Should Christians Support Palestinian Christians And The Palestinian Cause?
(March 1, 2001)

 

            In February 2001, Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal criticized Western Christians for not showing solidarity with the Middle Eastern Christian community.  He said, There are two billion Christians in the world.  We receive messages of encouragement support as well as gifts from Malaysia, even Sudan.  Sudan!  But the Church in the States, Australia, Canada, and the UK….  This so-called Christian Bishop said that Christians should be standing alongside the Palestinians to guarantee that political pressure delivered the freedoms enjoyed in the West – in other words, Christians should be supporting the Palestinian cause.  The Bishop has no clue as to why he gets no encouraging messages from the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  Stay tuned, Bishop!
            The Bishop wasn’t the only one speaking out about Christians in the West not supporting Palestinian Christians. February 16, 2001, Newsroom-Online article titled “Palestinian Christians Claim Western Church Ignores Them” had the same criticism.  Husam Misleh of American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine out of Detroit said that these Christians (United States) are the majority.  He went on to say,  Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are on the air all the time portraying Israel to be our best friend; at the same time, there are Palestinian Christians dying daily, and they don’t speak out on that subject at all.  It’s all atrocity in itself.  I beg to differ with his statement about Palestinian Christians dying daily.  This just is not true, and if they are, it’s at the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas.
            As you read on, you will understand why the disparities in support, if any support at all.  The Palestinian people and the Palestinian Christians are on the wrong side of the battle.  They are truly seen as the enemy because of their failure to recognize Israel’s sovereignty.   
 
(So-called) Christians Support The Palestinian Cause

             February 16, 2001 Jerusalem Post online article, “International YMCA Launches Campaign Against Israel” stirred up my spirit.  YMCA, Young Men’s “Christian” Association’s world headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland is known as the World Alliance of YMCAs.  This group made a five-day visit to the Palestinian territory back in November 12-16, 2000 to get a firsthand look at the conflict currently going on. They never went to the Israeli side but were able to conclude that

…the one-sided nature of the conflict demands that the YMCA take the side of the oppressed Palestinian people.  

Wait just a minute YMCA, one-sided was your report’s conclusion. Typically, judges hear both sides of a case before ruling.  I feel in my spirit that this YMCA group had already preconceived that they would support the Palestinians before they even boarded those airplanes headed for Tel Aviv.
            The report did not show the Israeli angle; showed no sympathy for dead Israelis; and condemned in no way the Palestinian violence.  I guess not though, because in the YMCA’s Report and Findings under the subtopic “The purposes of the visit were,” reads:

1.      To express our solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Palestine who are victims of a failed peace process and Israeli oppression.

2.      To develop a new global YMCA strategy in addressing the question of Palestine.

As I said, they knew what their conclusion would be before they went to the land of Israel because prior to their purposes they had studied reports of Amnesty International and other such groups and drawn some conclusions.
            Delegate Ranjan Solomon told the Jerusalem Report that:

As Christians, we are commanded to seek justice, and the teaching of Jesus Christ instructs us to defend the weaker side.  In this conflict, that would be the Palestinians.”  

“The teachings of Christ”!  He obviously doesn’t know Christ!  He doesn’t even know the Bible!  Why did this delegation, as some of you have done, simply ignore God’s Word and His promises to Israel and flat-out support the Palestinian cause? 

Interjection:  Mrs. Jane Lee Wolfe, president of World YWCA was a member of the delegation.  So it’s both YMCA and YWCA. Mrs. Wolfe, an Episcopalian, whose  biography on the YWCA website reads: Her commitment to peace with justice in the Middle East stems from her experience in Jerusalem and the understanding she developed of the plight of the region’s people. (She means the Palestinian people.)  Again, you can see that the minds of those delegates were already made up to report one-sided before they arrive in Tel Aviv.  

In December 2000, an ecumenical delegation of United States church leaders (Episcopal; Lutheran; Mennonite, to name a few of the two dozen delegates) were in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza for six days.  They called for immediate international protection for Palestinian people and said that peace will only come about when Israel returns to the pre-1967 borders.  They further said, that they had …heard the terror in the voices of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike, but their sympathies were primarily with the Palestinian people.  They even asked that other nations …condemn this new apartheid that oppresses the Palestinian people.  Some of the delegates conveyed anger over the U.S. military supporting Israel.  Get this, It is chilling to see the label of our country on the shells used to destroy homes. (The Christian Century, December 20, 2000.)  These are so-called Christians who had nothing to say about the guns, rockets, mortar shells, and hand grenades that bear the label of Russia, China, and who knows where else.  Those stones thrown can be as deadly as bullets.  Even though Russia and China don’t make “stones,” stones surely can kill.  The delegates were mum on Palestinian violence against Israelis.
            On the Palestinian National Authority website for July 23, 2000, so-called Christian, Father Atallah Hanna, official spokesman of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem stated that Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian city but also an Arab one and it lives in the heart and memory of each Moslem and Christian Arab.  The article continued by saying that there will never be peace unless Jerusalem is returned to full Palestinian sovereignty over an undivided city.  He also said that whoever doesn’t comprehend this fact is disregarding history and its facts.  Father Atallah unmistakably does not read the Bible.  If he were truly Born Again, there is no earthly way he could believe what he said.  “All that says he’s Christian, ain’t”!
            A widow of an Anglican priest, Cedar Duaybis has always lived alongside Muslim neighbors.  She said her allegiance is to the Palestinian cause and even Islamic symbols are a central part of her identity.  Read carefully what this so-called Christian woman had to say:  Al-Aqsa, that’s me, my identity card.  If you take away my purse, and then offer to return it without my ID, I won’t feel complete.  Israel has already taken 78 percent of what was once Palestine.  I don’t want to only get pieces of Jerusalem. (Christianity Today online.  “Between The Temple Mount And A Hard Place” by Elaine Ruth Fletcher, posted December 5,2000.)  In other words, this so-called Christian woman wants to see all of Jerusalem under Palestinian sovereignty, while at the same time she identifies with their cause.  My, my, and they wonder why they don’t get support from “True Bible-believing Christians” in the United States and other western countries.
            It is the belief of the Palestinian people that they will liberate Jerusalem.  They are intent on driving the Jews into the sea.  Hanan Ashwari, also a so-called Christian, in a February 20, 2001 debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas was strong in stating that (1) Israel should give up the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem; (2) Israel should acknowledge that they evicted the Palestinians from that land for the sake of their Jewish state; and (3) Palestinians should be allowed to return to their homes.  These beliefs and intents are not supposed to be in the hearts of Christians, including Palestinian Christians.  Christians should not support a group purporting such.
            Modern-day so-called Christian, Pope John Paul II made a  visit to Israel in March 2000 and his heart was clearly on the side of the Palestinian people.  From a Boston Globe article titled “Pope Points To Palestinian’s Suffering,” dated March 23, 2000, the Pope was quoted as saying

The Palestinian people have had to suffer in recent decades…Your torment is before the eyes of the world.  And it has gone on too long….

You  [Dheisheh Refugee Camp] bear the sad memory of what you were forced to leave behind, not just material possessions, but your freedom.  

Those quotes came from the heart of a so-called Christian leader who is clearly for the cause of the Palestinian people, and it’s “forget You God and what Your Word says about Your people Israel and the land that You gave them perpetually.”  Hasn’t the Pope been in the Holy Ghost reading His Bible to know that (1) people suffer because of sin or because God is trying to get their attention.  In the Palestinians’ case, the suffering is because of the sin of worshipping the false god, Allah, who moved upon them to go against Israel from Day-1 in 1948 when God brought Israel to be a nation again;  (2) The Palestinians were not forced to leave anything behind, but like DEVILS, they scampered – they fled.  It was in their hearts to flee, and because they did so, they have no right to return to Israel to reclaim one inch of property.  You see where the Pope’s heart is, and it’s not in God’s will.  Don’t you wonder!
            Many of you, along with the Pope, support the Jews giving back the land to the Palestinians.  You in America, when are you going to turn over to the Native-American Indians, who didn’t flee, your homes and the land that you sit on?  No, please don’t answer that because you can’t.

Is It Palestine Or Israel?

The Jerusalem Post’s online edition dated July 2, 1999 had a piece on so-called Christian Pope Pius XII’s 1943 letter against Jewish Statehood.  Pius XII made opposition toward Palestine being the Jewish homeland  in a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt.  An excerpt follows:

It is true that at one time Palestine was inhabited by the Hebrew Race, but there is no axiom in history to substantiate the necessity of a people returning to a country they left nineteen centuries before.

If a ‘Hebrew Home’ is desired, it would not be too difficult to find a more fitting territory than Palestine.  With an increase in the Jewish population there, grave, new international problems would arise.  

Please, what could have been more fitting for the Jews’ homeland than the land God gave them (Abraham’s descendents) as a perpetual gift.  That was Satan clearly operating in Pius XII, a so-called Christian, to keep the Jews from returning. (The Vatican has always wanted to be located in Jerusalem.)  Pius XII was undoubtedly being used to thwart God’s promise to Israel from coming to pass. He never wanted to see Jews in the Holy Land. Remember though, God’s Word about the Holy Land being Israel’s did not hit the ground and do nothing,  nor did it return to Him void.  His Word prospers as it did then in spite of Pius XII’s influence.
            Joseph Farah (Arab-American) of WorldNetDaily.com had this to say about the origin of the name Palestine in his editorial titled “Palestine is a Myth:” 

The first time the name ‘Palestine’ was used was in 70 AD, when the Romans, committed genocide against the Jews, smashed their Temple, and declared the land of Israel would be no more.  From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine.

            The name was derived from the name ‘Philistines’ – a people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier.  It was a way for the Romans to add insult to injury.  

When Roman Procurator Hadrian visited the sparsely populated Jerusalem around 135 AD, he decided to rebuild it as a Roman colony with a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the site of Herod's now destroyed temple to The God of Israel.  This angered the Jews and they staged a revolt.   Hadrian rebuilt on the site of Jerusalem and named it Aelia Capitolina  (name after himself and the chief god of the Roman state)  calling attention to the Roman’s victory over the Jews).  This too was in an attempt to wipe-out Jewish existence in the land, as was by the renaming Israel, Palestine.  The Romans wanted to obliterate the Jewish presence in the Holy Land.  But it didn’t work because God would not allow that.
            In the land of Israel today, all the archeological finds point to Hebrew history, religion, culture and existence in that land going back some 3500 years.  The Hebrew language was the language of old and is the language of today’s Israelis.  The Palestinian people were never a separate nation with a government in that land.  They never even had a Palestinian language.  Their mother tongue is Arabic. There have been no archeological finds in the land showing that the Palestinians were there before the Jews.  They were not in that land before the Jews because even with the 70 AD Diaspora, there was a remnant of Jews left in the land.
            The supposedly oppressed Palestinians are not descendants of the Biblical Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, Perrizites, Jebusites, Girgashites, nor the Philistines, and nor are they the descendants of Isaac.  In other words, the Palestinians are not, and I repeat, ARE NOT  the people God chose to occupy the land of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean and from Lebanon to the Sinai Peninsula.
            Throughout the history of the Jewish people, they were led into captivity on four occasions (Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans), and each time removed from the land because of their gross sin.  Starting with Tiglath Pileser of Assyria right on up to the Romans, when the Jews were dispersed from their land, God always left a remnant of the Jews in the land of Israel.  Even with the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the biggest dispersion ever of the Jews, there was still left a remnant of Jews in the land so that by their presence, their homeland was still occupied by them until the full return of the Jewish people. Should you venture onto the Palestinian National Authority’s website  they give verification of a remnant of Jews (47,000; other sources give 52,000) being left in the land and it appears as follows:

A Brief History of Palestine

1895 - 1917

1895

The total population of Palestine was 500,000 of whom 47,000 were Jews who owned 0.5% of the land.

The Palestinians themselves proved that God had a Jewish remnant in the Land of Israel – possessing the land.

Palestinian Hatred For Israel

Top Islamic cleric (mufti) in Jerusalem, Sheik Ikrema Sabri said in an Associated Press report dated February 5, 2001, that Jews have no religious tie to the Temple Mount and that The claim of the Jews is an empty one.  The mufti went on to say that If they [Israelis] want real peace they have to stay away from Al Aqsa.  This same Palestinian Authority-designated mufti issued a religious decree on February 20, 2001 stating that the Jews’ Wailing Wall is the property of Islam and that the wall has no connection to Judaism.  The mufti said that the Wailing Wall should be called after the name of Mohammed’s horse, Al-Burak Wall. Please, please, please!  Do you support this?  It’s these kinds of lies that the mufti spews out to the Palestinian people that has become imbedded in their spirits (some of yours as well) and cause them to become so inflamed with hatred.  The mufti also said that Islamic law prohibits non-Muslim sovereignty over the area of the mosque.  What do you expect from this guy?  It doesn’t stop there.
            The Palestinian people are taught to have no mercy on Jews, to fight them and kill them, and even die killing them because of a heavenly reward.   This is the purest of hate and people like this cannot be trusted, will never be content, and will not find rest until they themselves are destroyed as a people.  This is taught to the little children.  They are indoctrinated with hatred for the Jewish people in both schools and special camps.  If as a little one you are taught to hate Jews, and all in your household hate Jews – you genuinely hate Jews from the depths of your very being. This is why Palestinian Christians are for the ‘cause’ and not for Christ.  This is why they struggle to survive day-to-day.  Please, all that devour Israel will be devoured.  Look where the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, and Egyptians are.  This is an Antichrist spirit operating in the Palestinian people, Palestinian Christians, and you too if you support them and their cause.
            Dear Christians, it is because of the lies and hatred in the hearts of the Palestinian people that there is much suffering in their midst.  Don’t waste your tears over their plight because there is an easy solution – they should repent of their evil ways toward Israel – stop fighting them over what is their God-given right.  It all belongs to them.

You Are Not On God’s Side

            Church Times’ article dated September 2, 200- reveals how the Anglicans have a different meaning of Israel in prophesy than do Evangelical Christians.  The article titled, “The West is Failing Us, Says Bishop Riah” was written by Pat Ashworth. Under the subheading “Israel Still Tricky For Christians” is quoted material from a new Church of England report written by Glyn Paflin.  Paflin reports that Christians differ about Israel.

The ‘mainstream’ view is that scriptural promises and prophecies about the land are fulfilled in the coming of God in the person of Jesus; and that the return of Jews to the land and the establishment of the state of Israel have no ‘special significance’.   ‘Any theology of the Land today needs therefore to be based on more general biblical principles about land, peoplehood and justice,’ in this view.  

The writer believes that the above quoted material holds true for those Christian denominations that do not support Israel, such as Greek, Armenian, and Russian Orthodox; Roman and Greek Catholic; Coptic; Methodist; Lutheran; Anglican, and a few more – might as well throw in the World Council of Churches.  The so-called Christians in the land of Israel are strong backers of Palestinian demands for complete sovereignty over East Jerusalem and the Christian and Muslim holy sites there.  The New York Times on line dated December 24, 2000 had an article by William A. Orme, Jr. titled “Jerusalem Christians Now Back Palestinian Sovereignty.”  In the article the above so-called Christian denominations were in defense of the latest Palestinian street violence.  They justified the Palestinian violence in their statement when they said:

The church believes that it is the right as much as duty of an occupied people to struggle against injustice in order to gain their freedom, although it also believes that nonviolent means of struggle remain stronger and far more efficient.  

My dear people, Scriptural promises and prophecies about the land of Israel were not fulfilled by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Don’t you know that Jesus came to fulfill the carnal ordinances of the Law pertaining to the remission of sins?  You clearly don’t know the Word of God and that’s why you are not on His side. That’s why you are against Israel and you see no wrong in Palestinian violence against Israel when Israel is simply trying to stay alive. You are to be pitied!

In Conclusion

            You are wrong if you believe that

            The Palestinian people are squatters and have no right to the land of Israel, let alone The Temple Mount. As True Christians, not just professing Christianity with your lips because you believe in Jesus, you must be what is called “Christian Zionist,” and that is defined as

A person who believes that God, the Father Almighty chose the ancient nation of Israel to reveal His plan for the redemption of the world; that Jesus is the promised Messiah; that the modern ingathering of the Jewish People to Eretz Israel and rebirth of the nation of Israel are a fulfillment of biblical prophecies (both Old and New Testament); and that Christians are directed by Scripture to actively assist and participate in this process of ingathering and restoration (International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem).  

If you truly have the Holy Spirit indwelling your being and from you digesting the Bible daily, you know that Israel is a Jewish land as your God, not Allah, has promised to His people.  Your God’s people are the descendents of Isaac and not Ishmael.  God doesn’t go back on His Word. God loves Israel and Jerusalem is where He will return to rule and reign.  Unfortunately, that “busy bee” Satan wants to do all he can to thwart that because he hates God so much.  How is Satan working to thwart God’s plan? This is just one-way: he is working turmoil between the Palestinians and the Jews, and has been for hundreds of years.  The Palestinians want the Jews to give up East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and if it worked out that way, what would happen to the unfulfilled end time prophetic event whereby Messiah Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives and they (Jews) look upon Him whom they pierced (Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:11)?  It would not come to pass as is written.
            How can even a professing Christian who supposedly has chosen Jesus (a Jew, and the Son of the Jewish God) find objectionable the Jewish people’s desire to be in the land God promised them.  True, there are a lot of things about Jewish people one can very easily dislike, but the same holds true with Africans, Caucasians, Asians, being that there are no perfect people in the flesh. True, the Jewish Talmud teaches unfair treatment and dealings with non-Jews, and that’s ungodly.  That’s not the True God, but was something straight from the flesh of some Rabbi because God doesn’t teach cheating, stealing, and subjugation. (The Jews get their just due.)  Apart from all of that, as Believers in Jesus Christ you are to accept the truths that are in the Bible and walk in them.  You are to accept that while all other people on earth were talking to a myriad of gods (demons) Abram (Abraham) talked to the One True God of all creation, and God made a nation out of him through Isaac and not Ishmael.  God made a covenant with Abraham and his people because they were the only ones to believe in Him, alone. God promised and delivered on his promises to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed forever.

Seed Scriptures

Land Scriptures

Genesis 12:7; 15:4; 17:16, 19; 21:12; 22:16-18; 26:3-4, 24; 28:13-14; 35:11-12

Genesis 12:1,7; 13:17; 15:18; 17:8; 24:7; 26:3-5; 28:13,15; 35:12; 48:4; 50:24

 “The proof is in the pudding” – God’s Word.  God doesn’t take back His gifts and promises, and nor can He lie.  If God said all of this, and He did, then as a Christian you must go with God’s program.  How can you, a professing Christian, go against God’s plan for Israel’s existence in the land that He gave them forever?  Remember the remnant left.  That marks possession.
            The spirit of Islam that is behind the intent in the hearts of the Arab people to annihilate Israel or drive her into the sea is on the “fast track” to annihilation herself, and it will all be because of Jerusalem. From this point forward, the tenacious Jews are not going to give in to pressure from the United States, Europe, and no one else to concede to Palestinian demands and this is going to intensify the persecution of Jews worldwide.  Because of the intense persecution, more and more Jews are going to make aliyah and that is going to provoke jealousy and anger amongst the Palestinians and their supporters because Palestinian refugees are unable to return.  The Palestinians and other Arab countries are once again going to do as they did during World War II  – ask countries to not allow the Jews to immigrate to Israel.  The one country with roughly 1,139,000 Jews that will grant them their desire to stop the return of Jews will be Russia and  the old Soviet Block countries, and the prophecy in Isaiah 43:6 will have to be fulfilled at that time.

I will say to the north [Russia], Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth (Isaiah 43:6).  

Without this being the case, Russia would have no valid reason to be in on an attack against Israel except for the fact that Russia is humiliated by God having miraculously brought the Jews out of Russia when Russia refused to let them go freely. But, by the mighty outstretched arm of God, all of the remaining Jews will come out of Russia and those former Soviet-bloc countries surrounding her, even though Russia will have said NO to letting them immigrate to the land of Israel. Know that when you see this, it is time for the Ezekiel 38 war, which marks the beginning of The Tribulation period.
            Saints, after (1) worldwide persecution of the Jews, (2) their return to Israel from the four corners of the globe, and (3) the war of Ezekiel 38, Israel will be "ripe" for great revival. God knows what He's doing, and He knows what it takes to get His people to return unto Him. Praise His Holy Name! After their return, it will be as God spoke concerning the latter years, that Russia and her foes (surrounding countries that constituted the former USSR) will go up against the people of Israel. It will not be Russia (Magog) alone, but Iran and Iraq (Persia), Ethiopia, Libya, the Balkan States (Gomer), Armenia (Togarmah) and a whole host of other countries assisting them (Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinians, and a few others). They will all come against Israel in the latter years.

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee (Ezekiel 38:9).

It is also known that God is going to fight this battle for the Israelis with pestilence and with blood, with overflowing rain, with hailstones, fire, and brimstone. When God is done with the Arab-Russia alliance, they will be no more and He, God, will be magnified in the eyes of the Jewish people as well as many nations. (More on that at “First 3-1/2 Years Of The Tribulation: The Great Revival.”)
            The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will suffer no man to do Israel wrong, and that means the Palestinians, the rest of the Arab world, the Russians, the rest of the nations, and including you so-called Christians that stand against Israel and want to see her without sovereignty over her own land. The hand of The Lord is against the Palestinians and Arab people who are against Israel’s existence in the land God gave her, and this war will end with the total destruction of Islam (Arab nations) and their good buddy, “the Russian war machine.”

Thou [Israel] art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms….With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd [Preachers, Popes, Muftis] and his flock [followers]…  (Jeremiah 51:21-23).  

The hatred, abandonment, and evil that you have dished out to the Jewish people, you are going to get it back, Amen!  It is not about the Palestinian people compromising with Israel, but it is about them accepting that all of the Holy Land belongs to Israel and the whole of Jerusalem is her capital.  I don’t care how many nice sweet peaceful Palestinians or other Arabs you come across, if their hearts are not in the right place with regard to Israel, Church, you cannot support them. As Kimberly Williams, Director of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities believes, “The solution to the suffering of Palestinian Christians is to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the land and see themselves as foreigners.”  Re-think supporting the Palestinian cause.  Re-think supporting Palestinian Christians who support the Palestinian cause.  

Peace in Jerusalem, and may the heart of the Jews always be “one” heart that beats for Jerusalem.

Note: 

The national executive director of YMCA in the United States wrote a letter to the World Alliance of YMCAs on February 1, 2001, distancing his group from their report.

 

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