Nativity at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, for Advent 2023. Photos from Pastor Munther Isaac.

An Arab Christian Girl from Bethlehem, Palestine, ca. 1923.

A Chilean Man of Palestinian ancestry partakes in a pro-Palestinian protest

Chilean-Palestinians

Outside of the Levant and the Arabian Gulf nations, Chile is home to the largest Palestinian diaspora in the world with up to 500 thousand Chileans having Palestinian ancestry. 

Palestinian immigration to the country began in the middle of the 19th century during the Ottoman rule. Like other immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, whether Arab, Slavic, Assyrian, or Greek; Palestinians were often called Turcos (Turks) since they usually entered the country with Turkish documentation. This denominate remains common in Chile and neighbouring Latin American countries to this day; which has erroneously lead many Latin Americans with non-Turkish ancestry and little information about family history, to be under the impression that they are of Turkish ancestry. 

Historically, the majority of Palestinians that arrived in Chile were Eastern Orthodox Christians, as most countries in Latin America barred the immigration of Muslims; for this reason there are more Christian Palestinian descendants in Chile than in Palestine itself. However, in recent times Chile has also taken in Palestinian refugees, the majority being Sunni Muslims. 

Many of the first waves of Palestinian immigrants lived in abject poverty and were illiterate. In addition to this like many other immigrant groups to Latin America, particularly those coming from the Ottoman Empire, Eastern Europe, and East Asia they were faced with xenophobia; a product of Chilean nationalism and rising post-independence ethnic/racial tensions. This xenophobia spread as far as the Chilean media, with one of country’s oldest national newspapers "El Mercurio,” writing:

“Whether they are Mohammedans or Buddhists, what one can see and smell from far, is that they are more dirty than the dogs of Constantinople...“

Despite the fact that the majority of people coming from the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Europe were Christian, the stigma of living in an empire ruled by Muslims or around Muslims was enough for them and other Christians such as Slavs, Greeks, and Armenians to be targets of Islamophobic sentiments that were prominent in Iberian American societies. 

Similar to other immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, many Palestinians began to work in commerce as merchants. This factor alongside their gradual assimilation into the white Chilean population, began their upward social mobilization. By the 1950′s Palestinian Chileans garnered a significant economic and political position in Chilean society, a good example of this is the recent presidential candidacy of Daniel Jadue.

The majority of Chilean Palestinians are inhabit the nations capital, and also the city of La Calera in Valparaiso Region, which attracted not only Palestinian immigrants but also other Levantine, Balkan, Italian, French, and German migrants.

Evangelical Christian Zionism is a putrid apocalypse worshipping antisemitic death cult.

(This is mostly true for Christian Zionism in general)

Plus they don’t give a shit about actual Middle Eastern Christians.

(Arab Christians, Assyrians, Armenians, Maronites, Coptic people)

They never did!

And they never will.

And they certainly don’t give a shit about Jews either. Like I said it’s an antisemitic apocalypse worshipping death cult.

Uhh idk, Arab Christians maybe???

The institutions of the Syrian church in Jerusalem are limited in size and number, owing to the poor position of the church. They include a small monastic brotherhood centred in St Mark's convent headed by an archbishop and including three celibate priests and a nun. The Bethlehem community has a parish priest too. One religious court of first instance is composed of the archbishop and two priests. A court of appeal is situated in the patriarchal see in Damascus.

Daphne Tsimhoni, The Armenians and The Syrians

https://www.zazzle.com/pd/editcollection?id=119062919444316458

At Tuwani

Here’s something I wrote 12 years ago in a book I did about Palestine which was never published. A short interesting read from that time… An Eclipse …At Tuwani

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the church in the coptic monastery of the virgin mary in bethlehem, palestine. this unique church is built inside of a cave tunnel which connects it to the nearby church of the nativity. the holy family is said to have passed through it during their stay in bethlehem. saint helena, who established churches across palestine during her time, is said to have established this one as well. the coptic archbishop of jerusalem purchased this and four nearby homes in the 1950s, establishing the monastery and re-establishing the church. today, the site is maintained by two nuns.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this from @jspark3000 , a hospital chaplain in Florida. He sums it up so perfectly.

People are dying and you are asking me to look away. People are dying and you are telling me that it's just too complicated for you to have an opinion on. People are dying and they are being called animals. People are dying and you are telling me that the Bible justifies the state of israel, actually, so it's fine.

I hold so much grief and pain and compassion for Israeli citizens now living in fear. I share anxiety and prayers and hope for hostages, and grief for innocent people who were massacred. But I cannot do that and then ignore the plight of Palestine. Not when people have been crying out in pain for decades. Not when a child dies every fifteen minutes. Not when families are being eradicated and settler violence is escalating without recourse. For the same reason that I grieve the victims of Hamas, I must side against the state of Israel and its history of oppression and violence!

I go to the wounded! I go to those fighting to survive! I go to those facing oppression!! I have no other choice! The Bible tells me to listen to those in pain, no matter who they are, and that means that I can hold compassion and dignity for people all over different parts of this conflict, while still understanding the inequity at play. When there is so, so much suffering and anguish, I cannot look away, no matter how much easier that would be! Acts 20:27 refuses to let us shrink away from the FULL council of God, no matter how difficult it becomes!

As long as I am alive, I must go to the wounded and the weeping. I go to my Christian siblings who are being persecuted in ways that most born and bread American Christians can't fathom. I have committed myself to peace making, different than peace keeping, and I cannot abandon that! Some analysts project that when this is all over, there will be no more Christians left in Gaza. I have no other option than to hold the people of Palestine and to continue to see them.

To follow this faith, you must have courage. Not only to do difficult things, but to challenge difficult thoughts. To engage in difficult conversations. To abandon neutrality when it is a tool of oppression. To hold complex realities without abandoning those who need you. To extend compassion and mercy farther than you can imagine possible. To listen when people cry out.

I go to the wounded, because I do not have the option not to. Palestine, you will never, ever walk alone. 🇵🇸

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross'. Palestine, Late 18th century.

I'm sorry for the overwhelming watermarks, I'll find a better version of this image

Imagine if Machete was Muslim instead of Catholic. His name would be something like Saif سيف, and Vasco would probably be something like Dhahabi ذَهَبِيّ

.

Here’s an idea.

Stop telling Middle Eastern Christians to run away to Europe!

It’s their home too!

And some of them are not afraid to make that quite clear (see the Assyrians).

Leave them alone!

People are so weird about arab Christians... like bro... they're the originals.

I saw an excerpt from a book, I think by a Palestinian Christian, talking about how western Christians think of the holy land as a fantasy land and not a real place with actual people. That stuck with me, wish I could find the book it's from

i know the book you're talking about, and went to look for it and couldn't find it. anyway the concept it's talking about is called "biblical orientalism" and like you said it pertains to a fantasy viewing of the "holy land" and its inhabitants in a very dehumanizing way.

i am personally not religious or well-read on theology enough to be qualified (or interested tbh) in discussing what "real" christianity is, and i have no intention of convincing anyone that ours is more valid, but what i NEED people to understand is that regardless of the contents of the religion itself, the geopolitical factors that surround arab christians makes it *incomparable* to western christianity. this isn't a matter of 'welllll in the west they worship this but in the east we worship that'. it's a matter of a long history of oppression and the fight against western imperialism. you can't apply the same views you have on western christianity to an arab christian. an arab christian does not hold any power or privilege over other arabs, and you're absolutely deranged if you think a palestinian christian of all people benefits from being christian. (<< thinking about those asks that elios received...)

A rare Mediaeval Sword taken from the Mamluk Arsenal at Alexandria during the last Crusade in the second half of the 14th Century

This sword was given as a gift to the Mamluk rulers of Alexandria by the Christian ruler of Cyprus and Jerusalem, King Peter I as part of a gift sealing a treaty. The sword was then forcibly taken back into Christian hands during the last Crusade's victory over the city of Alexandria. Consequently the sword symbolises the history of the time when Christians and Muslims fought for dominance in the eastern Mediterranean.

King Peter I, the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, launched the last Crusade in 1362 against the Muslim Mamluk Empire in the region. A fleet set out from Cyprus and proved victorious, taking the city of Alexandria with immense amounts of plunder returned to Cyprus, including this sword. Such was the treasure and weapons taken from the captured city that many of the overloaded ships had to jettison cargo.

David Williams, Head of Bonhams Antique Arms and Armour Department, says: "The fascination of this sword is that it has survived some six centuries having been gifted by a Christian King to a Muslim ruler and kept in the famed Alexandrian armoury and then taken by force by Crusaders and returned to Europe. It is a remarkable survivor of the Crusader period."

Arabic-speaking Christians in Lebanon.

by geomapas.gr