Palestinian Christians

The Palestinian Christians have a really long history and rich culture that is hidden by the media. It has been estimated by many different sources that the percentage of Palestinian Christians ranges from 20 to 30% worldwide. The majority of Palestinian Christians belong to the eastern orthodox church, while the minority are Catholics. 

There are false statistics about the number of Palestinian Christians that have been spreading around by the zionist media, it tries to portray Palestinian Christians as people who are an extremely small minority but in fact, it's false. So, in this article, I'll talk about everything regarding Palestinian Christians.

Palestinian Christians have been immigrating and suffering since the times of the Ottoman Empire until now. In fact, there’s a Levantine/Palestinian Christian community in Egypt known as the “Syro-Egyptians” which are Palestinian/Levantine Christians who have fled the levant due to the oppression by the Ottoman Empire, But even after the escape of a large number of Palestinian Christians to the Americas and to neighboring countries like Egypt, there was still an obvious presence of Palestinian Christians in the holy land.

Cities such as Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa, Ramallah Bethlehem, and the Christian and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem had a Christian majority, and cities like Acre, Lod, Tiberius, and Safed had a really diverse population in which the population of Christians and Muslims were almost the same but with a Druze and Jewish minority, after the year of 1948 that changed, the Palestinian Christian population in the holy land had decreased rapidly, the majority of them immigrating to the Americas and neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.

The Presence of Palestinian Christians in neighboring countries: 

In Lebanon especially during the times of Camille Chamoun's control, a huge number of Palestinian Christians were given Lebanese citizenship, and many Palestinian Christian women married Lebanese men who were then provided with citizenship. Now, around 99,000 Palestinian Christians are registered as refugees (excluding Palestinian Christians who were granted citizenship)  In fact, there are Palestinian Christian refugee camps in Lebanon, one of them is Dbayeh Camp, located in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

Around 220,000 Jordanian Christians are of Palestinian origins who immigrated there during the first and second intifada, and most of them are actually from the West Bank.

The number of Christian Palestinians in the land of Palestine before 1948 was around 22.3% but dropped to 6% in modern Israel, 3% in the West Bank, and less than 1% in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinian Christians decreased this way due to the apartheid caused by the state of Israel, when the wall in the West Bank was built many Palestinian Christians couldn't access their land, had their life really difficult, and were not able to celebrate and access their holy sites freely due to the restrictions by the state of Israel. So, they had no other option but to leave the country. According to the historian Sami Hadawi over 60% of Christian Palestinians lost their homes to Israelis. During the 1990s a Palestinian Christian movement named "Sabeel" was founded, its goal was to spread Christianity and liberate Palestine from the occupation which took place in Jerusalem. There was also a movement known as the "Arab Orthodox Movement" that held a place in Jaffa, Palestine, it was an Arab Nationalist movement that wanted to spread the Orthodox faith.

The mayors of cities and towns like Ramallah, Birzeit, Bethlehem, Zababdeh, Jifna, Ein 'Arik, Aboud, Taybeh, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour are Christians. The Governor of Tubas, Marwan Tubassi, is a Christian. Many of the Palestinian officials such as ministers, advisers, ambassadors, consulates, heads of missions, PLC, PNA, PLO, Fateh leaders, and others are Christians. 

Palestinian Christians in Egypt, Some Palestinians, mostly Christians, received Egyptian citizenship through marriage with Egyptian nationals or by other means.

There was also an earlier wave of Palestinian immigration, in which Palestinian Christians settled in Egypt and other surrounding countries, fleeing genocides during the Ottoman Empire, along with Lebanese and Syrians, forming what was known as the Syro-Egyptian community (which was mentioned in the third paragraph) the estimates of the Palestinian Christian population in Egypt ranges from 50,245 to 90,000.

Palestinian Christians in The Americas:

As It was mentioned earlier, the immigration of Palestinian Christians to the Americas started during the times of the Ottoman Empire, Palestinian Christians had many influences on the Americas, many presidents, ambassadors, embracers, politicians, and priests are of Palestinian Christian origins, and many churches are in there are managed by Palestinian Christian families, over 3 million Palestinian Christians reside in the Americas. 

Palestinian Christian Diaspora:

Chile: 490,000

Venezuela: 350,000

Honduras: 330,000

El Salvador: 300,000

Guatemala: 280,000

Cuba: 270,000

The United States: 200,000

Ecuador: 180,000

Colombia: 150,000

Mexico: 120,000

Brazil: 100,000

Costa Rica: 40,000

Argentina:40,000

Canada: 35,000

Peru: 25,000

Paraguay: 17,000

Nicaragua: 10,000

Uruguay: 9,000

Panama: 5,000

There is a possibility that the population of Palestinian Christians in these locations is more since there was a number of Palestinian Christians who had Lebanese and Jordanian passports but were recorded as Lebanese or Jordanian once they were provided with Latina citizenship.