About a week ago, the United Nations headquarters in Geneva screened the film Via Dolorosa, which tells the story of Christians in the Holy Land. During the screening, Father Ibrahim Faltas stated that many Christians have lost their faith and "fled the Christian areas of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth." While many blame Israel for this reality, the systematic oppression of Christians has, in fact, been carried out for decades by the Palestinian authorities in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza.
"Terrorist attacks against Christians, assaults on churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties in the Palestinian Authority... have become daily occurrences, and their severity clearly intensifies during Christian holidays," the Greek Orthodox Church recently declared.
Reports from Gaza describe attacks on Christians and Christian holy sites (including cemeteries) carried out by Hamas police. Legal scholar and researcher Justus Reid Weiner wrote in a July 2024 report for The Bitachonist: "Over the course of a decade, I interviewed dozens of Palestinian Christians who were victims of attacks. Many of those I interviewed were too frightened to tell their stories."
These are not isolated incidents of persecution but a systematic, institutionalized suppression, often initiated or backed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. In a December 2024 report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a Protestant pastor from the Palestinian Authority testified that the Palestinian police do not protect Christians.
In the report, Sanaa Razi Nashash from Beit Jala described how she went to the police to file a complaint against a Muslim man who assaulted her—only to find the assailant wearing a police uniform. Christians who manage to reach local courts rarely receive justice, while the perpetrators are left unpunished.
In 2003, the Palestinian Authority closed the Ministry of Religious Affairs and announced its intention to impose Sharia law on all Palestinians. Under Sharia, Christians (like Jews) are granted the inferior status of dhimmi (protected persons), as they have not converted to Islam.
A dhimmi may pay a tax in exchange for protection from being killed or enslaved under Islamic law. In practice, however, the Palestinian authorities persecute the Christian population through systematic land confiscations via the Palestinian courts, extortion and seizure of Christian-owned businesses, and systematic discrimination against Christians in employment. Christians are excluded from leadership positions in the Palestinian Authority and face difficulties buying and selling land and property.
Bethlehem, long considered a Christian city, exemplifies these trends of demographic and cultural decline. According to the Christian Information Center, in 1950 Christians made up 86% of Bethlehem's population. Until the Oslo Accords, Bethlehem had the largest Christian majority of any city in the area, but since the Palestinian Authority assumed control in 1994, the Christian population has steadily decreased.
A 2017 census revealed that only 10% of Bethlehem's residents were Christians. Meanwhile, Hamas has increasingly intervened in city leadership, with its members occupying most seats on the city council - contrary to Palestinian law.
In Gaza, the situation is even worse. Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Christian population has shrunk from 5,000 to approximately 600 today. Testimonies from Palestinian Christians in Gaza, collected by Christian organizations, describe a constant threat to their lives.
Some have reported practicing their faith in secret - and some even grow beards to blend in with the Muslim population, following reports of kidnappings and forced conversions to Islam. In 2016, Gaza Bishop Alexios submitted a petition on the matter to Ismail Haniyeh on behalf of the Christian community, but received no response.
The situation is particularly dire for women and girls, who suffer from sexual assaults and rape. In a rare 2002 interview, Inas Jaris Hanna Musleh, a 23-year-old Palestinian Christian teacher at the Joy School in Beit Sahur, said that public harassment began with the rise of the Palestinian Authority.
Christian women in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza have also reported receiving death threats from Muslims who oppose their presence in public spaces. In 2004, a 16-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped from Bethlehem by a Muslim man whose relatives hold senior positions in the Palestinian Authority's security services. In 2020, a Christian girl was kidnapped, and in 2023, a 22-year-old woman was abducted. Both were kidnapped by Muslims, subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological violence, and were only released following international intervention.
The Western world prefers to turn the other cheek.
