Plight faced by the christians of palestine at the hands of both the zion estate and the extremist jewish settlers living on stolen Palestinian Land and we begin by analyzing exactly why palestine and jerusalem in particular are so important to adherence of the christian religion. December is the time of year that christians worldwide celebrate the birth of the messiah, jesus may peace in. Blessings be upon him. Celebrations in bethlehem, the birthplace of jesus, are considered holy because the passion and resurrection of jesus happened inside the citys walls. Bethlehem is a palestinian city in the Israeli Occupied west bank, surrounded today by a Massive Concrete wall, military checkpoints and illegal settlements. Its imposing a system of control that im sure jesus was very familiar of. If hes born today, he would. Born on our side of the wall. According to the gospels, the most important features of christianity have their origins in jerusalem. The institution of the eucharist took place while jesus was celebrating passover with his disciples in jerusalem. Also his crucifiction at the golgatha, where jesus remained calm, compassionate and loving, even in the face of death, and according to christian belief, his resurrection three days later all happen. In jerusalem. In this way, jerusalem constitutes a unique and holy city for christianity. Other holy sites are associated with events from the old testament, the lives of mary, john the baptist, and the apostles, with endless more associated with later christian saints, holy men and women, and local traditions. But bethlehem will be somber place this year as the christian of the three major churches, greek. This year is going to of be totally different, there wont be any lights, we will not have the christmas tree, we will be morning those who are being slaughtered in gaza, theres a deep bat spear of grief here, and all the churches have decided to only have religious services for christmas. These holy places, the indigenous of Christian Community and pilgrims who come to visit from all over the. World have long been the subject of violence, harassment and intimidation by the Occupation Forces who have not allowed the community to worship in peace. The temple mount is no exception, often the subject of brutality, despite being considered holy place. It is where jesus was first presented as an infant to the temple and its people by his holy mother maria. It was also there where he famously taught elders of the community at the tender age of 13, and later threw out the money changers from the same temple grounds. Unfortunately, the percentage of christians living in bethlehem and in other occupied palestinian territories has plumed it, with the community currently totaling under 2 of the population. The fear that christians will one day no longer have a presence in palestine is slowly becoming a reality. The reason is extremely clear for the indigenous worshippers. Joining us on the. Show this week to discuss this important topic, our two special guests. Joining us in the studio is amir aqil, who is board member of palestine pulse, a londonbased group on the path to creating a new movement led by the grandchildren of the nakba and likeminded peers, amplifying the Palestinian Liberation Movement through britishbased voices, and we are also extremely honored to be joined by reverend dr. Stephen seiser, the founder and director of peacemaker trust, a uk charity dedicated to peacemaking. Especially where minorities are persecuted and where human rights are suppressed. Reverend dr. Stephen is also the director of the institute of the study of christian zionism and member of the executive of Israeli Committee against house demolitions, he is a retired anglican priest but continues to serve as chaplin to the former bishop of jerusalem, bishop abul asal. Reverend, if i can come to you please, first, thank you again for joining us. Why do christians have such affinity with palestine and jerusalem . We have a strong affinity for palestine in particular, because its the location of of where gods redempted. And was achieved in and through the lord jesus, he was born in bethlehem, he lived much of his life in the galilee, and he was arrested, crucified and rose again in jerusalem, so the central tenents of the historic life and teaching of jesus revolve around palestine, and not surprisingly it was where the church was founded among his followers, and so the palestinian Christian Community represents the. Indigenous Mother Church if you like, for the Global Church today. Thank you for that. Um, i know it seemed like such an obvious question, but i feel like the Christian Community often dont speak enough about the relevance of palestine and emira um yourself who has lived as a palestinian, lived in her homeland and have been given the privilege of um traveling extensively, because you are british, obviously its a privilege that other palest. Dont have um, let me ask you about what youve seen in your time in palestine, about the oppression of the Indigenous Christian Community there at the hands of the occupation and extremist uh settlers, yes, so um, the way that we see it as palestinians is palestine operate operates as a community and thats regardless of religion, but what weve what ive seen personally um living there is that palestinians, christians, muslims, they they face a pression on daily. Basis and its the same oppression, the christians dont get spoken about enough, which i think is tactical, um, but they go through the same land grabs, um, settler violence a daily basis, um, streets, theyre not allowed to walk down just because theyre palestinian, regardless of their religion, um, you know, facing the iof a daily basis, their children also getting in prisoned and arrested for false trumped up charges, um, apart from the fact that, palestinians in the. Bank also get killed quite frequently uh regardless again of religion uh the zionists cant tell what religion you are by looking at you and so therefore the christians are pr persecuted the same way as any other palestinian, hence why we say that were a community made up of different religions. Its a lack of freedom of movement for the christian palestinians and muslim palestinians, its a lack of religious right to practice your religion whether going to churches or mosks, its the same. Persecution that they face, um, i think the issue that we have is that the the christians dont get spoken about lot because the fact that it goes against israels agenda of making this a muslim jewish issue, where actually its a palestinian against israel issue um regardless again of religion, so like i said we are one community and we act in that way um and the palestinian, christians and muslims go for the same thing, its its definitely something that weve seen the. Unity between the christians and the palestinians, on footage that has gone viral, but also um in cases like shirin abule who um is one of our most beloved and treasured um heroins of the palestinian liberation doing her job and obviously attacked in um in cold blood and and murdered by the entity, but also something that you said that was really striking to me is i found myself surprised to hear of although ive seen it and as a palestinian ive grown up seeing it, i was still surprised to hear just how much repression. The Christian Community is suffering um and thats um upsetting. Its almost like this, internalized colonization that im fighting. Um, reverend, if i can come to you for this question, as a religious leader, im sure that you have uh seen and heard these things that weve just spoken about what amira has attested to, um, but we know that scholars of all abrahamic faiths have uh long been the targets of proapartide lobbies who have launched heavy campaigns to have them displaced. From their roles if they speak about palestine, can you tell us about why religious leaders are targets and if you have any experience in this matter, set the scene for us . Well, israel is apartite state, its based on supremacism, its a racist endeavor and its a settler colonial enterprise, and thats an indefensable political position, and therefore it must make its critics, particularly those to human rights, it must make them appear worse to distract attention from its own crimes, so accuses jewish antis for example as jew haters. And it accuses nonjews like me and others as either holocaus denis or antisamites. The way they have achieved this is by pushing a mis definition of antisemitism. Its called the ihr a, the the International Holocaust rememberance alliance mis definition, its a working definition, it was never intended to be used in legal terms, but it essentially dilutes antisemitism from prejudice, hostility, racism. Towards jews because theyre jews, but equates similar criticism of israel as antisemitism, which is entirely fallacious, its untrue, but by imposing this new definition on particularly western governments, churches, trade unions, universities, they have broadened out this definition, so if you criticize israel, they accuse you being antisemitic. In my own personal experience, um, faced 20 years or more of intimidation, where they target critical of you, accusing you of associating with antisamites or holocaus denyors and so on. One occasion they accused me of seeking to divert church funds to hamas in gaza, which is entirely untrue, um, but they intimidate you, and if that doesnt work, they intimidate others to try and isolate you, so invitations to speak in universities or churches suddenly will be withdrawn because. Pressure has been put upon them not to have you speak. Um, i encountered a a complaint that was made about me in 2012, accusing me of antisemitism, that was resolved amicably, but then they had another go in 2018, and that led to a tribunal, took four years, they couldnt find a Single Person to come and be a witness against me. I had 50 witnesses on my side, rabbies. Academics, bishops, um, they couldnt find a single word of mine that was deemed antisemitic, and yet the tribunal found me guilty of conduct onbecoming, gave me a 12 year suspension from being an anglican priest, um, so much so that um, one jewish academic, jeff halper called it an inquisition, and the Expert Witness on antiseemit is my tribunal, um, Anthony Lerman said, its a, its an indelable stain, on the church of england to accuse someone whos never uttered a single word against the jews to be accused of antisemitism, so thats how they do it, they target academics, they target politicians like Jeremy Corbin and clergy, and if they get one scalp, one head, everyone else keeps their heads down, and thats thats part of their agenda, to silence criticism uh, where really criticism needs to be directed at them, what interesting story and and. Something that im sure many other um religious leaders have uh similar stories like yourself. Um what id like to do now is have us all take a look at some examples of how christians and their beliefs are denigrated by the zionist jewish occupiers of palestine. The genocide against the Palestinian People has brought judaism and jewish extremism into the spotlight. From extremist rabbies calling for christians to be killed. Two billion christians, which are idol worshipper, between chinese, india, hindus, buddhists and christian, at least six, six and a half billion people are idol worshippers that according to the torah do not have the right to live, idol worshipper go, its dead penalty, not only jews, even a gow down to idol, believe in jc, deserve death penalty, my country to ordinary israel. Is making the same murderous threats, are you jewish . Do you want to honor god . That is the godly thing to do, we respect one another, the godly thing to do is to kill you, the godly thing is to kill me, thats right, thats what the taura says, the taura says to kill us, the tora says that idol, people who worship vidal such as yourself, when there is a sanhedrin to kill us, yes, okay, thats what the tour, so we know how the jewish people feel about christians, yes, that you discriminate against christians, we discriminate aga say, you also have the same rabbies making threats to destroy churches. Even if the United States government will say, okay, okay, hey, you becoming too fanatic, the government, too religious, well give you a billion dollar extra every year to the aid, dont touch the churches, were not allow to listen to them, god comes before obama and islands, while it appears that for the jewish extremist squatters in palestine. Spitting on christians is favored passtime. Then there is the outright blasphemy against jesus and his pure mother we kill jesus we proud of it. Um, reverend, if i can come to you again for this question, uh, what youve uh, the persecution that youve faced, um, im assuming uh, is is a parallel that you can draw between uh, yourself, uh, the christian palestinians, but also jesus as well, faced similar persecution by the people of his time, can you give us um some information on that and draw some parallels for us . Id be pleased too, the parallels are quite significant, um, the First Century judaism was under Foreign Military occupation, the roman empire, and the political religious leaders, people like herod, king and the pharisees and sajuses, the religious leaders, were cooperating with the roman government and oppressing the people, they were used as a means of oppressing and taxing the people, and so the parallels with zionism today, with supremacism, with antagonism toward the poor, the marginalized and the foreigners, the the parallels are clear, jesus was a threat to that, even before he was born uh, his mother mary, when she was told that she was expecting him, its called marys song, she speaks about um how he will bring down the rulers from their thrones, he will lift up the humble, he will fill the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. After jesus was born, uh, king herod recognized there was a threat when the mai from iran visited bethlehem to worship jesus and give him gifts of gold, frankincense and mur. Herod instituted pogram to try and have jesus uh murdered as baby. He had uh orders given to kill all the boys in bethlehem. Under the age of two, because he he saw jesus as a threat as an adult, jesus very first sermon given in nazareth in in um speaks of um how he would proclaim freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, set the oppressed free and proclaim the year the lords favor. The year of the lords favor was the jubilee, the time when slaves would be free, when debts would be cancelled, and that was what he was coming to do, to bring a revolution uh to the status quo. He anticipated persecution in his sermon on the mount, probably his most famous sermon, he says, you will be blessed if you are persecuted for righteousness sake, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, bsly say all kinds of evil against you, rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for the same way they persecuted the prophets, as we follow through the the life of jesus as an adult, we see him challenging the religious leaders, challenging the status quo, the the the the foreign rulers, um, turning the tables in the temple, casting out those who were exploiting the poor, and on one occasion they tried to trap jesus, and they said, should we pay taxes to caesar, and jesus said, show me a coin and they gave him a coin and he said whose image is on the coin and they all shouted out caesors he said well render to caesar the things that are caesors and render to god the things that are gods. He was pointing out that they were using this this money, therefore they were already compromising with the government, the roman government, yes pay your taxes, but remember your responsibility is ultimate to god and he is sovereign uh at his trial uh pilot challenged jesus and said, um, dont you realize i can have you killed . And jesus said, you would have no authority where it not given you from god himself. God is sovereign, god is. In control um all through the life of jesus we see how he antagonized and challenged those who are committed to supremacism, committed to um uh the status quo using their power to exploit uh particularly the vulnerable and everything that youve just said about um jesus may peace and blessings be upon him and and his um his his fight and his resilience in in fighting his oppressor. Is actually something that weve all seen of the palestinians currently, whether it be christian, muslim or even our jewish palestinian community, um, fighting the the iof, um, and you know, doing so with so much dignity and so much honor, um, you know, amir, if i can come back to you, uh, footage that weve you know seen uh, of christians in palestine uh, being insulted and being spat on, etc. By the community, its its gone viral, its not new you know this, yet they are as a community, israel kind of what it does is that it propagates itself as this um, the only democracy in the middle east where everyone has their freedoms, whether it be uh in the religious sector or in the personal sector, um, what do settlers and their patrons in the Israeli Regime really think about christians, from your own experience, from what youve seen, um, to sum it up, i think, an unwanted nuisance, because. If it it again goes against their agenda having christians in palestine where they want to make it very obvious that its a muslim problem and having the christians there is issue which is one of the reasons why systematically theyve been pushed out whether that be in jerusalem or west bank um and the population is dwindling um so if we look at for example in 1922 there was 10 population a christian population in the whole of the. Whereas now its estimated 2 in the whole of the lands and these people arent running away from their palestinian brother and sisters but regardless of religion, theyre running away from being systematically attacked by the settlers, by the regime in in general, whether thats um persecution, whether thats you know not allowing them to practice their religion um and and constantly taking from them whether you know their lands, their homes, they face the same things a daily basis as the muslims, so. i think how they see how settlers um and the regime sees them is a population in palestine that needs to go, it needs to be pushed into jordan, it needs to be pushed in to other surrounding countries, because that fits their agenda, um and and weve seen it, weve seen that their percentage, i mean they they werent too many to begin with um in in and you have to remember these are the most ancient christians in the world that we have. If we dont look after them and and show the western world whats happening to them in the next 20 30 years we do face we we face the fact that they might not be any ancient christians that are related to the past biblical stories on the land that jesus was born in absolutely absolutely and its um and its definitely something that the Muslim Community in palestine very strong about its you know the there has been conversations back and forth of if our mosks are bombed you know christian priests have said that we will make the call for adhan and we will be the ones to honor um islamic prayer to for the community and the same and the inverse is true whereas the muslims have said if no churches exist we will make sure to honor the traditions of of christian christianity in the land um reverend thank you so much for joining us and um the same for you and mira this is such an enlightened conversation. And i wish that we had more time to continue it, but unfortunately that is all that we have time for today. Thank you at home for watching and join us again next week for another edition of eye on islam. This year there will be no christmas in the city of Jerusalem Al Quds that is synonymous with the birth of jesus christ located in designist Israeli Occupied west bank. Last month, palestinian leaders of christian denominations in alquds came together and citing the devastating genocidal war on gaza made a unanimous decision to cancel public celebrations. Theres no. Christmas tree or sparkling lights in manger square or along the covlestone streets that should be bustling with Foreign Tourists this time of year. There will be no Christmas Parade with musicians and no santas on street corners dalling out joy to children. Instead, the main square is a simple parking lot without a hint of holiday decoration to be seen because gaza is suffering. No christmas in palestine, this week on the mide steam. French influence is rapidly eroding over its former colonies in africa. Since the 19th century, french colonization had culminated in a monopolized sphere of influence in west africa. France. Is only using its presence in these regions, especially the sahel region for its own benefits to control our mineral resources. West africans are gradually rejecting french influence and they are blaming these former colonial master for the rampant poverty and insecurity in the region. The headlines of World Health Organization warns almost all Hospital Services in gaza have stopped functioning as the israeli genocide enters its 82nd day. Iran strongly condemns israels assassination of senior military advisor in syria, urging the International Community to stop the regimes destabilizing activities in the region, and hamas says israel has removed the organs of 80 palestinians whose dead bodies were abducted by the regimes forces during their enslot on the territory