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January 4, 2002/20 Tevet 5762, Vol. 54, No. 16
Christians suffer amidst region's turmoil
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Speaking in the Knesset last week, Danny Naveh couldn't resist the temptation to provoke Arab Knesset Members.
The Israeli Cabinet minister charged that Muslims in the predominantly Christian town of Beit Jalla in the West Bank were sexually harassing young Christian girls - and that the Palestinian Authority neither prevented it nor punished the perpetrators.
The reaction to Naveh's allegation was harsh. Knesset Member Mohammad Barakeh charged that such statements had a "Nazi" connotation. His colleague, Ahmed Tibi, scornfully spoke about "Danny Goebbels Naveh," referring to Hitler's propaganda chief.
Indeed, reports have circulated for some time of Christian girls in the West Bank being raped and harassed by Muslims.
Yet the comments must also be seen in the context of the public and parliamentary onslaught against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government after it barred Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat from Christmas mass in Bethlehem.
On the defensive, Israel is playing up the Palestinians' own Muslim-Christian tensions to deflect some heat from itself, some say. The Palestinians always have counted on the support of the Islamic world, but last week they basked in the sympathy of the Christian world as well.
In Nazareth, construction work continued on a huge new mosque in the center of town despite objections by the city, the local Christian community and a coalition of the Christian denominations in Israel.
Israel also has yet to approve the election of Irineus the First, the new Greek Orthodox patriarch, because he is considered too close to the Palestinian Authority.
In the past, the Christians were the majority in the "Christian triangle" of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour in the West Bank.
Under Palestinian rule, however, the Christian community has been decimated.
The harshest allegation in connection to the Christian women was that even secular PLO and PA activists were sexually harassing them. The Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported last week that a Muslim Tanzim activist who raped a Christian girl several months ago was released from prison due to pressure from his Tanzim colleagues.
Only after angry protests by Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch in Jerusalem and an ardent Palestinian nationalist, did Arafat instruct his security forces to act against harassment of Christians, the report said.
However, Arab Knesset members charge that spreading such allegations is an unacceptable attempt by Israel to incite Christian-Muslim tension and justify Israel's own snub of Arafat on Christmas.
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