ARAB CHRISTIANS SUFFER, AMERICAN CHRISTIANS
WATCH
By Harmony Grant
31 Oct 06
Representing the estimated one-third of American voters who support
Christian Zionism, Hal Lindsey blames the Palestinians for their
own suffering.
“Why doesn't anyone face the truth?” he asks, “The
main obstacle to improving conditions for the Palestinian people
is the Palestinian people. Specifically, their overwhelming decision
to elect Hamas to represent them as their government.” ("The
Czechoslovakia Solution," Oct. 25, worldnetdaily)
When Condoleezza Rice refers to Palestinians’ “daily
humiliations” under Israeli occupation, Lindsey sputters, “What
occupation? The only territory under Israeli 'occupation' is Israel.”
Apparently Lindsey doesn’t read any of the hundreds of testimonies
of Palestinian suffering. One is available, for instance, in the
BBC’s recent story about the struggle Palestinian farmers face
merely to harvest their olives.
“For years settlers have been attacking Palestinian farmers
and chopping down their trees,” the BBC reports. “Palestinian
farmers often require a permit from the army to visit their lands
which lie close to Jewish settlements.
The Israeli army is supposed to protect the farmers from the Jewish
settlers who routinely attack and harass them. A farmer named Jamal
says Israeli soldiers are just part of the gang of thugs. “…Israeli
soldiers riding in military jeeps often appear in the town's groves.
The soldiers fire tear gas and live bullets and bark at the villagers
through loudspeakers to leave the area, he says.” (BBC, “Olive
Harvest Sparks Tensions,” Oct. 24)
Harassment of farmers is just one lash in the whip of Israeli oppression.
The 1.4 million Palestinians currently living in the Gaza Strip
continue to suffer without electricity after Israel bombed their
power plant three months ago. They are still “forced to live
without electricity for long parts of the day and night…” (B’tselem
Sept. 06 Status Report).
The bombing that westerners have already forgotten as one blip
in the ongoing “tension” is a source of daily hardship
for Palestinian men, women, and children. The Gazan urban population
gets water only 2-3 hours per day, according to B’tselem. The
lack of electricity has affected business and caused medical care
to decline.
The bombing of the power plant was a collective punishment for
the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Apparently Gazans
weren’t suffering enough under their already crushing load
of economic isolation, military checkpoints, systematic abuses, and
intentionally disruptive road construction. Apparently it also wasn’t
enough that virtually every family in the Occupied Territories has
been broken by Israel’s refusal to process any of the 120,000
requests for family unification filed in the last 6 years (B’tselem,
Aug. 15, 2006, “Israel's freeze policy on family unification
in the Occupied Territories splits tens of thousands of Palestinian
families”). Israel prevents Palestinians from living with spouses
who are foreign residents and forbids family members who are foreign
residents from visiting their loved ones in the Occupied Territories.
Imagine being separated from your spouse, denied almost all freedom
of movement and much of your access to medical care as well as your
access to basic electricity and water except for a few hours a day,
and facing daily harassment from the civilian army that stole your
ancestral land. Then imagine being told your failure to participate
in the political process correctly makes your suffering your own
fault!
Evangelicals think they are doing God a favor by supporting Israel,
but many of the suffering Arabs and Palestinians pray tearfully to
the very same Jesus. Persecution suffered by Arab Christians increases
with every passing week that the US foreign policy privileges Israel
and turns a blind eye to her cruel aggressions.
When we invaded Iraq for Israel’s sake, Arab Christians (along
with all the dead American boys) paid a huge price. American
Conservative reports: “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
figured that roughly 36 percent of the 700,000 Iraqis who had fled
to Syria as of March 2005 were Christians.” (The
American Conservative,
Oct. 23, “Christians in the Crossfire,” Doug Bandow)
Iraqi Christians feel like “human targets;” their lives
have worsened since Saddam’s overthrow, and their religious
freedoms have been lessened or taken away. Arab Christians are associated
with the infidel West, says American Conservative, and suffer as
surrogate targets for an American enemy who can’t be reached.
For evidence, just check out the "Christians of Iraq" website
and its long list of atrocities suffered by Christian Iraqis since
spring 2003 (christiansofiraq.com).
Christians also made up almost 41 percent of the Lebanese population
that suffered Israel’s harsh military action a few months ago
(International Religious Freedom Report 2005, US State Department).
American evangelicals may someday say in horror to Christ, “Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill
or in prison, and not minister to your needs?” (Matt. 25:44).
But with every passing day, Christians refuse to minister to suffering
Arab Christians.
Evangelicals have uniformly accepted the Zionist media’s
image of the demonized Arab. We watch Palestinian suffering without
compassion, and actually hold the coat for our brother’s oppressor.
We have funded the Zionist military machine responsible for history’s
oldest refugee camp, for dispossession and continued oppression of
the Palestinians, and for constant violations of human rights and
international law. Now this international bully seems geared up for
war on the whole Arab world.
When will the church stop assisting our brother’s oppressor?
What will it take for us to recognize the eyes of Christ in the face
of a terrorized Arab child?
