As the Highlands celebrated Christmas, people must note it was cancelled in Bethlehem due to the Hamas revolt against Israel. This conflict is not Muslim vs. Jew. This 75 year old strife is between European colonizers against indigenous Arabs. It has nothing to do with religion.
Christians such as Wadie Haddad, George Habash,Bishop Hilarion Capucci and George Abdallah helped to pioneer the Palestinian resistance movement against the Zionist State Of Israel. The Palestine Communist Party, predominantly Jewish, was a strident force against Zionism before it joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO). While the Palestinian resistance force now happens to be mainly Muslims, that force’s aim is to combat Zionism. Even Hamas in 2017 formally declared itself to be a Palestinian Arab-centric organization and not an Islamic-centric one.
The Israel Defense Force destroyed the oldest church in Gaza. Yet Christians in the West, mainly the USA, support Israel unconditionally. People can only scratch their heads on that one. Israelis intimidate church officials and members. The Christian Armenian Quarter is being assaulted by Israeli settlers. Zionists in Israel have expelled Arabs of all faiths.They have ethnically cleansed non-Jewish villages such as Christian-majority Badam. The most unsafe place now in the Arab Middle East for practicing Christians is Israel and not Hamas. Christians are now only 9% of Israeli Arabs when they were 21% in 1950. They fled due to Zionist persecution.
Permanent solution means all people of all faiths must feel safe. There cannot be a preference towards any group regardless of what any religious book may have cited.
Harsha Sankar
908 Valley Ridge Road
Covington, Virginia
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