Friday, December 12, 2014

Palestinian Christians

The reason the Israelis deny the Palestinians their civil, national, and human rights is simply because they are not Jewish. This includes the Christian minority of Palestinians as well as the Muslim majority. Of course it is extremely politically incorrect among the people who dominate US discourse to talk about Jews persecuting Christians. It is something that is said to never have ever existed. Indeed there is a double negation of Palestinian Christians by US "progressives" both as Palestinians and as Christians. They are deemed by "progressives" to be a reactionary, patriarchal, and homophobic people both because of their Arabness and their Christianity. While US radicals supported every type of revolutionary guerrilla movement in Vietnam, Central America, and Southern Africa they did not support the PFLP under George Habbash, a Palestinian Christian. In this case they unconditionally supported Israel, something that can still be seen in the extremist anti-Palestinian position of people like the current mayor New York City and Senator Elizabeth Warren, neither who even have the excuse of being Jewish. The radical US "progressive" position of supporting the ongoing destruction of the indigenous Muslim and Christian society of Palestine as represented by people like Senator Warren is not likely to change any time soon. But, many of us on the  right have supported the struggle of the Palestinians since 1948 in opposition to the "progressive" position represented by people like de Blasio and Warren.

1 comment:

Lorraine said...

Americans are aware of the existence of Palestinian Christians, but probably less so than when Hanan Ashrawi was the official spokesperson of the PLO.