have urged believers to enlist in the Israeli army, an Israeli daily reported Sunday, March 20.
Haaretz quoted Fouad Farah, the head of the Orthodox Christian community in Israel, as saying that Christians in the north of the country are "concerned" after violence in the town of Maghar on February 10, which left a trail of burned homes and cars.
Seven Maghar residents and three police officers were reportedly injured in the clashes between Druze and Christians, which began after a Druze teenager apparently spread false news that Christian youths had posted pornographic pictures of Druze girls on the internet. Many Christian families fled the village as a result of the riots, several media said.
"CHRISTIAN HOME"
Apparently in response to the clashes a new group has been formed in Haifa, called "The Christian Home," which seeks to create a representative body that will act both in Israel and abroad, Haaretz added. A minority among those setting up the new organization even called for Christians to enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), "an idea that is unpopular among the community’s leadership," the newspaper claimed on its Internet website.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, several Christians in Israel said they feel "threatened and unprotected", Haaretz reported, in a country where they form a minority. "I never heard that Jews or Muslims are attacked," Farah was quoted as saying. "Why do they specifically target Christians?"
Dr. Hatem Khoury from Haifa, who served for many years as deputy director general of the Maghar municipality, told Haaretz that Christians are the weak link in all power struggles, "violently and politically".
SMALL MINORITY
He said Christians "are a minority among the overall population, a minority among the Arabs and divided" among themselves "unfortunately, to different denominations." Christians in Israel comprise that of the Druze minority, about 117,000, according to estimates. They constitute 8.6 percent of the Arab population in Israel, a significant decline since 1948 when they formed 20 percent of that community, Haaretz said.
Analysts have linked the decline to a low birth rate and migration abroad. Although Christians "have the highest success rate in completing" education, one of the few jobs available to them is in teaching Haaretz reported. In addition the number of Christian leaders among the Arab population is higher than their weight in the population would suggest, the newspaper said.
However the new director general at the Interior Ministry is also a Christian, Haaretz claimed. It was unclear what he intended to do to calm anti-Christian sentiments in several areas of what Jews and Churches call The Holy Land.
(With: Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife and reports from Israel).
