Palestinian Christians in Israel by Botrus Mansour botrus@zahav.net.il

1. Palestinian Christians in Israelby Botrus Mansour botrus@zahav.net.il

2. Content • Israel – Basic information • Features of Arab Palestinians in Israel • Features of Palestinian Christians in Israel • Features of the Protestant community in Israel: • The Anglican Episcopalian Church in Israel • The Evangelical community in Israel • Challenges and trends of the Palestinian Christian community in Israel

3. Israel: Basic information • Area: 21,000 square Kilometers • Population: 7.5 million • . . . Jews: 5.6 million • . . . Arabs: 1.5 million • (~ 20% of the population) • . . . Others: 0.4 million

4. Features of Arab Palestinians in Israel

5. Identity clashes Sub-identities Arab/ Palestinian /Israeli / religion: Muslim Christian (certain denomination) Druze

6. Origin • Native residents of the land • Lived in Palestine for centuries • Were not driven out in the war of 1948

7. Affiliations • Became Israeli citizens just after the establishment of Israel. • Were under military control until 1966. • Regained credibility among Arab nations gradually (especially after 1967).

8. Geographical location Palestinian population in Israel scattered in 4 areas: • Galilee (Northern part) • The triangle • Mixed towns (Jaffa, Ramle, Haifa, Lod) • The Negev (South)

9. Main causes of Arabs in Israel • Just Peace: Identification with the Palestinian cause of establishing an independent state for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem ,the west bank and Gaza. • Equality: Fight for equal rights as Israeli citizens

10. Political power • ~80% of them vote for Arab parties: • 3 main political powers: • Arab nationalistic (Balad-Dr. Azmi Bishara) • Communist/Left (DFPE Arab-Jewish) • Islamic-conservative • ~20% vote for Zionist parties: • (Labour, Kadima, Meretz, etc…)

11. Arab Palestinian Christians in Israel • ~ 10% of the total Arab population • ~2% of the Total Population in Israel. • The percentage of Palestinian Christians has witnessed a 40% decrease since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

12. Geography 85 % of the Arab Christians in Israel live in the North of Israel. The biggest concentrations are in: Nazareth: ~ 21,500 Haifa: ~ 14,500 Shef-Amr ~ 9,500 In Jerusalem: ~ 13,000

13. Denominational distribution (estimates) • Catholics (Greek &Roman Catholic and Maronite): 61% • Coptic, Syrians: ~2% • Greek Orthodox: 30% • Anglican and Evangelical: 7%.

14. Characteristics of Palestinian Christians as a whole • Characteristic of Arab Christians as a whole: • Very educated • Low birth rate • Immigration • Peaceful • Secular

15. Leading figures • Bishop Elias Shackour - author of “Blood brothers” • Engineer Ramez Jaraisi – Mayor of Nazareth. • Bishop Atallah Hanna • Saleem Jubran – High court judge • Dr. Azmi Bishara

16. Protestant Church Anglican/Episcopalian  ~4000 people Part of the larger Diocese of Jerusalem (West Bank and Jordan) Wealthy Diocese: hospitals, hostels and schools Lead today by Bishop SuheilDiwany

17. Features  Inner struggles /politics My opinion-less on the spiritual/ pastoral side Conservative on family issues but Allegiance with the more liberal mainstream. High church Respected and accepted among the other Christian denominations

18. Arab Evangelicals  Arab Evangelicals equal ~ 5,000. Emerging Church Established by American / British missionaries few decades ago

19. Arab Evangelicals • Composed of: • Baptist (originally southern Baptist but affiliated with Baptist world Alliance today) • Assemblies of God • Church of the Nazarene • Brethren: Christian brethren and Plymouth Brethren • Free

20. Arab Evangelicals • Para church organizations: • Life agape (Campus Crusade for Christ) • CEF (Child Evangelism fellowship) • 2 Seminaries: NETS (Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary) and Galilee Bible college (sister college to Bethlehem Bible College). • Nazareth Baptist School: 1000 students, top school, more than 3000 graduates.

21. Arab Evangelicals • Ministries that operate among both Christian Arabs and Evangelical Jews: • FCSI (The fellowship for Christian students in Israel)-Inter Varsity • Musalaha- Reconciliation • Israel Educational forum

22. Arab Evangelicals  Features: Non political Much emphasis on evangelism and youth Poor in property Flexible in ministry Growing church Marginalized/rejected from other churches

23. Arab Evangelicals • Challenges • Development of leadership skills. • Raising awareness for a more active role in Society. • Evangelical churches in the west that support the state of Israel, thus ignore the Arab Christians.

24. Palestinian Christians Challenges that make it more difficult to be a living stone and hold to the land of our savior .

25. Palestinian Christians - Challenges • In Israeli society: Inequality and marginalization: • Reasons: • Israeli conflict with Arabs, especially Palestinians. • Definition of the state as Jewish and Democratic (Contradiction?)

26. Palestinian Christians - Challenges • Result: • Treated as second class citizens, as Arabs. • Economically: budgets, job opportunities, exclusion from decision making

27. Palestinian Christians - Challenges 2) In the Arab society: • Treated as Christians a) Muslim fundamentalism-not direct persecution, but the common glue is weakened

28. Palestinian Christians - Challenges b) Failure in police enforcement: Muslim and Druze mob attacks on the peaceful Christians: Rama, Kuffur Yassif, Nazareth, Shefa-Amr, Mughar…

29. Palestinian Christians - Challenges 3) Division and inner politics In recent years especially among Greek Catholics, Anglicans Greek Orthodox

30. Palestinian Christians Despite the challenges, God has kept a remnant of faithful Christian believers from all denominations who serve the king as salt and light in His own land.