BEIRUT - Due to the continuous Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and in the middle of the Israeli restrictions the symptoms of Christian events on the celebration of Christmas in Palestine have disappeared.Meanwhile, the patriarchs and heads of churches in occupied Jerusalem have actually chosen to restrict the festivities and revival of rituals out of regard for the blood of the martyrs who are victims of the continuous Israeli genocidal wars.Besides, the Israeli occupation forces have turned the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and its environments into a closed military zone.Atallah Hanna, the Archbishop of Sebastia for the Greek Orthodox, gotten in touch with Christian churches worldwide to raise their voices to demand justice and peace in Palestine, stressing that his message will constantly be a message of love and peace, far from wars, violence and the infraction of human dignity.He included that the message of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem on Christmas is for God to secure Palestine and Syria, which are going through difficult conditions.Archbishop Atallah Hanna mentioned, We love Syria, we love Lebanon, we enjoy the Arab country and we want them well.
We hope that God will secure the Arab nations since when they are well, Palestine is well.
When those nations are weak and in turmoil, Palestine is weak and in turmoil.
We hope that the compass of the nation will always be towards Palestine and Jerusalem ...
I stand with the Palestinian people in their ordeal.
Every Palestinian should be a fighter in his own method and from his own position.The Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Ramallah, Haifa, Jaffa, Birzeit, several villages in the Upper Galilee, Beit Sahour, Ramallah and other Palestinian locations are come down from the Aramaeans, Canaanites, Syriacs, Armenians and Byzantines.It is estimated they have to do with 2.3 million people, the absolute bulk of whom reside outdoors Palestine, where the portion of Christians residing in the Palestinian territories does not go beyond 1%, after they constituted about 11.2% before the Nakba in 1948.
The main factor for this decline is the occupation regimes colonial policies, most of whom are Roman Catholics or Catholics.Their most well-known churches are: the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; and the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
Due to the profession regimes oppressive policies, the Palestinian Christians are exposed to a real ordeal like the rest of Palestinian society.There are lots of holy Christian places, churches and monasteries in historic Palestine, consisting of 95 churches and abbeys in Jerusalem coming from all Christian sects.In 1948, 50% of Jerusalem Christians lost their homes in West Jerusalem.
Israel likewise confiscated 30% of the lands owned by Christians after its profession in 1967.
Besides, Israel seized 11,000 acres of olive-grove lands in Beit Jala, to construct the Gilo settlement, and taken thousands of dunams of land coming from Christians to construct a highway linking the settlements located south of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.To fragment the Palestinians, the Zionist regime enforced required military service on Christians inside the occupied areas given that 1948 in line with the policy of divide and rule and unlocked to internal strife amongst all Palestinians inside.However, the basic reaction amongst Christians inside is to decline the occupation, as Palestinian Christians consider themselves an important part of the Palestinian society, and consider service in the Israeli army to be forbidden and a supreme disgrace.