Chief Palestinian negotiator and secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat rejected on Wednesday claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that no country has served Christians presence in the Holy Land as Israel, and said that on the contrary, no country has harmed the Christian and Muslim presence as Israel.
Netanyahu’s allegations came after his office announced the suspension of a decision to impose taxes on churches, which was strongly denounced by the churches as a violation of the status quo that protects religious institutions in the Holy Land and an attempt to end Christian presence.
The taxation decision prompted the churches to shut down the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the most sacred site in Christianity, in a protest move. The shutdown went on for three days and the church reopened its doors only after Israel suspended its decision.
“No one has harmed the Christian and Islamic presence (in the Holy Land) as the successive Israeli governments have done,” Erekat told foreign diplomats on Wednesday who met in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah to hear the positon of President Mahmoud Abbas on Israel’s treatment of Christians and their holy places in Jerusalem, particularly the latest decision to impose taxes on churches.
Erekat said the president told the diplomats about Israeli measures against the Christian community, including its seizure of church-owned land in the Bethlehem area that led to the displacement of 58 families as well as land grab in other Christian towns in the West Bank, and how Christians can only reach Jerusalem to pray at its holy places after getting an Israeli army permission, not to mention revocation of residency right in East Jerusalem which contributes to reducing the number of Christians in the city.
(WAFA)
