Genocide: The Vanishing Christian Communities of
the Middle East
By Dr. Guy Bechor
(Translation from Hebrew: Avishai Zonnenberg, Arik Klein)
The numbers are truly staggering: In Iraq of 2003, until the fall of Sadam Hussein, there were 1.5 million Christians, but today there are only 250,000, that means that 1.25 million have migrated, been killed or been forced to become Muslims. In Syria of just three years ago there were 1.75 million Christians, out of whom 450,000 have already left, and the rate of the ethnic cleansing is only growing.
This means that by the end of this decade there will be no more Christian Arabs in the Levant (meaning the northeastern part of the Middle East). In the space that is becoming “Salafi” and violent, there is no place for the Christian Arabs, and they are being forcibly exiled.
This phenomenon is happening in full force at the Palestinian Authority; Bethlehem was once 90% Christian, today it is 65% Muslim. The tradition is that the mayor is Christian despite the Muslim majority, but the female mayor is facing harsh persecution, including by the “Fatah” movement.
The day in which there will be no more Christian Arabs in the Palestinian authority is getting close, and according to estimates there are only a few tens of thousands left. In the day to day of the Hamas, Salafis and the Jihad, they have no existence, and they migrate, many to South America, where they already have large communities.
In Hamas's Gaza, out of 2,500 Christians there are only a few hundred left; the rest have escaped or have been forced to become Muslims. If one day there is an independent “Palestinian” territory, the Christians will be the first to pay the price, especially after the Salafis take over the control there. This is only a matter of time, as it is in the entire Middle East.
Christians were promoted in the National Arab Movement, they were leaders of the Pan-Arab movement; with Hamas they were tolerated, but the Salafis are brutally exterminating them. In the Shari'a ruled state, the Christians have no place.
In Egypt nearly nine million are Coptic Christians (one tenth), and the estimate is that a quarter of a million have already migrated since the fall of Mubarak, and the rest are suffering persecutions, murders, violence, robbery and looting. They are in grave condition, and the reality is that there are no consequences for hurting them.
In Lebanon there are still about one million Christians (according to a survey published this year), but they are in deep despair, some of them are under the protection of the Shiite Hezbollah state. Do they really have any hope?
Oddly, in a year when the Pope is elected “Man of the Year,” there is no cry about the amazing ethnic cleansing being done to his flock, including nothing from the west. United State has murmured something, and that was it.
As for Israel this silence has a few conclusions: while the new anti-Semites are busy condemning Israel, proposing resolutions and banning Israel, they are saying nothing about the real massacre and the forced exiles taking place here; there is no limit to the hypocrisy. Where are the human rights movements, in the face of this Christian-free Middle East being created here?
A second conclusion is for us in Israel: this silence is a warning that if, G-d forbid, Israel will one day be weakened, the extremists will do us much worse, and no one in the world would really help. In the violent and Salafi Middle East, there is no place for Christians, who did not fin out how to prepare on time, or for the Jews.
Luckily for the latter in the Jewish state they are strong and determined. It is clear now how important it is to have a Jewish state, as it is the only place left in the Middle East that is not Muslim.
A word to the Christian communities around the world: if one day the sovereignty over the holy places in Jerusalem is held solely by the Palestinian Authority, in a short time the religious war that is taking place in the entire Arab world will erupt here as well, and neither Jews nor Christians will be allowed access to their holy sites, as is already happening in Syria, in the places sacred to Christians.
Only under Jewish sovereignty will freedom of religion be kept, and the proof is that only in one place in the entire Middle East do the Christian Arabs get freedom of religion as well as equality, and that is in Israel, and so for the first time, we see young Christian Arab citizens wanting to join in alliance with the Jewish State. They already know that no one will be waiting for them out there, in the cold Christian winter.
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