Christians are leaving Israel in droves as well.... While the rise of the Islamic movement is one reason, Treatment as goyim and second class citizen by the Israeli government is another. Both Muslims an Jews are guilty with what is happening to Christinas in the land known as the cradle of christianity. Western aide to Israel and the PA should be conditioned with improving the lives of christians in the Holy land

frankly, its hard for me to find any truth in this article. except for the statistics. living in fear??? im not living in fear!! in ramallah the most successful business men are christians and we live in harmony. it is the zionist interest to seperate between muslims and christians..."divide and rule" is what the british used to call it

this article is exactly correct. arab christians who support the palestinian cause are going to regret it. we have it better here, and much more freedom, than any other country in the middle east. i thank god every day that my arab family lives in israel and not under palestinian rule. i agree with the statement "I wish that Palestinian Muslims could experience the same co-existence with their Christian neighbors that prevails among Israeli Jews" - co-existing with israeli jews has been such a joy. everytime i visit family and friends in my wife's hometown, where they live among muslims, this is only confirmed. it is a shame that many arabs insist on seeing only the bad. jews open their hearts and lives to arabs more than i would have ever believed, if you only give them the chance. but if they want the dhimmi life under islamic rule, who am i to stop anyone. it's their loss.

NAIVE

i remember jerusalem before 40 years . i was living in the old city // i was a child .moslem child .. i remember jerusalem in the day of christian feasts .. the marching in the old city streets . with the groups of christian children and adult ,, with their religouse songs .. the moslem children like these marches and many moslem sold juice and sandwishes in these days ,, to both the christians and the moslem sharing the happy days .. tourists from all the world had been in jerusalem .. even we rented some room of our house to egyption christian from egypt [ the kibti ] offer them with some palastinian dishes which they liked very much .. after the 67 israil ocupied the country .. i lost these happy days .. i think the christian also lost these happy days .. this is the fact which i see it .. i prefer if a christian tell about these day .. the happy festival

Well, with the likes of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, a supposedly born-again Christian,and the archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the worldwide Anglican communion, telling them that Israel is the reason for the violence in the Middle East and that Israel is the one forcing Palestinian Christians out of the Holy Land, *no wonder* they're confused!

Few countries in the world protect the right to religious freedom as the Israeli democracy. It is much harder living as a Jew in Christian Europe not to mention living as aJew in Muslim countries than living as a Christian or Muslim in Israel. You are welcome to move. I promise that we won't miss torublemakers like you who constantly complain about everything in Israel.

is the wall, the checkpoint terminal and the settlements that surround our little town and strangle us economically, socially and physically. That is why many Christian families have left. HELP!! Bethlehem is in a state of emergency and dying a slow and painful death...

In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from it. India has built a barrier along its line-of-control with Pakistan (oft disputed by Pakistan). The Saudi Arabian government unilaterally began constructing a barrier on land disputed by Yemen. Morocco has built a barrier against Algerian infiltration in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which Morocco is occupying. Great Britain has a fence in the middle of Belfast separating Catholics and Protestants. In Cyprus, the UN itself that, causing significant hardship to the local populace, sponsored a security fence reinforcing the island's de facto partition. In 1939, Turkey annexed Hatay, a province claimed by Syria. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Syria supported the Kurdistan Workers Party. The Turkish government responded by constructed a high fence along the border and laying over 500 miles of minefields.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism operated complimentary shuttles running every half hour from Mar Elias Monastery in southern Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. To help ease pilgrims’ travels, Israeli security arranged to check passports before travelers disembarked from the shuttles. The measures were implemented this year to prevent traffic jams at the Rachel border crossing between Jerusalem and Bethlehem as 15,000 to 18,000 pilgrims were expected to travel between the two cities this Christmas. As in years past, the Municipality of Jerusalem and the Jewish National Fund distributed free Christmas trees on December 21 at Jaffa Gate Square in Jerusalem. Additionally, [Christian] Israelis were allowed to drive in and out of Bethlehem with their private cars to attend holiday festivities in the West Bank. By December 19 Defense Minister Amir Peretz had endorsed travel for 500 Palestinian Christians from Gaza to the West Bank. Additionally, Herzog approved permits for Palestinian guides from Bethlehem to conduct tours in Israel (for Christian tourists).

I don't know what the answer is for Christians in Bethlehem and I hear different answers about why people are moving. On Sabeel, it has liberation theology which was spoken against by Pope John Paul and there's no Christian mission statement for friends of Sabeel. So can't support them.

I find this report as it like to turn the truth, Christian in Palestine are minority , and they are around 1.3 % of the Palestinian population , and there are some fear about the Christian future in west bank , because there is many Christian families has immigrant to USA and Europe and other west countries , and they have immigrant due the bad economical situation they was living in due the Israelis policy . If this report find that those Christians immigrate due Hammas , wish I am not with this point of view , the world have to know whom let Hammas comes to the government , it is the American and Israelis policy , because they did not want to make a justice peace for the Palestinian , and that open the door for Hammas to be powerful , if there was a justice peace and a excellent economical situation , I am sure that none of the Christian families moved to out of their country . So , if Israel and America change their policy , and support to have really justice peace in Palestinian , many Palestinian Christian families will return to their homes .