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Holy Land: The slow exodus of Palestinian Christians


Jonathan Cook writes: Israel has exploited the steady decline in the numbers of Palestinian Christians to advance its claim that they are being hounded from the region by Muslim extremists. But the real blame lies with Israel and the foreign Churches

It was inevitable that when the coronavirus pandemic reached the occupied Palestinian territories, as it did in early March, it would find its first purchase in Bethlehem, a few miles south-east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

It was inevitable that when the coronavirus pandemic reached the occupied Palestinian territories, as it did in early March, it would find its first purchase in Bethlehem, a few miles south-east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

Staff at the Angel Hotel in Beit Jala, one of Bethlehem's satellite towns, tested positive after they were exposed to a group of infected Greek tourists. Israel worked hurriedly with the Palestinian Authority - the Palestinians' permanent government-in-waiting in the occupied territories - to lock down Bethlehem. Israel was fearful that the virus, unlike the city's Palestinian inhabitants, would be difficult to contain. Contagion might spread quickly to nearby Palestinian communities in the West Bank, then to Jewish settlements built illegally by Israel on Bethlehem's lands, and finally on into Israel itself.

To read on see: www.jonathan-cook.net/2020-06-07/exodus-palestinian-christians/

To read this essay on the Americans for Middle East Understanding website, click HERE


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