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Mar 26th, 2004, 06:42 PM
If there are Palestinian Christians then there are Palestinian Jews, and Jewish residents of Gaza are entitled to call themselves Palestinians too.
My understanding is that the Pal title was put on the Christians of Bethlehem when the PA took control, and they were told "you're Palestinians now". I don't think the climate is very comfortable for them, and like Hasidic Jews of Israel, they follow a different framework of nationalism altogether. It's conveniant politically for the PA to say "they're with us, we're diverse, the church is sacred to Palestinians too" but if you believe in a Palestinian as a nationality, with it's own language, culture, etc. then the Christians out there aren't really a part of all that. The other things is the majority of Christians were driven out entirely when the religious sites were trasnfered to the PA, and the Muslim community there has nearly taken over Bethlehem, planning construction for a massive Mosque. Anyway historically Christians have always been Christian, and it's only recently that they've been given a Palestinian Christian title.
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