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Palestinian Christians: Realities and Hopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Bernard Sabella
Bernard Sabella*
Affiliation:
University of Bethlehem
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Extract

As Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza has undergone political transformation from twenty-nine-year-long Israeli occupation to national authority rule, the fifty thousand Christians who make up two per cent of the total Palestinian population in these territories are also witness and party to this transformation. The Israeli-Palestinian accords which made possible this transformation came about, in part, because of the changes that have occurred in the attitudes of both Palestinians and Israelis since 1967 and 1948. But the present period is best characterized as one of transition. The peace process moves on slowly; the political system is in the creation stage; the economy and culture are evolving into new patterns; and society, as a consequence, is witnessing changes and developments in its structure and in its relationships. A transition period has its problems but also its challenges, promises, and hopes. The Palestinian Christians are not immune to the problems and yet they are hopeful, as are other Palestinians, that they will overcome the difficulties and problems. The distinction of religion for Palestinian Christians reflects itself in certain trends of thinking about and reacting to social, cultural, and political issues. A survey conducted in 1995 on a sample of all Palestinians, including a subsample of 340 Christians, shows that Palestinian Christians are in general agreement with other Palestinians on many of the issues of concern to all. Yet the responses given by the Christians point to a certain worldview: this is illustrated in the tables and comparisons presented here and which are all based on the results of the 1995 survey.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 36: The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History , 2000 , pp. 373 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2004

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References

1 The 1995 survey resulted in Theodor Hanf and Bernard Sabella, with Petra Bauerle, A Date with Democracy: Palestinians on Society and Politics. An empirical Survey, Freiburger Beitrage zu Entwicklung und Politik, 18 (Freiburg, 1996).

2 George Kossaibi, ‘Demographic characteristics of the Arab Palestine people’, in Khalil Nakhleh and Elia Zureik, The Sociology of the Palestinians (London, 1980), p. 18.

3 Bernard Sabella, ‘L’Emigration des chrétiens arabes: dimensions et causes de l’exode’, in Andrea Pacini, ed., Les Communautés chrétiennes dans le monde Musulman Arabe: le défi de l’avenir [= POC, 47 (1997), Fase. 1-3], p. 145.

4 For these and other figures on the ethnic and religious composition of the population of Jerusalem, see The Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, Municipality of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1993 and following years.

5 Bernard Sabella, ‘Christian emigration: a comparison of the Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem areas’, in People on the Move, 22 (1992), pp. 69-87; idem, ‘Palestinian Christian emigration from the Holy Land’, POC, 41 (1991), pp. 74-85; idem, ‘Socio-economic characteristics and the challenges to Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land’, in Michael Prior and William Taylor, eds, Christians in the Holy Land (London, 1994), pp. 31-44.

6 Sabella, ‘Socio-economic characteristics’, p. 39.

7 Daphne Tsimhoni, Christian Communities in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1948: An Historical, Social and Political Study (Westport, CT, and London, 1993), pp. 22-3.

8 Sabella, ‘L’Emigration des chrétiens arabes’, p. 165.

9 The full text of the Memorandum is found in JERUSALEM: The Diocesan Bulletin of the Latin Patriarchate, 1, Year 1, Jan.-Feb. 1995, pp. 20-5.