fight and then around 70 men turned on us. My sister got injured. She said to me 'you must leave for the safety of your family', but finding the money is not easy," he says. "I have also had Israeli soldiers fire at me, once when I was driving a car. The bullet missed me by about 25 centimeters.

"But it is the wall which has destroyed my business. I now owe $120,000 in back rent. I have had to sack staff, and other businesses around here have had to do the same. This just adds to the unemployment and social problems here."

Nicola Lolas, a 38-year-old hairdresser, has left for the US with his wife, Marian, 30. He says: "What we are seeing now is organised extortion from some Muslims. Maybe these people are small in numbers but the effect is very bad. I know of two cases, one involving a doctor and another a hairdresser, where women from Muslim families have gone along as a patient and then accused them of improper behaviour because the men have touched them.

"In each case they have been forced to pay compensation even though they have done nothing wrong. I am a hairdresser and it is only a matter of time before they try something like that with me. I would rather use my life savings to try a new life in America than give it to these people."

The family travelled to California on tourist visas, but Mr Lolas hopes to get a "green card", which would allow him to take up a job. Mrs Lolas says: "The local economy is in bad trouble because of the wall and it also affects other things in our lives. For instance I can't even take my children to the seaside because of the checkpoints, and we have the same problems going even to Jerusalem. I have also noticed that as an uncovered Christian woman I get insulted a lot more by Muslim men than I used to."

At the Latin Church, Father Ibrahim stresses that they are wrong to blame the entire Muslim community for the actions of a few. Some of the Muslim families taking Christian lands, he points out, have lost their own homes in Hebron, a stronghold of hardline Jewish settlers. "These divisions are really damaging for our society," he says. "But there are problems which need to be resolved. More and more people are leaving. It will be a tragedy if the Christian community disappeared from the Holy Land."

But there is a ray of hope that the exodus can be stemmed. According to the Mayor, Mr Batarseh, the one factor that could arrest it is a pick-up in tourism; he says that 1.5 million pilgrims have already visited the city in 2008 – easily the best year since the beginning of the intifada in 2000. It has helped to bring unemployment down from 50 to 20 per cent, and filled hotels to, or near, their capacity of 5,000 rooms for this Christmas.

Mr Batarseh said yesterday that fewer Christians are thinking of leaving the city "due to the new situation in Bethlehem with the improvement in tourism and the slight improvement in the economy". The Mayor even says that some families are trying to return, but he fears that the Israeli bureaucracy will make it difficult for them to re-enter the Holy Land.

Fr Ibrahim, who insists the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is the main factor driving Christians away, is less optimistic about the reasons, arguing that it is because those Christians with enough money to leave have done so, leaving the poorest to stay behind. Nor is Mr Batarseh saying that he is remotely happy with the city's wider economy, reeling off a list of negative factors: the occupation; the loss of agricultural land swallowed by neighbouring Jewish settlements; and the barrier encircling much of the city – "If it was there for security it wouldn't have been built inside Palestinian areas"; and Israel's denial of permits to most of Bethlehem's citizens who want to work in Jerusalem.

Nevertheless the mood of –admittedly guarded – encouragement among Christian hoteliers and shopkeepers was as unmistakable as the chill winter breeze cutting through the city's Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity yesterday. At the rebuilt Paradise Hotel, which was occupied by Israeli troops for 22 days and was closed from 2002 to 2006, the Christian owner, Basil Abu Aita, 70, says that he has managed to fill his 177 completed rooms over the holiday, most with Israeli-Arab Christians; he added that reservations for next year are good. But the hotelier echoes nearly every Bethlehem businessman when he says: "If the occupation of what the Israelis took in 1967 ended most of our problems would be solved."

Indeed Mr Bartaseh argues that up to six times as many visitors might stay in Bethlehem if the city had the capacity and the long delays for visitors leaving through the Gilo checkpoint did not deter some from staying overnight. Many visitors are day trippers staying in the warmer climes of the Egyptian Sinai, such as the Theunissen family from Belgium. They might come back for longer in future, says Susan Theunissen, an architect. After all, she says: "This is where our culture started."

Number of terrorists spotted approaching security fence separating Israel from Gaza; exchange of fire ensues, terror cell hit. No injuries reported among IDF troops

Paratroopers engage terrorists (Archive)  Photo: Tsafrir Abayov  Close window

Hanan Greenberg

Khaled Asmar | MediArabe.info

lundi 22 décembre 2008

A deux jours de la reprise du dialogue national libanais, dans l’objectif de trouver une solution à l’armement du Hezbollah conformément aux résolutions de l’ONU, le parti chiite libanais cherche à imposer une « stratégie de défense », synonyme de maintien de son armement. C’est dans le cadre de ce bras de fer que le parti a organisé sa manifestation de soutien à Gaza.

Naïm Qassem y a réitéré les positions du Hezbollah, insistant sur la nécessité de la résistance et de ses armements. Qassem a affirmé que « l’objectif du Hezbollah était de libérer la Palestine », renvoyant aux calendres grecques la possibilité de remettre ses armes et d’intégrer l’Etat. De son côté, le général Michel Aoun, l’allié du Hezbollah, a autorisé ses partisans à « rejoindre la résistance et à s’enrôler dans ses unités combattantes ». De retour de son « pèlerinage » en Syrie, Aoun a apporté son soutien à la résistance irakienne et affirmé « faire confiance à la direction syrienne » : « nous sommes sur la même longueur d’onde avec Damas », a-t-il affirmé dans une interview citée ce matin par « Radio-Orient ».

Le député proche de Michel Aoun, le franco-libanais Nabil Nicolas, avait critiqué, dimanche, ceux qui dénoncent la visite du général en Syrie. Pour Nicolas, « Aoun n’a pas besoin d’autorisation pour se rendre en pèlerinage à Damas ».

Ce soutien à la résistance ne se limite pas au Liban.

En effet, l’axe syro-iranien et son prolongement libanais représenté par l’alliance Aoun-Hezbollah vise au-delà des frontières libanaises. Naïm Qassem a appelé « les peuples arabes à se mobiliser pour briser le blocus imposé sur les palestiniens à Gaza », qualifié de « crime contre l’humanité ». Non seulement le Hezbollah ambitionne de libérer la Palestine historique, mais aussi il vise à renverser les régimes arabes dits « modérés ».

Qassem a ainsi accusé l’Egypte de « comploter avec l’ennemi sioniste contre les palestiniens », et invité le peuple égyptien à se soulever pour obtenir l’ouverture des frontières avec Gaza. Cet appel rappelle les manifestations qui avaient été orchestrées en janvier 2008 des deux côtés de la frontière à Rafah entre le Hamas et les Frères musulmans, à la demande de Khaled Mechaal, chef du bureau politique du mouvement islamiste palestinien, réfugié à Damas.

Ces manifestations avaient permis aux Palestiniens et aux islamistes égyptiens de déborder le pouvoir du Caire et d’ouvrir une brèche dans la clôture, laissant des milliers de Palestiniens déferler dans le Sinaï.

Aujourd’hui, le Hezbollah, représentant légal de la République islamique d’Iran et son bras armé extérieur, vise le même objectif, prenant la Bande de Gaza en otage pour l’exploiter dans plusieurs domaines :

Sur la scène libanaise, cette situation permet au Hezbollah d’empêcher son désarmement et de maintenir un Etat dans l’Etat. Grâce à une telle tension, le Hezbollah pourra provoquer une nouvelle escalade avec Israël, pour soulager l’Iran et la Syrie des pressions internationales dans leur dossier nucléaire. De plus, en maintenant sa résistance armée, le parti de Hassan Nasrallah espère influencer les électeurs et remporter les législatives du printemps 2009.

Sur la scène régionale, le Hezbollah utilise la carte palestinienne pour déstabiliser les pays modérés, en mobilisant les peuples contre les régimes. Sont concernés en premier lieu l’Egypte et l’Arabie saoudite, ainsi que la Jordanie.

L’appel à la mobilisation lancé par le Hezbollah a eu des échos en Arabie, notamment dans la province Est et dans le Qatif. Vendredi, des centaines de chiites saoudiens ont manifesté leur soutien à Gaza et leur colère contre les régimes arabes. Ils ont brandi les drapeaux du Hezbollah et les portraits de son secrétaire général Hassan Nasrallah. Un accrochage a eu lieu entre une patrouille de la police saoudienne et un groupe de jeunes, dans cette province à forte densité chiite. Les autorités affirment – mais sans convaincre – que des jeunes recherchés pour des affaires criminelles ont tiré sur la police, et qu’il ne s’agit pas d’une affaire de terrorisme ou de déstabilisation.

Aujourd’hui, les Saoudiens redoutent un plan de déstabilisation décidé par l’Iran, qui cherche à étendre son influence sur toute la région. Ils en veulent pour preuve le déploiement de plusieurs bâtiments de la marine iranienne dans la Mer Rouge et le Golfe d’Aden, officiellement pour lutter contre les actes de piraterie. Mais pour de nombreux Saoudiens, il s’agit d’un encerclement iranien de l’Arabie saoudite et du Golfe en général.

Ainsi, il apparait que l’Iran est sur le point de réaliser un important retour sur investissement, depuis que Téhéran ait littéralement « acheté » le Hamas. Celui-ci profite du blocus israélien pour sensibiliser et mobiliser les peuples, dans l’objectif de déstabiliser les régimes arabes. Ce qui semble également justifier le soutien arabe apporté à Israël dans sa confrontation avec le Hamas.

Security establishment says Palestinian groups in Gaza have left Israel no choice but to launch broad military operation in Strip to quell incessant rocket fire. 'We will definitely pay a price, but we cannot allow the current situation to continue,' one of them says

Ron Ben-Yishai

The security establishment estimates that Israel will soon have to launch an extensive military operation in Gaza in an effort to quell the incessant rocket and mortar fire on the country's southern region, Ynet has learned. IDF tank near Gaza (Archives) Photo: AFP  Close window  Negev Residents   MK from Kfar Aza: We're being held hostage for Shalit / Ilana Curiel   (Video) Kadima MK residing in Kfar Aza blames defense minister for constant fire on southern towns, claiming government abandoning Negev residents for 'ballot box votes' Full Story     Senior defense officials said that the time for hesitation has passed, as the armed terror groups have left Israel no other choice but to act inside the Hamas-controlled enclave. However, it is estimated that the results from such an operation will not be evident immediately and the rocket fire will continue and even increase during the first days of the operation – before it begins to subside. Therefore, the defense officials said, the Israeli public, particularly the residents of the Negev, must be prepared both mentally and physically for the continuation of the attacks emanating from the Strip. "We will definitely pay a price, but we cannot allow the current situation to continue," one official said Saturday night. "We would like to see the ceasefire resume, but Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees are leaving us no other choice because they are carrying on with the rocket fire. This is why we are on a collision course with them, even if we have to act in the midst of the election campaign here in Israel and before US President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration." Similar situation during Ariel Sharon's term The security establishment is well-aware that the Israeli public is in favor of a harsh Israeli response and that, for the most part, the rocket attacks are condemned by the international community. In addition, the security establishment fears that a lengthy operation with heavy casualties for both sides may sway public opinion in Israel and within the international community. International and domestic pressure may cause the government to cut the military operation short before Hamas and its affiliated groups stop the attacks on Israel's south. "Hamas understands that it would be able to claim victory in such a case," an Israeli official said, "they can read us like an open book, and this is why they keep taunting us – even though they do not want us to launch an operation in Gaza." The security establishment is therefore trying to create a situation in which it is clear to Israeli public and the international community that the government has acted with the maximum restraint to prevent a further escalation of violence.   If and when the confrontation does erupt, Israel will make an effort to prevent any escalation on its other fronts. The government will also look to shorten the fighting in Gaza and perhaps call for the renewal of the ceasefire if Hamas accepts its terms. Israel faced a similar situation under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who ordered the launching of operation Defensive Shield in the West after Israel had suffered hundreds of fatalities from terror attacks carried out during the first year-and-a-half of the second intifada in 2000.