Christians leaving Bethlehem are not doing so because of any specific actions or pressure by Israel directed against the community.
I asked ChatGPT. This is its reply
“The Christian population of Bethlehem has decreased in recent years due to several factors:
1. **Political Instability and Conflict**: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has significantly impacted the region, leading to a decline in the local economy and creating a challenging living environment. The construction of the Israeli separation barrier, restrictions on movement, and periodic violence have made life difficult for residents, prompting many to emigrate.
2. **Economic Hardships**: Bethlehem's economy, traditionally reliant on tourism, has suffered due to the political situation. Security concerns and travel restrictions have deterred tourists, reducing income for local businesses. Economic opportunities in Bethlehem are limited, pushing many, particularly Christians, to seek better prospects abroad.
3. **Emigration**: Many Christians in Bethlehem have emigrated to the West or other countries with more stable environments. The pull of better economic opportunities, combined with the push of local hardships, has led to a significant outflow of the Christian population.
4. **Demographic Changes**: The overall population in Bethlehem and the West Bank is growing, but the Christian community is shrinking proportionally due to lower birth rates compared to the Muslim population and higher emigration rates.
5. **Social Pressures**: Some Christians in Bethlehem have reported feeling increasing social pressures as a religious minority, which can contribute to their decision to leave.
These factors combined have led to a steady decline in the Christian population in Bethlehem, a trend seen in other parts of the Middle East as well.”
To run through your excuses for Christians leaving Palestine.
1. **Political Instability and Conflict**: - caused by Israel with the goal of exterminating or expelling all non-Jews.
2. **Economic Hardships**: Caused by Israel seeking to rid Palestine of all non-Jews. An active policy by the Israeli military colonial rulers.
3. **Emigration**: Pushed and caused by Israel under its policy of ethnic cleansing. Make life impossible to rid Palestine of non-Jews.
4. **Demographic Changes**: Caused by Israel making life impossible for non-Jews.
5. **Social Pressures**: From the Israelis who work to rid Palestine of non-Jews.
We have Jews defecating and urinating in Christian churches and spitting on Christians in the street as well as murdering and maiming them as they do with Muslims so why would it be surprising if some have left? All Israeli policy, procedure and practice.
I did laugh. Anyone who asks ChatGPT is either about 12 years old or lacking adult intelligence. For heaven’s sake, the chat stuff is all propaganda and totally unreliable.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians that nobody is talking about
As Christmas approaches, it is sad to reflect on the fact that Palestinian Christians are leaving the birthplace of Christianity in droves. For Israel, this exodus is a boon as a Palestine without Christians will enable it, in a world rife with Islamophobia, to portray its conflict with Palestine as a religious war. Ramzy Baroud explains.
Palestine’S Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.
Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on 15 October. Their gathering was titled ‘The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective’.
One major issue that highlighted itself at the meetings is the rapidly declining number of Palestinian Christians in Palestine.
There are various estimates on how many Palestinian Christians are still living in Palestine today, compared with the period before 1948 when the state of Israel was established atop Palestinian towns and villages. Regardless of the source of the various studies, there is a near-consensus that the number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly 10-fold in the last 70 years.
A population census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017 concluded that 47,000 Palestinian Christians are living in Palestine – with reference to the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Ninety-eight percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the West Bank – concentrated mostly in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – while the remainder, a tiny Christian community of merely 1,100 people, live in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The demographic crisis that had afflicted the Christian community decades ago is now brewing.
For example, 70 years ago, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, was 86% Christian. The demographics of the city, however, have fundamentally shifted, especially after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in June 1967 and the construction of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall starting in 2002. Parts of the wall were meant to cut off Bethlehem from Jerusalem and to isolate the former from the rest of the West Bank.
‘The Wall encircles Bethlehem by continuing south of East Jerusalem in both the east and west,’ the ‘Open Bethlehem’ organisation said, describing the devastating impact of the wall on the Palestinian city. ‘With the land isolated by the Wall, annexed for settlements, and closed under various pretexts, only 13% of the Bethlehem district is available for Palestinian use.’
Increasingly beleaguered, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem have been driven out from their historic city in large numbers. According to the city’s mayor, Vera Baboun, as of 2016, the Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped to 12%, merely 11,000 people.
The most optimistic estimates place the overall number of Palestinian Christians in the whole of Occupied Palestine at less than 2%.
Pressure of Israeli occupation
The correlation between the shrinking Christian population in Palestine, and the Israeli occupation and apartheid should be unmistakable, as it is evident to Palestine’s Christian and Muslim communities alike.
A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University in the West Bank town of Beit Jala and published in December 2017 interviewed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, half of them Christian and the other half Muslim. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine.
The study concluded that ‘the pressure of Israeli occupation, ongoing constraints, discriminatory policies, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of lands added to the general sense of hopelessness among Palestinian Christians’, who are finding themselves in ‘a despairing situation where they can no longer perceive a future for their offspring or for themselves’.
Unfounded claims that Palestinian Christians are leaving because of religious tensions between them and their Muslim brethren are, therefore, irrelevant.
I suggest that the Jewish population of Iran would leave for other countries if they could. As it is, they are a captive population and have to be extremely careful to avoid being seen to give comfort in any way to Israel
If Muslims do not treat minority faiths very well how do you explain so many Jews remaining in Iran?
The Jews are killing and expelling Christians in Bethlehem not Muslims.
Egypt does not treat anyone very well as a US/Israeli stooge most of the time.
Christians leaving Bethlehem are not doing so because of any specific actions or pressure by Israel directed against the community.
I asked ChatGPT. This is its reply
“The Christian population of Bethlehem has decreased in recent years due to several factors:
1. **Political Instability and Conflict**: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has significantly impacted the region, leading to a decline in the local economy and creating a challenging living environment. The construction of the Israeli separation barrier, restrictions on movement, and periodic violence have made life difficult for residents, prompting many to emigrate.
2. **Economic Hardships**: Bethlehem's economy, traditionally reliant on tourism, has suffered due to the political situation. Security concerns and travel restrictions have deterred tourists, reducing income for local businesses. Economic opportunities in Bethlehem are limited, pushing many, particularly Christians, to seek better prospects abroad.
3. **Emigration**: Many Christians in Bethlehem have emigrated to the West or other countries with more stable environments. The pull of better economic opportunities, combined with the push of local hardships, has led to a significant outflow of the Christian population.
4. **Demographic Changes**: The overall population in Bethlehem and the West Bank is growing, but the Christian community is shrinking proportionally due to lower birth rates compared to the Muslim population and higher emigration rates.
5. **Social Pressures**: Some Christians in Bethlehem have reported feeling increasing social pressures as a religious minority, which can contribute to their decision to leave.
These factors combined have led to a steady decline in the Christian population in Bethlehem, a trend seen in other parts of the Middle East as well.”
To run through your excuses for Christians leaving Palestine.
1. **Political Instability and Conflict**: - caused by Israel with the goal of exterminating or expelling all non-Jews.
2. **Economic Hardships**: Caused by Israel seeking to rid Palestine of all non-Jews. An active policy by the Israeli military colonial rulers.
3. **Emigration**: Pushed and caused by Israel under its policy of ethnic cleansing. Make life impossible to rid Palestine of non-Jews.
4. **Demographic Changes**: Caused by Israel making life impossible for non-Jews.
5. **Social Pressures**: From the Israelis who work to rid Palestine of non-Jews.
We have Jews defecating and urinating in Christian churches and spitting on Christians in the street as well as murdering and maiming them as they do with Muslims so why would it be surprising if some have left? All Israeli policy, procedure and practice.
I did laugh. Anyone who asks ChatGPT is either about 12 years old or lacking adult intelligence. For heaven’s sake, the chat stuff is all propaganda and totally unreliable.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians that nobody is talking about
As Christmas approaches, it is sad to reflect on the fact that Palestinian Christians are leaving the birthplace of Christianity in droves. For Israel, this exodus is a boon as a Palestine without Christians will enable it, in a world rife with Islamophobia, to portray its conflict with Palestine as a religious war. Ramzy Baroud explains.
Palestine’S Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.
Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on 15 October. Their gathering was titled ‘The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective’.
One major issue that highlighted itself at the meetings is the rapidly declining number of Palestinian Christians in Palestine.
There are various estimates on how many Palestinian Christians are still living in Palestine today, compared with the period before 1948 when the state of Israel was established atop Palestinian towns and villages. Regardless of the source of the various studies, there is a near-consensus that the number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly 10-fold in the last 70 years.
A population census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017 concluded that 47,000 Palestinian Christians are living in Palestine – with reference to the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Ninety-eight percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the West Bank – concentrated mostly in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – while the remainder, a tiny Christian community of merely 1,100 people, live in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The demographic crisis that had afflicted the Christian community decades ago is now brewing.
For example, 70 years ago, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, was 86% Christian. The demographics of the city, however, have fundamentally shifted, especially after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in June 1967 and the construction of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall starting in 2002. Parts of the wall were meant to cut off Bethlehem from Jerusalem and to isolate the former from the rest of the West Bank.
‘The Wall encircles Bethlehem by continuing south of East Jerusalem in both the east and west,’ the ‘Open Bethlehem’ organisation said, describing the devastating impact of the wall on the Palestinian city. ‘With the land isolated by the Wall, annexed for settlements, and closed under various pretexts, only 13% of the Bethlehem district is available for Palestinian use.’
Increasingly beleaguered, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem have been driven out from their historic city in large numbers. According to the city’s mayor, Vera Baboun, as of 2016, the Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped to 12%, merely 11,000 people.
The most optimistic estimates place the overall number of Palestinian Christians in the whole of Occupied Palestine at less than 2%.
Pressure of Israeli occupation
The correlation between the shrinking Christian population in Palestine, and the Israeli occupation and apartheid should be unmistakable, as it is evident to Palestine’s Christian and Muslim communities alike.
A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University in the West Bank town of Beit Jala and published in December 2017 interviewed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, half of them Christian and the other half Muslim. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine.
The study concluded that ‘the pressure of Israeli occupation, ongoing constraints, discriminatory policies, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of lands added to the general sense of hopelessness among Palestinian Christians’, who are finding themselves in ‘a despairing situation where they can no longer perceive a future for their offspring or for themselves’.
Unfounded claims that Palestinian Christians are leaving because of religious tensions between them and their Muslim brethren are, therefore, irrelevant.
I suggest that the Jewish population of Iran would leave for other countries if they could. As it is, they are a captive population and have to be extremely careful to avoid being seen to give comfort in any way to Israel
You made me laugh again. Are you a comedian in your spare time or some kid in a bunker in Tel Aviv playing with the bots to get answers?
Iranian Jews could leave if they wished. They do not wish to do so. They are Iranians and part of an ancient culture.
Iran's Jews: It's Our Home And We Plan To Stay
February 19, 2015
Iran's Jews reject cash offer to move to Israel
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