Christians of the Holy Land

There have always been Christian communities in the Middle East. Very few are aware of the existence of more than ten million Christians currently in the Middle East that speak the original Semetic languages. There is a general assumption in the West that Arabs and Muslims are synonymous. This is simply not true, though we the Arab Christians are part of the Arab civilization and culture. In the West, the term Arab is equated with Muslims. This is certainly a misconception of both Middle Eastern history and Christianity.

Christianity was born here in our cities and in our villages. Christianity is original to our land and is not imported from outside; our heritage is genuine and ancient. Thus, it is important for our Christianity to be recognized. Moreover, to fully understand the Bible, it is crucial to understand the Christian Middle Eastern culture. Even our normal and daily conversation as Arab Christians are full of Biblical language and Biblical atmosphere.

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THE LESSONS

Meet Your Instructor

Tony Moubarak

I am a licensed Christian Arab Israeli tour guide. I was born in Jerusalem in 1975 and love this city more than any other place in the world, which is why I chose to become a guide in this ancient land. Moreover, I enjoy sharing my love and knowledge of this unique country as a tour guide with a great passion.

The first video of this course is free, you can buy this course to see all the videos.

Cost

Learning more about the Christians in the Holy Land and how our daily challenges make our faith stronger?

In the birthplace of Christianity, Christians are currently 2% of the population of Israel and less than 1% of the Palestinian territories (The W.B. & Gaza). In Israel proper and in Jerusalem, we can call it more discrimination for the Christians, but in the West Bank, including the Gaza Strip, it is more persecution. In the land here, there are three main groups of Palestinians

We will learn a lot and in depth about Christians of the Holy Land 1) The Palestinian Christians of East Jerusalem. 1% out of 1 million, that is less than 10,000 thousand Christians in Jerusalem today, that we spoke about in the past webinar. 2) The Palestinian Christians who are left and stayed in Israel since 1948 and who are now called Arab Israelis. They live in Israeli cities now, such as Haifa and Nazareth and many other Galilean villages mostly in the northern part of the country. There are about 180,000 Christian citizens of Israel 9 million. 3) Palestinians Christians of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, such as in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and the other Palestinian cities. About 50,000 Christians in the West Bank (out of the 5 million), and around 800 Christians living in the whole Gaza Strip (out of the 2 million).

In this next webinar, as i said we will more concentrate more on the Arab- Israeli Christians of the Holy Land and talk a little bit some of their challenges living in Israel: How does the Arab- Israeli Christians Identify themselves? How come they are more integrated into the Jewish system? There is a lot of differences between the Jerusalem Christians who mainly live in east Jrslm, the Arab Israeli Christians who live in Israel proper, and the Palestinian Christians who live in the West Bank and even who live in Gaza.