Some weeks ago a friend came home with a treasure he had found in the archives of the Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem: a 1907 photograph of the neighborhood I live in.The shot is taken from the Damascus gate, a beautiful entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem looking towards Musrara, where I live.
He explained that it was possible to date the image because a nearby school was built in that year and the school is being completed in the photo. We also discovered that work was also being done on the roof of my house. The whole neighborhood seems to be taking shape at that time: a few scattered houses springing up among the mostly empty fields.
The scene certainly has changed dramatically over the years -- not just the houses but the people living in them. Musrara was known as a Christian place at the beginning of the century.
Nowadays, I doubt whether there are any Christians left, apart from some nuns who run a school a little further down the street. The same has happened with other neighborhoods. Once flourishing Christian homes have been transformed into embassies, art galleries and even museums. There is a feeling of decay of the Christian presence in the Holy Land, and sadly, it is not just a feeling.
In 1910 Jerusalem had a population of 12,900 Christians representing 18 per cent of the total population of the city. In year 2000 there were 14,200 representing just 2 per cent. The decline is sharp indeed. It could be argued that the Arab population as a whole has declined because of strong Jewish immigration. However, Muslims have increased their presence in the city from 17 per cent to 30 per cent over the same period of time. Jerusalem is not alone.
Bethlehem has gone from being an 80 per cent Christian town in 1948 to a 20 per cent Christian town today. Again, no Jews live there, so they do not figure in the calculations.
We could go on analyzing numbers from other cities. The conclusion would be the same: the Christian presence in the region is in danger of becoming something purely symbolic. Christian bishops are worried about it.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, has repeatedly urged Christians to make an effort to remain in the Holy Land despite all the objective
difficulties.
Emigration is a widespread phenomenon, especially in times of hardship. However, Christian emigration is much more common. This has several explanations. The first is that emigration leads to more emigration. It is difficult to find a Christian Palestinian with no relatives in another country. Given the possibility of a helping hand in a new country, the emigration option becomes much more feasible. It is also much easier for a Christian to go to the West than for a Muslim.
No matter how secularised Europe or America might be, Christians fare better there than Muslims.
A second factor is the ongoing struggle in the country: there are two sides in the conflict and Christians are not part of either. They are stuck in the middle. Many of my Christian Arab friends would assert that I am absolutely mistaken about this, but to make me feel better they will add politely that foreigners are prone to making this mistake.
“We have suffered exactly as Muslims have; our land, our homes have also been taken away from us. There is no difference whatsoever between Muslims and us. Look at Palestinian leaders like George Habash; he is a Christian.”
All true, but the fact is that more Christians than Muslims emigrate from Palestine, and -- though not many say it aloud -- relations between Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land are frosty. Recently a friend of mine summed this up by saying “Nazareth is not the same anymore. Muslims have taken over.”
I do not know if that is based on fact, or if it is justified, but the feeling is there. And if words like these are whispered in Nazareth, where things are peaceful and there is some prosperity, imagine what Christians think in Bethlehem where the situation is far worse.
As I said, Christian authorities are aware of the problem. They encourage people to stay and provide material help, hoping that this will help people to build a better future. Education has played a role: for decades religious orders have set up schools and sent people to help in the education of Christians.
This has paid off. Christian schools are definitely the best ones in the Arab sector -- and that’s why Muslims go there too. The result is that the socio-economic level of Christians is the highest among the Arab population. There are also projects run by the Custody of the Holy Land that provide housing and employment for Christian families. Yet no matter what you do, emigration is still there kicking back.
Christians leave at a greater rate because they are better prepared, thanks to their educational attainments and relative wealth.
Therein lies the paradox: the more you help Palestinian Christians, the more you help them leave.
So far we’ve been discussing emigration, as everybody here does. It is both a popular topic and a very effective means to ask for foreign help. If you appeal to charitable institutions and say that you want to stop Christians leaving you get swift answers. There is a kind of special aura around a Christian living in the Holy Land.
However a big part of problem lies in something much less dramatic: the Christian birth rate. Christians have fewer children than any other ethnic or religious group in the Middle East. It happens in Lebanon; it happens in the Palestinian Territories; and it happens in Israel.
The gap between the fertility rates of Christians and Muslims is striking. In 2003 the average Christian woman had 2.13 children, compared to 4.36 for Muslim women, and 2.71 for Jewish women (the rates do no take into account the Palestinian territories).
And this is not a recent trend.
If you look at data between 1955 and 1959 you get an average of 4.6 for Christian women compared to 8.3 for Muslims. The numbers speak for themselves. Christian women have been having more or less half the number of children as their Muslim sisters for over 50 years.
It was easy to predict what would happen. Together with emigration, the low Christian birth rate paints a bleak future for the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
Christians living here certainly need and deserve help. The material needs are many and the external circumstances not easy.
However if we really want to stop the decline of the Christian communities it is absolutely necessary for them to help themselves. It is much easier to give money or to build a new home or a new school, than to convince local families to be generous and have large families.
But to solve the problem you have to attack its real cause.
Otherwise the faded photo of Musrara will become the story of Nazareth and other Christian villages in Galilee.
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