Nothing short of peace will stop this Christian exodus

Charity alone will not persuade the faithful to remain in the Holy Land, says David-Maria Jaeger
The continuing emigration of Christian individuals and families from the Holy Land has been of concern for very many years now. Various kinds of propaganda have made use of it, too, mostly by blaming the problem exclusively on either Muslims or Jews. What, then, can usefully be said about it?
First of all, the Holy Land, so dear to us believers, does not now correspond to any single political or sociological unit. Just under three fifths of it belongs to the State of Israel, while most of the rest is Palestinian territory. Since 1967, this area has been under "belligerent occupation" by Israel (as confirmed in 2005 by Israel's government and supreme court, in accordance with international law), pending an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.
The remainder is Jerusalem, which is legally destined to be an internationally administered area at least until the United Nations decides otherwise although Israel has unilaterally annexed the city and named it as its capital.
A future resolution of the conflicts in the area is likely to involve the Israeli and Palestinian states sharing Jerusalem, with international recognition premised on a multilateral treaty, to which both will adhere, safeguarding the values, rights and interests in Jerusalem that transcend the merely unilateral, or even bilateral, sphere.
In Israel itself there are two national groups: the Jewish majority (around 80 per cent) and the Palestinian Arab minority (around 20 per cent). There are Christians in each of these populations. According to government statistics, there were a year ago some 119,000 Arab Christians and some 27,000 living within the Jewish majority (although probably there are several thousand more in the latter cate gorY).
The Arab Christian citizens are themselves a small minority (less than a sixth) within the Arab minority, made up mostly of Muslims. Their interactions with the Israeli majority are overwhelmingly determined by their national identity, rather than their religious affiliation; they share with their Muslim fellow-nationals the multifaceted condition of citizens who are yet not entirely able to enjoy equal er rights with members of the national majority in addition to their minority status within their own national community.
As for the Christians within the majority Hebrew-speaking society, they are not helped by the lack of acceptance throughout much of Jewish Israel of the social and cultural legitimacy of religious plurality within the Jewish people. In fact, it is mostly these Christians who have emigrated or are likely to be tempted to do so. The Church for her part has not yet set up suitable, visible ecclesiastical structures to promote their public acceptance as part of the Hebrew-speaking Jewish nation in Israel. Though the late Pope John Paul II appeared to make a start in that direction, this still lies largely in the future.
Palestinian Christians in the Occupied Territories face greater hardships. Their existence, too, is overwhelmingly marked by their nationality, rather than their religious identity. They are a tiny minority (perhaps 35,000, out of more than three million fellow nationals, all the rest of whom are officially Muslims) and have shared fully in the lot of their Muslim neighbours since the start of the present situation in 1967.
In addition, of course, they ) have the particular griev ?ances arising from their minority minority status, which has been rendered increasingly precarious in certain areas against the background of the generalised mayhem in the Territories in recent years.
But they have the advantage that, on the whole, it is easier for them to choose to take themselves and their families to safety elsewhere, given their greater adaptability to life in the West, where so many family members and friends have already established themselves.
Right now it is this emigration of Christians from the Occupied Territories, and particularly from Bethlehem, that is arousing the most urgent concern.
The Church, through her many institutions present in the Holy Land, has been making enormous and costly efforts to better the conditions of Palestinian Christians. She provides (for some at least, as far as limited resources allow) assistance in education, housing and employment. The generosity of fellow believers in Britain, as well as elsewhere, makes this possible; much more could be done if greater resources were available.
In the end, though, no such charitable efforts can really stem the tide and persuade Palestinian Christians that they and their children have a future in the land of Christ's birth and their birth. Only a change in the overall situation could accomplish this. Only peace could achieve it.
The most urgent charity the Holy Land requires, therefore, is "political charity". This requires that Christians in Britain, Europe and North America, stimulate and encourage their governments to take strong, determined initiatives to lead the Israelis and the Palestinians to sign a peace treaty and to accompany them firmly as they implement it.
Fr David-Maria A Jaeger, OFM is the founding director (1978-1981) of the Programme on Christianity in the Holy Land at the Ecumenical Institute at Tamar, Jerusalem. Fr Jaeger, a Franciscan of the Holy Land, now teaches canon law in Rome and is a recognised expert on Church-State relations in the Holy Land