Israeli forces raid Beit Jala during Palm Sunday celebrations

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palm Sunday celebrations in Beit Jala were brought to an abrupt end on Sunday when Israeli troops raided the majority-Christian town near Bethlehem and began threatening locals.

Palestinian policemen on duty near the celebrations were threatened by Israeli soldiers with arrest during the raid, which took place in the middle of the day as Sunday mass was coming to an end in local churches.

The town of Beit Jala is subject to regular incursions by Israeli forces, even though the large majority of its population live in Areas A, subject to full Palestinian civil and military control under the Oslo Accords.

Palm Sunday is celebrated this year on March 29 according to the Gregorian calendar, which is recognized for religious purposes by most Western Christian denominations in Palestine. Orthodox Christians, meanwhile, use the Julian calendar and will be celebrating Palm Sunday on April 5.

The raid raises fears of a repeat of last Easter, when Israeli restrictions on Christian worship during the holiday prevented thousands of Christian Palestinians from traveling to Jerusalem and led to chaotic scenes in the city itself.

Israeli authorities have in the past come under sharp criticism for the violation of religious freedom of Palestinian Christians, who number around 200,000, including 50,000 in the West Bank, 1,000 in Gaza, and the rest inside Israel.



Church gathering in a Beit Jala church Sunday prior to the arrival of Israeli forces.
(MaanImages)

In March of last year, Christians from East Jerusalem issued a statement complaining that Christians are often denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Easter holidays.

Each Easter, checkpoints are erected "at the Gates and in the alley, thus preventing the worshipers from free access to the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the vicinity of the Christian Quarter."

A report published by the US State Department in 2012 made similar observations, stating: "Strict closures and curfews imposed by the Israeli government negatively affected residents' ability to practice their religion at holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, as well as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem."

It added: "The separation barrier significantly impeded Bethlehem-area Christians from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and made visits to Christian sites in Bethany (al-Eizariya) and Bethlehem difficult for Palestinian Christians who live on the Jerusalem side of the barrier."

Following Easter celebrations in Jerusalem in 2013, Hanna Amireh, head of the Presidential Committee on Church Affairs, said, "The Israeli forces turned a religious occasion into a battle camp scenario."

http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?id=760165

Pallywood

So lets ask Sassy a very serious question here.
Would such Christian celebrations happen in Iran, Saudi etc?
Nothing worse than lefties going off Muslims claiming religious discrmination to Christians when Muslim majority countries hold the monopoly on that abomination to barbarity.

Which is why Sassy posted this, to make Jews look dehumanized, being as this is a claim to Israeli Jews.
That direction of argument is antisemitism.
If a wrong has been done, then I condemn this, going off a wrong to denote Jews as criminals and barbarians is making the same racist arguments we see happen around Black people.

Guilt by association and some of the left as seen and proven are the worst racists you will find.

Ask yourself this one simple question here.

Did Sassy post this to expose the injustice or instill hate towards Israel?

Answers on a post card

I'm sorry sassy but all most all your posts are about how cruel Israel is. Day after day it's the same thing, any article you can find you post up if it shows, [or you think it does] negative news about them. If they have done you a great injustice at some time please tell us about it as it is very difficult to understand your unending hate.

nicko wrote:I'm   sorry sassy but all most all your posts are about how cruel Israel is. Day after day it's the same thing, any article you can find you post up if it shows, [or you think it does] negative news about them. If they have done you a great injustice at some time please tell us about it as it is very difficult to understand your unending hate.

At least someone else sees past the veil here being poorly used.
Nicko gets this, because why is it Sassy posts an article on Christians discrminations only when the people discriminating are Jews?
If the point is on discrmination to Christians and defending against religious hate, then why would you ignore to post daily examples of this in Muslim majoritry countries and only post claims to this on Isreal?
There is only one reason and it exposes a reason of hate, towards Israel, one born from not excepting thier right to a nation.
I eluded this point to Cass, this is the resolve of some of the left, where they seek to deligitimize Jews through Israeli policy, so they can make antisemitism exceptable. Sassy shows her true colours here, because she certainly does not give a shit about Christians suffering under Muslim majority surpremacy.

What's more likely to cause antisemitism is that these events happen in the first place regularly rather than the reporting of them. And with Netanyahu getting elected again and based on what he has said I would brace yourself for more.

What do you want to do - shut down the voices that highlight these happenings?

Nicko, my posts point out Israel's cruelty every day, because Israel commits cruelty and oppression every day, which goes unreported in the main press because of their connections. The things Israel does are heinous, especially to children. Virtually every child in Gaza suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome. I have been hearing from people in the Yemen since the bombardment started there, and they say, we have had this a few days and our children are totally traumatised, how do the children and people of Gaza not go mad? South Africa, South America, America, the EU and here, people are not going to stop until Israel stops it's crimes and oppression. And if you don't like it, hard luck. ISIS etc get reported in press, so everyone knows of their crimes. Israel's crimes are not going to be glossed over.

It appears that most posters on here take no notice of your continual rants as "familarity breeds contempt", you post so much hate against Israel that mosts people gloss over your posts as proven by very little comments about them!

Irn Bru wrote:What's more likely to cause antisemitism is that these events happen in the first place regularly rather than the reporting of them. And with Netanyahu getting elected again and based on what he has said I would brace yourself for more.

What do you want to do - shut down the voices that highlight these happenings?

I have no issue with such events being reported. What I do have issue with is the double standards applied, where in this case it is around the persecution of Christians, which is by and large rare in Israel. When you compare this to the persecution of Christians in countless Muslim countries and where the same poster fails to post countless  accounts by Muslims to Christians in Muslim majority countries, you have to question the validity and reasoning of that posters agenda.
Where this poster fails to show such balance on the persecution of Christians, further proves that that the reasoning has everything to do with attempting to dehumanize Israeli Jews and actually makes a mockery to the suffering and persecution of Christians.

The Middle East is the most violent region in the world for Christians, according to a report released recently by the Open Doors World Watch List; and the Palestinian territories were listed among the ranks

The report, which details the top 50 countries where it says it is most difficult to be a Christian, indicates that worldwide persecution has increased in the past year, predominantly in Muslim countries. From November 2013 to October 2014, researchers measured the degree of freedom a Christian has to live out his or her faith in five spheres of life: private, family, community, national and church life, plus a sixth category measuring the degree of violence.

The results indicate that regions of Africa and the Middle East are the most dangerous overall for Christians. Christians in forty of the fifty countries mentioned on the list reportedly deal with persecution as a result of Islamic extremism. Nearly 100 million Christians are persecuted worldwide, thus making them one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world, according to the report. As this persecution reaches historic levels, researchers believe the worst is yet to come.

“Even Christian-majority states are experiencing unprecedented levels of exclusion, discrimination and violence,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. “The 2015 World Watch List reveals that a staggering number of Christians are becoming victims of intolerance and violence because of their faith. They are being forced to be more secretive about their faith.”

The Palestinian territories were ranked #26 among countries where Christians face the most persecution. While the territory’s prominent religion is Islam, 40,000 of its 4.5 million inhabitants identify as Christian.

“Dynamics of Christian persecution in the Palestinian territories are complex," the report reads. “Christians are squeezed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; their ethnicity entailing many restrictions from the Israeli side and their religion putting them in a minority position within the Palestinian community.”

Of all Christians present in the Palestinian territories, Christian converts from a Muslim background are persecuted the most, followed by historical Christians and non-traditional Protestants in Gaza.

Iraq and Syria also topped the list, due to the intense persecution Christians they are experiencing at the hand of the Islamic State. More than 70 percent of Christians have left Iraq since 2003 and over 700,000 Christians have fled Syria in the past four years. Other Middle Eastern countries and territories on the link include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Turkey, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.


http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Christianity-is-most-threatened-Muslim-extremism-report-says-387380

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/

This highlights even further the double standards of Sassy. So Irn, why is not Sassy speaking out against the persecution of Christians by Palestinians, ranked 26th for Christian persecution?

I expect it may be for the same reasons that you don't speak up or highlight in detail the awful actions of the Israeli government in the way they treat the Palestinian population in both the West Bank and Gaza. All you ever seem to do is to try and discredit these reports which I have to say comes across as you being pretty much an apologist for them.

That's my observation.

Irn Bru wrote:I expect it may be for the same reasons that you don't speak up or highlight in detail the awful actions of the Israeli government in the way they treat the Palestinian population in both the West Bank and Gaza. All you ever seem to do is to try and discredit these reports which I have to say comes across as you being pretty much an apologist for them.

That's my observation.

You see you still cannot condemn the double standards of sassy and instead try to turn this onto me, that is disingenious to say the least.
I attack false claims rightly when I see them, because false reports are even worse where they are created with the intent to dehumanize Israeli Jews. If you think such false accounts should stand it means you back such lies to stand unchallenged.
Again I have no problem with honest and genuine criticism of Israel and have rightly condemned Israel on a number of occasions, which you do not see the same of Sassy in regards to Palestine. So I have every right to discredit poor claims, one being not so long ago of the disgusting claim made against Israel in regards to flooding Gaza, where even you attempted to defend such an appalling lie.

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:I expect it may be for the same reasons that you don't speak up or highlight in detail the awful actions of the Israeli government in the way they treat the Palestinian population in both the West Bank and Gaza. All you ever seem to do is to try and discredit these reports which I have to say comes across as you being pretty much an apologist for them.

That's my observation.

You see you still cannot condemn the double standards of sassy and instead try to turn this onto me, that is disingenious to say the least.
I attack false claims rightly when I see them, because false reports are even worse where they are created with the intent to dehumanize Israeli Jews. If you think such false accounts should stand it means you back such lies to stand unchallenged.
Again I have no problem with honest and genuine criticism of Israel and have rightly condemned Israel on a number of occasions, which you do not see the same of Sassy in regards to Palestine. So I have every right to discredit poor claims, one being not so long ago of the disgusting claim made against Israel in regards to flooding Gaza, where even you attempted to defend such an appalling lie.

There is nothing disingenious about it whatsoever because you're now bleating away about an observation about you when you are constantly making observations about someone else who is posting news reports about Israeli actions. You just want to shut down voices that highlight these events as if they don't happen at all even when they come from reputable independent sources like Amnesty International etc..  

But hat's fine Didge. I'll look forward to your next thread that you start highlighting in detail an illegal action by the Israeli government instead of defending them.

Anyway, work beckons for now so have a good day mate.

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

You see you still cannot condemn the double standards of sassy and instead try to turn this onto me, that is disingenious to say the least.
I attack false claims rightly when I see them, because false reports are even worse where they are created with the intent to dehumanize Israeli Jews. If you think such false accounts should stand it means you back such lies to stand unchallenged.
Again I have no problem with honest and genuine criticism of Israel and have rightly condemned Israel on a number of occasions, which you do not see the same of Sassy in regards to Palestine. So I have every right to discredit poor claims, one being not so long ago of the disgusting claim made against Israel in regards to flooding Gaza, where even you attempted to defend such an appalling lie.

There is nothing disingenious about it whatsoever because you're now bleating away about an observation about you when you are constantly making observations about someone else who is posting news reports about Israeli actions. You just want to shut down voices that highlight these events as if they don't happen at all even when they come from reputable independent sources like Amnesty International etc..  

But hat's fine Didge. I'll look forward to your next thread that you start highlighting in detail an illegal action by the Israeli government instead of defending them.

Anyway, work beckons for now so have a good day mate.

Of course it is disingenious, as I have easily proven the double standards of sassy here and again you still cannot condemn her actions, where she fails to replicate Christian persecution. That has to be the worst defense possible I have seen in regards to double standards. Amnesty has been rightly questioned over its impartiality from within its own people in regards to Israel. So there again is a legitimate reason to question their reports. See again you have to turn this onto me which proves further how poor the left are when faced with facts.