A month ago, the Palestinian Authority shut the Beit Al-Liqa community center in Beit Jala and arrested the director and pastor Johnny Shahawan. The arrest followed a social media post by notorious former MK Yehuda Glick as he visited the center. Glick is perhaps most infamous for his activism around the Temple Mount and endangering the agreed status quo. Palestinians everywhere are outraged that such a religious extremist was associated with this Christian community center and this has remained a hot topic ever since. Many are concerned that Glick has succeeded in sowing division between Christians and Muslims and has been using Palestinian Christians for his own Zionist advocacy purposes.
Beit Al-Liqa issued a statement where they were surprised by the incident and denied any connection with Glick and stated that he was a stranger who walked in with the group and took a photo. Although the PA’s investigation has not been completed, many Palestinians have found this statement unconvincing in light of both the photo, Pastor Johnny’s previous engagement with Christian Zionists and a follow-up social media post by Glick himself where he claimed he spoke to the group after Johnny. Glick has obviously continued to build on this incident with his own audience.
Another reason that many Palestinians will find these claims unconvincing is the growing reputation that the Beit Al-Liqa center discriminates against Muslim families who want to use the community center’s playground. T, a Palestinian Muslim woman and a close friend who lives in Beit Jala raised this issue with my wife and I just over a month ago when we were invited over for a visit. I asked her to share her story:
“I planned to take my children and visit Beit al-Liqa with my friend (who is Christian) and her children. I arrived ten minutes early and tried to enter the center. I went to the secretary and she asked me what my name was. They told me that the place was full and only people with yearly membership could enter. Of course, with my dress it is clear that I am Muslim. I asked her politely to register us for the yearly membership sign up and she replied that it was too difficult due to the large number of members.
I left and called my friend, explaining what happened. She then arrived, entered and immediately booked a membership for her family. I went back in and said ‘Shame, you reject me because I am a Muslim and my friend is a Christian’. This is not the first time I am rejected from this place. I had to return home with my children with shame. The shame that we were judged because of our religion. My children deserve the same as any other child. I am proud to say that I have Christian and Jewish friends, and I do not differentiate between us. We are all human.”
When I asked T how she felt about the recent developments she replied:
“My feeling about the manager’s imprisonment is excitement and joy, and I think that’s the least that can be done. A person that judges children according to their religion is the peak of humiliation, low etiquette and respect for human beings. I could write a hundred words to describe how I felt when my children and I were refused entry because of our Muslim religion. As for the place, I think our children need a place with a high and respectable level of management; in the hope that they will open the place with a new management of different religions so that all our children will have places to play and have fun. It is not their fault that they are paying the price for the stupidity of a person who has not respected humanity.”
The Palestinian Evangelical leadership’s response has been overwhelmingly disappointing and in the few incidents where something public has been said it has been in blind support of Pastor Johnny, even as early as a day after the incident took place. It is also incredibly ironic that in light of the aforementioned story, the President of the Federation of Evangelical Christians in the Holy Land is claiming that his detention “has the smell of a discriminatory and abusive act against a man of the cloth”.
This leads me to the central point of this article — It’s time to talk about Palestinian Evangelical leaders. This incident at Beit Al-Liqa is important but it reveals a deeper systemic problem: Christian Zionist and other Israeli actors are using the Palestinian Christians (and specifically the Evangelicals) for their own colonial purposes, and there is a complete absence of accountability from the leadership on this matter. Palestinian Christians are prime targets for Zionist advocates, as in the Western Evangelical mind they retain the Orientalist intrigue of an Arab outsider while at the same time feeling familiar due to their Christian identity. They are effective in reassuring of Israel’s divine destiny, eliminating any concern about the injustices being committed against the Palestinians and reinforcing Islamophobic narratives. The best example of this is the disgraced Greek Orthodox priest Gabriel Naddaf who attempted to recruit Palestinian Christians into the Israeli army. This method is typical of colonial and settler colonial powers, that will use resources and divide-and-conquer tactics to maintain their dominance and power.
Evangelical Palestinians in the West Bank are even more of a target due to the major support that Evangelical Americans have for Israel. When Evangelical Palestinians have spoken up (like the Christ at the Checkpoint conference), this has been a major threat to the lies that Christian Zionists peddle. Therefore, efforts have been made to influence, recruit and silence other Evangelical leaders. The first example of this are the Epicenter events organized by the Joshua Fund which aim to “Bless Israel and its neighbours in the name of Jesus”. Joel Rosenberg, the founder of this initiative, an ardent Christian Zionist, supporter of Israel and former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu has successfully built his influence with prominent Palestinian Evangelical pastors by using two resources: Money and recognition. In the link above, one can see the wide array of funding that has been provided for these pastors. An annual gala has also been organized by Rosenberg where Evangelical Palestinians from all over the land are invited to attend.
This type of material display lobbies many; providing for further opportunities of influence and infiltration. Many of these pastors have been given a public platform to share their stories and be well received by a Western audience. Palestinians are used to being sidelined and outright rejected by Western Christians and I can only guess that this scratches a certain itch. Many young Palestinian Christians are outraged by how easily some of their leaders fall into such an obvious trap, especially as these colonial tricks are well known and so blatantly obvious. For those with a strong enough stomach, you can watch the videos from 2018 and 2017 where leaders of Palestinian Evangelical churches attempt to entertain and please the Christian Zionist audience. Most disturbingly, Rev. Munir Kakish, the Chairman of Council of Local Evangelical Churches in Palestine is a main speaker in both conferences.
What is the chairman of this council doing with a former advisor of Netanyahu? Can he really participate in such events without succumbing to Zionist influences? Perhaps one of the most telling answers to these questions was the recent inclusion of Rev. Naim Khoury into the council under this very chairman. Rev. Khoury is infamous in Palestine for his collaboration with Christian Zionists, Islamophobia and was recently chosen to be number 26 on the Israeli Allies Foundation top 50 supporters of Israel. This horrifying inclusion took place after Rev. Kakish allegedly violated the internal rules of council elections and bypassed voters from Gaza to win his seat in a controversial manner. While it is doubtful that pastors like Shahawan and Kakish are actually Zionist, it is clear that they are willing to abandon morality and betray their own constituencies in the pursuit of material benefits and power.
On the other side of the Separation Wall, Palestinians in Israel and East Jerusalem do not fare better. For example, in 2016 a conference called the 822 Gathering took place in Jerusalem with the main theme of “reconciling” the sons of Isaac to the sons of Ishmael. Many Palestinian pastors and leaders were present, especially from the Galilee. In reality, the main theme was an attempt to tame and subjugate the Palestinians as they were herded on and off the stage for the entertainment of the audience while the Israeli national anthem blared continuously as if to brainwash the Palestinians. Palestinian leaders were also called on stages to make Zionist “covenants”. One of these was regarding the Temple Mount, where Jerusalem-based pastor Bassem Adranly declared the United Nations to be “tyrants” for a UNESCO resolution regarding Israel’s conduct around the holy site. Later on in the conference, perhaps the most disturbing scene took place when his wife Jesra stepped on stage with an Israeli woman and they claimed to represent Hagar and Sarah from Genesis. She declared:
“Hagar servant of Sarah. Hagar remember your place….Will you accept the position that it is, as a servant? And I am here to say to my Jewish brothers and sisters we accept this place. We accept this place that you saw yesterday when we lifted up the arms of our Jewish brothers carrying the crown, we accept the place as a wife in a marriage relationship, it’s not the place of disgrace, it’s the place of the helpmate, the support, the partner, the edifier, we accept this place.”
Unlike the examples used from the West Bank, it seems that these leaders genuinely embrace their servant status and role in supporting Israel. This requires much more consideration, as corruption and opportunism are easier to mitigate, but embracing the ideology of your oppressor is something else entirely. While most Evangelical leaders do not agree with these positions, it is also clear that they have allowed these issues to go unchallenged. Christian Zionist movements are causing serious harm and the issue is being neglected.
It is time to talk about Evangelical Palestinians because one can clearly see a concentrated effort by pro-Israel actors to recruit, influence and divide Evangelical Palestinians. These efforts have overall gone under the radar or have been tolerated. The recent events at Beit al-Liqa seem to be a turning point on this matter.
This leads me to my final concluding points. Firstly, how are those that want to advocate for Palestinian rights going to deal with these pro-Israel initiatives that recruit Evangelical Palestinians? Regardless of their motivation, it is clearly successful in concealing the injustices taking place in the land. Isolating and ostracizing Evangelical Palestinians will only support the Zionist narratives and cannot be the solution. Secondly, how are Palestinians and Palestinian Christians more specifically going to address the lack of moral leadership and accountability of the Evangelical leaders? Young Palestinian Christians have already called for their leaders and community to confront anti-Muslim attitudes, but it seems that it has fallen on deaf ears. No serious and open conversation is taking place within the Evangelical circles about this. If Palestinians are ever to truly rise against the many obstacles we face, it will have to be united. The consequences of such foolish behavior are not easily remedied and continue to distract and divide us. One can only hope that the incident at Beit al-Liqa will cause some serious self-reflection and positive change within the community.
I think this is a problem for Christians to take on. There are quite a few who can and should do it.
Part 2:
The Christian population has declined even more precipitously than the Muslim population, perhaps because they are more readily accepted as immigrants to Western countries that are predominantly Christian. Most Christians who remain in Palestine should be honored for their persistence in the struggle, rather than blamed in a broad brush fashion for the sins of a minority. The added pressure on Evangelical Palestinians is acknowledged by the author in the reference to the Christ at the Ceckpoint conference, but immediately negated by implying that all Palestinian Evangelical pastors are susceptible to the bribery of Joel Rosenberg’s Joshua Fund. Instead of throwing mud at Evangelicals, why not simply expose Rosenberg for the divisive Zionist he is. What kind of name is Rosenberg, after all?
Munayer acknowledges that Kakish and Khoury “abandon morality and betray their own constituencies in the pursuit of material benefits and power.” So why not expose such corruption to the mass of Palestinian Evangelicals and encourage them to put pressure on their leaders rather than blame all Palestinian Evangelicals and other Christians for those individual betrayals? Munayer asks how to deal with ” the lack of moral leadership and accountability of the Evangelical leaders?” We do it by allying with and leveraging the “Young Palestinian Christians” Munayer references and carefully calling attention to the divisive and corrupt actions of specific leaders, not by carelessly making it seem that all Evangelicals and even all Christians are allied with Zionists.
Part 1:
There does seem to be a problem with some, but perhaps not all, Palestinian Evangelicals, in particular the Beit Al-Liqa community center in Beit Jala. T’s story clearly shows that the personnel of the “community center” have not been treating the people of Beit Jala fairly and in a non-discrimminatory way. As its “director and pastor,” “the buck stops with” Johnny Shahawan. An investigation should be made to see if people have complained to him about past discrimination and whether he has taken steps to stop it.
That said, the title of this story unfairly blames all “Palestinian Evangelicals,” and the lede even extends this to all “Palestinian Christians.” Palestinian Christians have taken a leading position in Kairos Palestine and the Kairos Document of December 2009, which calls on all Christians worldwide to support human rights in Palestine and specifically endorses the BDS movement. That document has arguably led to the support of many Western religious denominations, including Presbyterians and Evangelical Lutherans to support Palestinian rights and adopt BDS as a tool to that end, just as boycott, divestment and sanctions led to the end of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Such a careless attack on all Palestinian Christians is divisive and plays into the hands of the Zionists by dividing Palestinians against one another. Criticism should be narrowly focused on Johnny Shahawan, the Beit Al-Liqa community center and other offending individuals and institutions mentioned later in the article (Gabriel Naddaf, Rev. Munir Kakish, Rev. Naim Khoury), so that offending institutions and individuals can reflect on their divisiveness and correct their behavior. The article unfairly paints all Palestinian Evangelicals, even all Palestinian Christians, with a broad brush that is not deserved.
Here’s a documentary making the case that Evangelical Christians were duped into supporting Zionism.
“Christian Zionism: The Tragedy & The Turning”
https://vimeo.com/149184420
It’s a companion to this article by Avigail Abarbanel.
“It’s time for American Jews to recognize they have been duped”
https://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/american-recognize-duped
This article is strange. As a first it taints Yehuda Glick as a notorious extremist for trying to overturn the discriminatory situation where Jews are not allowed to pray or even enter the Temple Mount without police protection, which is the holiest site in Judaism. If one follows Glick, one would notice that pretty much no one has a negative word to say about him as a person. When they speak against him the general approach is to paint him as an extremist for trying to change the status quo to allow Jews to visit and pray on the Temple Mount freely, which, again, is the holiest site in Judaism.
It then goes on to attack some explicitly Christian center for not accepting Muslim members. Irony much?
And then there is the whole framing of the issue. The police closed a Christian cultural center and arrested the pastor for meeting a private Israeli Jewish individual. This is somehow a reasonable situation? It sounds like the author wants this to happen more often. There is no call to violence, but what kind of accountability does the author call for when dealing with individuals that have a different opinion on the situation than the Palestinian consensus?
As for the whole “Palestinians united” thing. That ship, like the “Arabs united” ship before it, has already sailed and sunk. This is what happens when a people hits a dead end on a road paved with delusional narratives. There is no viable strategy to achieve the goals that the Palestinian consensus has set for itself. When this is the case, everyone is on their own.