Unfortunately many Christians in other countries do not even know there are Christians in Palestine and view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a religious conflict between Muslims and Jews, rather than the struggle over land it truly is. Yet Christians around the world owe much to these indigenous believers and their faithful stewardship of the holiest sites of Christianity.

Once a major portion of the population in this region, today Palestinian Christians make up about 2% or less of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, while they may comprise as much as 10% of the Palestinian people worldwide. The majority are members of Orthodox churches, second most are Roman Catholic, and then Anglican, Lutheran, and others denominations. They enjoy a respected place in Palestinian society, and a status in government, culture and business that belies their tiny percentage of the population.

These Christians strongly identify as Palestinians with the same culture and history as their Muslim sisters and brothers. In this land, Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully for many generations. Today they suffer together under the brutal Israeli occupation and all that it entails: checkpoints, travel restrictions, confiscation of land, destruction of homes, abuse of children, beatings, killings, and more.

One of the most painful restrictions of the occupation are the limits on their freedom to worship. Tourists from around the world can visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, believed to be the site of Jesus’ burial tomb, yet Palestinian Christians who live only a few miles away cannot reach it without a special permit that they can rarely obtain, even during the Easter season.

For decades, they have been struggling nonviolently for their freedom. In the landmark Kairos Palestine Document – which has been signed by thousands of Palestinian Christians and endorsed by all the Heads and Patriarchs of the Jerusalem Churches – these Christians have issued a powerful call for justice that will lead to real peace.

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They are keenly aware of their dwindling presence in the land where Christianity began, and are appalled by the brand of Christian theology that supports Zionist claims to their ancestral home, threatens their existence, and ignores their suffering and their rights as human beings and children of God.

“We also declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God. It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation. We declare that any theology, seemingly based on the Bible or on faith or on history, that legitimizes the occupation, is far from Christian teachings, because it calls for violence and holy war in the name of God Almighty, subordinating God to temporary human interests, and distorting the divine image in the human beings living under both political and theological injustice.”