at https://broadandliberty.com/2023/11/01/jeff-hurvitz-israel-and-the-burden-of-being-jewish/ while my response there is being moderated.
Just so we don’t confuse any readers, I was addressing the Palestinian Christian population. You moved the goal posts to Israel and provided unsourced numbers for the Christian population you claim live there.
Btw, your link to https://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2019/341-342/human1.htm doesn’t work; have no fear, it can still be accessed if you copy and paste the link from my entries.
You asked,
“So a population that is, according to your source, shrinking in the Palestinian and Hamas controlled territory and is yet growing in the state of Israel is being destroyed by Israel???”
And I respond, “read that Merriam-Webster definition again.”
Having been provided the opportunity I’ll include a few more paragraphs from…
https://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2019/341-342/human1.htm
…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%.
And now I’ll raise a question about Hamas origins https://www.bucksafa11.org/2019/05/07/liars/
What I think you can use is a peek at the bigger picture; State Department sized bigger picture. Of course it’s democrat controlled (I did wonder why they didn’t include pictures for their base) so there is a believability deficit right there but you still should be able to recognize where control is trying to hide the genocidal intent.
…In Jerusalem, the Israeli government provides separate public schools for Jewish and Arab/Palestinian children with instruction conducted in Hebrew and Arabic, respectively. For Jewish children, there are separate public schools available for religious and secular families. Individual families may choose a public school system for their children regardless of ethnicity or religious observance. Minors have the right to choose a public secular school instead of a religious school regardless of parental preference. By law, Israel provides the equivalent of public-school funding to two systems of “recognized but not official” (a form of semiprivate) ultra-Orthodox religious schools affiliated with ultra-Orthodox political parties: the United Torah Judaism-affiliated Independent Education System and the Shas-affiliated Fountain of Torah Education System. Churches, however, receive only partial government funding to operate “recognized but not official” schools. Palestinian residents in Jerusalem may send their children to one of these church schools, a private school that follows an internationally sanctioned curriculum, or a private school operated by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (which also includes religious instruction). Some Israeli-funded public schools in Jerusalem use a version of the PA curriculum, modified by the Israeli Ministry of Education…
…On March 10, the Knesset reenacted the Law of Citizenship and Entry, after the Knesset failed in 2021 to pass a previous version of the law, which requires annual renewals. The law explicitly prohibits residence status for non-Jewish Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, including those who are spouses of Israeli residents or citizens. The amended law allows a quota of 58 cases in which the minister of interior can make a special determination, usually on humanitarian grounds. The figure is based on the total number of approvals of requests in 2018…
In recent years, Israeli authorities issued permits for some Christians to exit Gaza to attend religious services in Jerusalem or the West Bank and for Muslims from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem for Ramadan. During the year, Israeli officials reported they issued 8,000 permits for Palestinians to enter Israel from the West Bank during Christmas season, and 500 family permits for West Bank residents to enter Gaza. Israeli officials reported they issued 500 permits for Christians in Gaza to enter Israel during Christmas.
The NGO Gisha reported that during the year, restrictions on freedom of movement of Palestinians in Gaza continued to infringe upon religious freedom. According to Gisha, Israel issued approximately 400 permits for Muslims in Gaza to travel to Jerusalem for prayer at the end of Ramadan – the first such permits for Muslim Gazans since 2018. Gisha reported that the 400 permits were part of more than 1,000 persons who were able to file an application during the two-hour application window. Many who wished to exit Gaza for Eid al-Adha were unable to due to what Gisha described as “Israel’s arbitrary quota.”
Gisha reported that Israel designated a quota of 500 permits for Christians in Gaza to visit Jerusalem for Easter celebrations. They reported that some applicants received permits while their family members were left waiting for a response or denied outright, forcing them to choose between forgoing family and religious visits or leaving their family members behind during the travel. During Christmas, Gisha reported that Israel issued 649 permits for Christians to exit Gaza for the holiday.
Supporters of the Law on Citizenship and Entry said it is necessary for security reasons, but according to the NGO the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), security records released by Shin Bet document that only 35 Palestinians with legal status in Israel were involved in activities that posed a security risk during the previous 20 years. ACRI and other civil rights organizations, including Adalah, PHRI, HaMoked, and Society of St. Yves, petitioned to the Supreme Court on behalf of families affected by the law and called for its revocation, characterizing it as discriminatory, racist, contrary to international law, a violation of constitutional rights, and unfair because it labels all Palestinians as security risks. Human rights NGOs criticized restricting the rights of entire populations on the assumption that they are prone to terrorism as “collective punishment.” In December, the Supreme Court requested the state to explain its position within 90 days; the proceedings were ongoing at year’s end.
According to the NGO HaMoked, there were approximately 12,000 Palestinians living in the country, including in Jerusalem, on temporary stay permits because of the citizenship and entry law, with no legal guarantee they could continue living with their families. There were also cases of Palestinian spouses of Palestinian residents living in East Jerusalem without legal status. Some Palestinian residents moved to Jerusalem neighborhoods outside the security barrier to live with their nonresident spouse and children while maintaining Jerusalem residency.
According to Christian religious leaders, this situation remained an especially acute problem for Christians because of their small population and consequent tendency to marry Christians from the West Bank or elsewhere (i.e., Christians who held neither citizenship nor residency). Christian religious leaders expressed concern that this was a significant element in the continuing decline of the Christian population, including in Jerusalem, which negatively affected the long-term viability of Christian communities.
According to NGOs, community members, and media commentators, factors contributing to Christian emigration included political instability, the inability to obtain residency permits for spouses due to the Law of Citizenship and Entry, limited ability of Christian communities in the Jerusalem area to expand due to building restrictions, difficulties Christian clergy experienced in obtaining Israeli visas and residency permits, loss of confidence in the peace process, and economic hardships created by the establishment of the barrier and the imposition of travel restrictions. The Israeli government previously stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality” and not from any restrictions on the Christian community…
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/reports-on-religious-freedom-west-bank-and-gaza-2022
Reports on Religious Freedom: West Bank and Gaza 2022
May 15, 2023 … The Israeli government previously stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality” and not from any …
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/israel-west-bank-and-gaza/
2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Israel, West Bank …
The government stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality … not from any restrictions on the Christian community itself.
https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/israel-west-bank-and-gaza/
2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Israel, West Bank …
Jun 2, 2022 … The government stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality … any restrictions on the Christian community …
https://thefederalnewswire.com/stories/626700121-2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom-israel-west-bank-and-gaza
2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Israel, West Bank …
May 12, 2021 … The government stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality … any restrictions on the Christian community …
Did I just hear The FourTops off in the distance?
November 5, 2023 P.S.
https://georgewebb.substack.com/p/the-great-gaza-migration