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Christians from Arabia also joined their brethren in the Holy Land, and the "Palestinian" Arab Christian population began to assume a distinct identity. The Crusader kingdom of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries rose and fell, but Eastern Christians continued to call the Holy Land home in spite of the return of Muslim power.

Over the next 600 years, the heavy taxes exacted by Muslim sultans impoverished Christian communities, and the sultans allowed bloody outbreaks of persecution. Christians appealed to their old master, the Byzantine emperor, who graciously intervened for them with ransoms and bribes. But Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, and for protection, Christians turned to France, which supported Franciscan holdings in the Holy Land acquired after the Crusades. Yet the Franciscans may have done more harm than good—Greek Orthodox priests particularly resented Latin claims to part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

By the nineteenth century, the Christian population in the Holy Land numbered only 15,000, over 80 percent of these being Greek Orthodox. These numbers actually rose over the course of the century, as Ottoman military power declined and European nations like Russia, France, and Britain exerted pressure on the Turks to "liberalize" their rule. At the same time, Western Protestants began sending missionaries to the Holy Land; Anglicans, for example, first visited Jerusalem in 1820 where they built new churches and set up schools and clinics. Soon a host of other Protestant denominations joined them, including Lutherans, the Church of Scotland, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Catholics too sent missionaries to the Holy Land.

Palestinian Christians Today
Muslim rule came to an end with the British occupation of the Holy Land in 1917. The British Mandate provided Christians with a welcome respite from Turkish control; high birth rates contributed to an increase in the population. When the state of Israel declared itself in 1948 and an estimated 750,000 "Palestinian" Arabs fled the country (never to be allowed back in), many Christians stayed, doubling the ratio of Arab Christians to Muslims, especially in towns like Nazareth and Bethlehem.

Despite this, Palestinian Christians have suffered discrimination—and brutality—from Israel. Even though the Israeli constitution assures Christians "freedom of religion, conscience, education and culture," they live as second-class citizens. Israel refuses to allow them to serve in its military, and Palestinian Christians have fewer educational and employment opportunities. Also, Israel's troops, in response to suicidal terrorists bombing Israeli citizens, have confiscated land belonging to Palestinian Christians.

Since the founding of Israel, massive numbers of Palestinian Christians have left the Holy Land, due to Israel's occupation of their land and the dismal state of the economy in Palestinian towns. Today, they make up only 2 percent of the country, when they claimed 17 percent of the population around 1900.

Most Palestinian Christians support the quest for a homeland. But Christians familiar with the rising tide of Muslim persecution in other parts of the Middle East must ask what kind of government the Palestinian Authority (PA) might create once/if Israel releases control. Various watchdog organizations point out that since the PA took over Bethlehem in 1993, Christians have dropped from 60 percent of the population to 30 percent, and they cite incidents of Palestinian police harassing Christians. It would seem then that Palestinian Christians are caught between a wary, unfriendly Israeli state and increasingly hostile Muslim neighbors. No wonder bishop Assal fears for the Christians of his country.

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August (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47