Figure 1.--This group of Christian Arabs in 1938 appear in front of the Jerusalem YMCA. The boys wear kaffiyehs and ikals. Source: American Colony (Jerusalem).

There are many important Christian sites in Palestine such as Bethlehem and Nazareth and the Jordan River. Jerusalem was where Christ was crucified. Muslims are especially interested in Jerusalem. The Church of Holy Sepulcher is perhaps the most important Christian site in Jerusalem. The church was built by St. Helena (Constantine's mother) in 335 A.D. It is a major site of Christian pilgrims, especially during Easter and Christmas. Another important site is the Church of Gethsemane. It was built on the location of the garden of Gethsemane. It was here where Jesus and his disciples concealed themselves before being taken prisoner from the garden to Jerusalem. Some Biblical sites have been identified. The actual location of the Crucifixion and Accession are disputed. British sources report that at the time of post-World War I mandate that the Arab Christian population in Palestine was nearly 10 percent of the total population. Reliable statistics are currently difficult to come from, but the Christian population has substantially declined: West Bank (about 4 percent) and Gaza (less than 1 percent). The Arab Christian population in Israel has been more stable (9 percent). The reasons for the decline of the Christian Arab population are hotly debated. The Muslim population has a higher birthrate. The economic decline resulting from the Intifada has caused many to leave Palestine seeking better economic opportunities. Christian Arabs had contacts beyond the Middle East than Muslim Palestinians. Some sources say Israeli travel restrictions are a factor. Christian communities are under pressure in several Arab countries. This does not seem to be the case in the West Bank although there have been incidents. The violence is substantially less than is the case in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and other neighboring states. The same is not the case in Gaza where Christians have been attacked. Conditions for Christians deteriorated after the Israeli withdrawal and the Hamas victory in elections. In October 2007, Rami Ayyad, the Baptist manager of The Teacher's Bookshop, the only Christian bookstore in the Gaza Strip, was fire bombed. Ayyad received death threats and when he refused to flee, he was murdered (October 2007). Muslim fundamentalists objected to his alleged missionary activity. 【Rizq】

Roman Empire

Chritinity was born in Judea/Palestine which at the time was part of the Roman Empire. Christianiy began as the Jesus movement amomg Jews. Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death and crucified on the order of the Prefect Pontius Pilate (30/33 AD). Christianity began Judea with Jesus' followers. There are many important Christian sites in Palestine such as Bethlehem and Nazareth and the Jordan River. Jerusalem was where Christ was crucified. Muslims are especially interested in Jerusalem. The Church of Holy Sepulcher is perhaps the most important Christian site in Jerusalem. The church was built by St. Helena (Constantine's mother) in 335 A.D. It is a major site of Christian pilgrims, especially during Easter and Christmas. Another important site is the Church of Gethsemane. It was built on the location of the garden of Gethsemane. It was here where Jesus and his disciples concealed themselves before being taken prisoner from the garden to Jerusalem. Some Biblical sites have been identified. The actual location of the Crucifixion and Accession are disputed. The first Christians Aramaic speaking Jewish Christians in Judea. There are also many sites of less importance but have Biblical connections. One such site is these lesser sites is the Fountain of the Virgin in Nazareth. Gradually the Apostles, especially St. Paul, spread the faith to the gentiles, meaning Latin and Greek-speaking Romans and Greeks meaning the descendants of Syro-Phoenicians, Arameans, Greeks, Persians, and Arabs such as Nabataeans. 【Theissen, p. 1.】 Early Christians were persecuted. Constantine (306-37) began the transition of Christinity to be the the established state religion. The Empire was permanently slit upon the death of Theodosius I (395). With the fall of Rome, this led to the rise of Byzantium. Orientas Christians likethe Assyrian (Syrian) Nestorians, Palestinian and Egyptain Christians went under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Roman emperors. A monk named Hilarion conceived of monasticism in what is now Gaza. It became a thriving monastic center This included including the Saint Hilarion and Seridus Monastery, only surpassed by monasteries in the Judaean desert sduch ass the Mar Saba Monastery. Monasticism would not become impoerant n th Western Catholic Church until Saint Benedict who attracted followers and formed the monastery of Monte Cassino (around 520).

Byzantium

after the Council of Chalcedon (451), Syrian Christians became known as Melkites (followers of the king). 【MacMullan, p. 141.】 The Melkites were heavily Hellenised as Byzantium becas,e established. They abandoned their origibnal Western Aramaic languages and agopted Greek. Jerusalem, Gaza, and Byzantine Palestine became the epicentre of Greek culture in the East. . 【Thomas, pp. 16–18.】 Byzantine emperors, especially Justinian sought to estanlih relgious conformity. This mean siupressing churches hat did not conform. Thid sometimes involved considerable brutaliy. This wa orobanly a factor in the successful Islamic conwquest of the Levant (southern Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Paleytine, and Jordon) and Egypt. The Byzantines losdt an regsinedthe Levant from the Sassanid Empire. Aseries of bttles followed with the Islamic forced emerging from Arabia. The decisice battle was Yarmuk which gave theArabs permanent control of the Levant. The destruction of their Army in Syria ended the Byzantines' will to continue confronting the Muslims in the field (638). .

Islmic Caliphate

With the Islamic Following Muslim conquests, the Christians of the Levan underwent a gradual process of Arabization. Aramaic and Greek fell into msuse in favor of Arabic. 【Donner, pp. 129–30.】 The Melkites began abandoning Greek for Arabic. It was a process which led them into becoming the most Arabicised Christians in the Levant. 【Donner, pp. 129–30.】 Arab Ghassanids for the mos part remained Christian and joined Melkite and Syriac communities in the Levant. 【Sourdel, pp. 910-11.】 Christians under Muslim rule were second-class citizens subject to taxes and a range of constraints. Melkite bishop of Gaza Sulayman al-Ghazzi provides‌sights into Christian expeiences (11th century). He wrote first diwan of Chrstian religious poetry in Arabic. His poems provide into the life of Palestinian Christians and the persecution they were subjected to under Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. 【Donner, p. 153.】

Crusades

Ottoman Empire

Denominations

Palestinian Christians belong to several different Christian denominations: Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Catholicism (both the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches), Anglicanism, and Protestantism (including Lutheranism). WE do nt have much information about these various denominations.

Decline

British sources report that at the time of post-World War I mandate that the Arab Christian population in Palestine was nearly 10 percent of the total population. Reliable statistics are currently difficult to come from, but the Christian population has substantially declined: West Bank (about 4 percent) and Gaza (less than 1 percent). The Arab Christian population in Israel has been more stable (9 percent).

Causes

The reasons for the decline of the Christian Arab population are hotly debated. The Muslim population has a higher birthrate. The economic decline resulting from the Intifada has caused many to leave Palestine seeking better economic opportunities. Christian Arabs had more contacts beyond the Middle East than Muslim Palestinians. Some sources say Israeli travel restrictions are a factor. Christian communities are under pressure in several Arab countries. This does not seem to be the case in the West Bank although there have been incidents. The violence is substantially less than is the case in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and other neighboring states. The same is not the case in Gaza where Christians have been attacked. Conditions for Christians deteriorated after the Israeli withdrawal and the Hamas victory in elections. In October 2007, Rami Ayyad, the Baptist manager of The Teacher's Bookshop, the only Christian bookstore in the Gaza Strip, was fire bombed. A yyad received death threats and when he refused to flee, he was murdered (October 2007). Muslim fundamentalists objected to his alleged missionary activity. 【Rizq】

Diasopora

One assessmant suggests that about 6.5 percent of the global Palestinian population was Christian, but thast over half live outside of modern Palestin (the West Bank and Gaza) and Israel. 【Sabella】 The decline in Palestonian-controlled areas reflects the fanger for non-Muslims living in radicalized Muslim jurisdictions.

Israel

Most of the Palestinian Christains that have fled Muslim controlld areas have fled to Israel. Of the total Christian population of 185,000 people in Israel (2024), about 80 percent are Arabs, many of whom self-identify as Palestinian. 【FACTBOX】 The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics reports that 180,300 Christians in Israel (including East Jerusalem), of which some 142,000 (80 percent) are Arab Christians, pimarily Palestinian Christians. Most live in northern Isreal. 【Sabella】 Christians are also under presure in Arab countries. This varies from counrty to country. Rrealtively few non-Palestuinian Arabs have managed to obtain refuge in Israel. Rarely reported by the Western Media, Israel is the only place in he Middle East that Christians are free to practice their fasith in safty without fear of violence.

Press Coverage

Notice how the American press gives enormous coverage of Muslim Palestinians, but no covertrage of Christian Palesituniamns, despite the fact that Christian Palestinians havevbeen driven out of Muslim-cintrolled Palestine, but arevsafev in Israel. We think the same is true is true of the European meda. An Italian reader tells us, "In Italy, the media sometimes talk about it. It is not discussed much, but sometimes it is, partly because the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem is Italian."

Sources

(Israeli) Central Bureau of Statisics (CBS). "Christmas 2024 - Christians in Israel" Media Release No. 409/2024 (DEcember 22, 2024).

Donner, Fred M. (1981). The Early Islamic Conquests.(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981).

FACTBOX. "Christians in Israel, West Bank and Gaza," Reuters (May 10, 2009).

MacMullen, Ramsay. Christianizing The Roman Empire A.D. 100–400 )Yale University Press: 1984).

Rizq, Philip."The murder of Rami Ayyad", Palestine Chronicle (October 15, 2007).

Sabella, Bernard. "Palestinian Christians: Challenges and Hopes" (Bethlehem University). The date of publication is unknown, probably the late-1990s.

Sourdel, D. (1965). "Filasṭīn — I. Palestine under Islamic Rule" in B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, and J Schacht, (eds.) The Encyclopaedia of Islam Second Edition. Volume II C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Theissen, G (1978). Sociology of early Palestinian Christianity (Fortress Press: 1978).

Thomas, D. R. (2001). Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years (Leiden: Brill: 2011).

Created: 2:26 PM 12/23/2012
Last updated: 8:50 PM 2/3/2026