INTENSE PERSECUTION IS DRIVING ENDANGERED CHRISTIANS OUT OF GAZA
Terrorists in Gaza have rained down hundreds of rockets on Israeli civilians over the last several months. In response, Israel has pounded terror targets in the Gaza Strip with deadly airstrikes. Such bouts of violence are all too familiar realities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Caught in the middle is a little known group that is quickly disappearing from Gaza, Christians. Christians have lived in the Holy Land since the time of Jesus, but Gazan Christians are a tiny minority in a big conflict. With less than 1,000 Christians left in Gaza, a humanitarian disaster and intense persecution from the Hamas regime makes them one of the most vulnerable groups of Christians in the Middle East.
“Palestinian Christians, in general, have been around for a very long time and they are a very small part of the population, only about 1% of the Palestinian people. But their roots go all the way back. Before Islam, before the Arabs even. They were there since the beginning, they are the descendants of the original church for all intents and purposes,” Robert Nicholson, president of a Christian organization called the Philos Project, said. Gazan Christians face many forms of persecution simply for being followers of Christ. Their lives are endangered every time Israel is forced to defend itself against terrorists in the Gaza Strip through airstrikes.
“One Gazan Christian explained they face Hamas at ground level and the Israeli airforce in the skies above, as the two sides frequently go to war. They feel caught in the middle and they want to leave,” said Nicholson. The Philos Project is helping Christians escape persecution and relocate to the West Bank. Many of them already have family members there but due to geopolitical restraints, they are unable to see them. Philos is currently sponsoring 4 Gazan Christian families to legally relocate to the West Bank. Due to safety concerns, the identities of these families remain undisclosed.
Gazan Christians feel abandoned but the Philos Project believes their greatest ally could be their fellow believers in the West. “One Palestinian Christian said, ‘To the Jews, I’m an Arab and to the Arabs, I’m a Christian.’ So regardless we have no friends which is why many of them have left altogether,” said Nicholson. Christians are often mistaken to be no different than the Palestinian terrorists who actively seek a genocidal end to the Jewish State, but Nicholson says that is simply not true.” As a minority, they are caught between two sides.
They are not, by in large, the people who are engaging in the conflict. They are not terrorists. They are not the people who are out rioting against the Israeli police. You find exceptions here and there but by in large the Palestinian Christians are peaceful.” The Philos Project is calling on believers everywhere to help followers of Christ exit Gaza and preserve their presence and history in the Middle East. “We want Palestinian Christians to be able to stay in the land but they need to do so in a situation of safety,” Nicholson explained. “Right now the Christians in Gaza are absolutely the most endangered Christians living in the Holy land.”
Source: CBN News
US RECOGNITION OF ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS CREATES A REVOLUTION
The US decision to recognize Israeli settlements in the West Bank as legal continues to reverberate in the region. Israelis are rejoicing as they see this land as part of their biblical inheritance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the US move by visiting a settlement about 15 miles from Jerusalem in the heart of Gush Etzion, one of Israel’s largest settlement blocks. “America has fixed a historic wrong, stood by truth and justice,” Netanyahu said. “It is a great day for Israel and an achievement that will remain for decades.” Gush Etzion is known in much of the world as the West Bank, but in the Bible its known as Judea, part of Israel’s biblical heartland.
“Judea and Samaria are terms that were used in the Bible,” said Shalev Cayam, of the Gush Etzion Regional Council. “We’re talking about actual lands that the Jewish people lived in, the stories of Isaiah and the stories of Jeremiah. These stories happened in these lands. These are places where Elijah walked and lived. All these things that we read both in the Bible and that we live in our lifestyle. These are all things that happened here and are now being revived,” Cayman said. Shlomo Ne’eman, Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, says while Israelis don’t need the world to agree on their biblical right to be here, he’s happy with the historic decision.
“For the number one player in the international arena to add this opinion, that from our standpoint is the right opinion that Jewish settlement in the State of Israel, the Land of Israel, in Judea and Samaria is not against international law, this thing is a revolution,” Ne’eman said. Jews established farming communities here before Israel became a state in 1948 but were driven out during the war of independence. After the victorious ‘67 Six-Day War, they returned to rebuild. Today some 750,000 Israelis live in the region where Palestinians want to establish their own state.
Not everyone agrees with the new US position. Resolution 2334 “states that Israeli settlement activities are a flagrant violation under international law, a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just and lasting comprehensive peace,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General. “The land of Palestine and especially the lands within the 1967 border is a pure Palestinian land, the occupation of this land is illegal and the settlements on this land are also illegal,” said Mofed Nazzal, a resident of the Palestinian city of Jenin. But Oded Revivi, Mayor of one of the largest settlements, Efrat, believes settlements actually foster peace.
“President Trump is trying to bring us back to the time of the leaders who understood that the settlements, the Jewish towns and cities in Judea and Samaria are not the obstacle for peace. They’re rather the anchors which create an example of how Jews and Arabs can live one alongside the other,” said Revivi. Cayam says it goes even further. “The words of Isaiah, coming back in the vineyards and coming back and the land actually being uplifted is something that we have been waiting for thousands of years and that’s happening in our eyes,” Cayam said. It’s part of the redemption of the world and not just the redemption of Israel.”
Source: CBN News