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Many Palestinian Christians expressed shock and now wait to see what will develop following Hamas's upset victory in January's parliamentary elections, Palestine's first since 1996.

The political party for Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group known to support terrorism, won 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Fatah, a secular party formerly led by Yasser Arafat, had monopolized Palestinian politics since the 1960s. But corruption and ineffectiveness slashed their representation to 43 seats. Smaller parties won the other positions.

"People were surprised," Jack Sara, pastor of the Jerusalem Alliance Church, told CT. "A landslide victory by Hamas in Jerusalem and the West Bank was not expected. It shocked people because the pre-election polls never foresaw this. It was expected that Hamas would gain a high percent in Gaza, but not in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Hamas's absolute majority puts us in a difficult situation."

Evangelicals like Sara and Salim Munayer of Musalaha, an organization that uses the example of Jesus to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, point out that Palestinian Christians are not the only ones concerned by Hamas's political dominance.

"There is also concern among Muslims about whether Hamas will try to implement Shari'ah (Islamic) law and Muslim institutions," Salim Munayer told CT. "If Hamas wants to adopt laws and Islamic ideology, they will face resistance from the people."

Palestinian Christians won seven seats in the new legislative council. Presidential decree entitles them to a minimum of six seats. Six seats belong to the Fatah Party, while Hanan Ashrawi won election with the Third Way party.

Lutheran church leader Mitri Raheb, who directs the International Center of Bethlehem, said concern about a potential clash between Hamas and Fatah is real, as is the possibility of international isolation. But he urged people to see the positives.

"This is the only time in the Middle East that one-party rule has ended peacefully by democratic elections," Raheb wrote in a letter to the SAT-7 Arabic Christian TV channel broadcast in the Middle East and North Africa. He said "a new political landscape has to emerge now. The identity of Fatah after Arafat has to be shaped. Hamas is now obliged to show their capability of delivering what they were promising."

He challenged Palestinian Christians "not to be afraid, nor to panic or withdraw from the public sphere." Rather, he said "we are called not to feel as if we are just spectators but rather to participate with many in this quest for a new Palestinian identity.

A pastor in Gaza said he anticipates "more and more pressure on Christians, because in the last five years our region became more religious, more militant, and more violent," due to Israeli occupation and dire unemployment and poverty. But he also warns that Western pressure against Hamas "will also pressure Christians, because many militant Muslims connect the local Christians with the West."

The pastor told CT that Christians don't see Hamas having a "logical and strategic plan to deal with Israel. It seems that Hamas is stuck between what they believe in, what they ran for in the election … and what the West is asking from them."

So far Hamas leaders have sought to calm both Palestinians and an anxious outside world by saying they will not impose any form of Islamic rule on the diverse society in the Palestinian territories. Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas's senior leader in Gaza, promised armed protection of churches during this week's demonstrations against caricatures of Muhammad in European newspapers. "You are our brothers," al-Zahar told Manuel Musallam of the Holy Family Church, according to the London Times.

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50