Press Releases
For over 2000 years, the city of Jerusalem and the town of Bethlehem have held a deeply significant, enduring connection with one another. This connection is forged by cornerstone events of the Christian faith – those of the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ – but also by virtue of geographical proximity and the strong relationships between the Christian communities there, and in the surrounding areas. However, the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and the accompanying construction of the illegal Annexation Wall and its associated regime have served to fracture this connection, with Jerusalem and Bethlehem now physically separated on opposing sides of a barrier which is impregnable to the majority of the Palestinian Christian community.
This paper (Palestinian Christians - Ongoing Forcible Displacement and Dispossession... Until When?) seeks first to draw attention to the forcible displacement of the Palestinian people and the resulting human impact on the overall population, with a particular focus on the Christians and second to call for action to end this practice.
For this purpose, a general overview of the situation will be provided, alongside a series of case studies concerning the personal experiences of Christian families in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Finally, the paper will present recommendations on the issue at hand. Each case study will seek to explore and explain a key issue, with each supported by powerful testimony from members of the Palestinian Christian population. These testimonies are drawn from extensive interviews conducted between August-October 2012 by Kairos Palestine and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency Rights and Refugee Rights.