The Christian component of the Palestinian people is considered the most important and oldest in history for belonging to the land for a period six centuries before Islam. Nevertheless, we do not find a real Christian presence among the members of the resistance movement, since its inception, except for what is rare despite the significance and moral influence of their presence especially in the Western countries.
Unfortunately, the matter was not limited to marginalizing their role despite their large percentage and better education, but rather reached the level of hostility and some movements encouraged them to emigrate, and this weakened their presence in the civil and military movements.
Except for Hanan Ashrawi and the Christian Palestinian leaders who appeared on the scene, such as George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh were mostly self made and their assistance was not sought.
* * *
Among the manifestations of this hostility is the circular issued a few days ago in Gaza, which called for limiting interaction with Christmas and the New Year’s celebrations and other Christian religious activities.
This means that the political administration in Gaza which represents the resistance does not want any manifestations related to the holidays of non-Muslims, even if this is represented in a Christmas tree placed in front of a store or in the middle of a small barren square.
* * *
Some people can accept this hostility to Christians by the authorities of peoples living in luxury, who do not suffer from all the injustices of displacement and occupation, but how can it be accepted by a people who have been struggling for 80 years to liberate their land? How can the responsibility for liberation be placed in the hands of someone who willfully persecutes a genuine group of its own people just because of a difference in religious belief?
Is it reasonable for Israel to treat its Christian Arab citizen in a better way than a Muslim Palestinian?
Is this an acceptable provocation that hurts the feelings and position of a people who are striving to liberate their land from the occupier just because of seeing a Christmas tree made of plastic in China, often from Arab oil?
* * *
O Hamas! How can we expect sincerity and enthusiasm from a Palestinian Christian to be a partner in the struggle, who is unable to obtain his most basic religious rights to celebrate in his own way on one day of the year?
* * *
It is the right of the Muslim Palestinian whether from Hamas or Palestine Liberation Organization in Ramallah to adhere to his religion and belief as priority and before restoring the homeland, but it is necessary not to accuse others of betrayal or displace those who do not share your own faith because the issue is a civil political, not a religious war to ensure paradise and if the land is lost, many things are lost with it.
What military organizations like Hamas and others do not want to realize is that the Palestinian Christians, and I know a large number of them, and I am proud of their friendship and value their knowledge and education and upbringing, without the need for a testimony in their patriotism from any party, but this negative attitude of them, since the beginning of the conflict, made most of them more inclined than others to accept the idea of migration and why not if they are treated as second-class citizens, in a quasi-state. So what will happen to them in a fully sovereign state?
Why does Israel not discriminate between the Palestinian, Muslim or Christian resistance, while a large part of the Palestinians do the opposite, which forms the basis of their existence?
We say that and we will go back saying that “Palestinian discrimination” is not an exception to the eternal Arab Islamic rule in discrimination.
By the way: In an interview with Mahmoud al-Zahar, he mentioned that when he was Hamas’s foreign minister, he visited Tehran and asked for help, so General ‘Qassem Soleimani’ handed him bags containing 22 million dollars in cash.
e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad alsarraf
