Who’s Who
One thing that is complicated about this is the difference of ethnicity, nationality, and religion. For example, you could be ethnically Jewish, nationally American, and religiously Buddhist. “Jewish” can also be confusing because it is used to refer to religion and ethnicity. Someone can be ethnically Jewish but religiously atheist or religiously Jewish but ethnically Irish.
____
Israelis: Israelis are citizens of the nation of Israel. They can be ethnically Jewish, Arab, African, and others. (Though Israel has made it clear that they want to keep an ethnically Jewish majority). These are the people who make up the nation of Israel.
Palestinian: Palestinians are citizens of Palestine. As far as I know, all Palestinians are ethnically Arab. They have historically lived all across the Holy Land until the 1930s and 40s when they were expelled from certain areas of the land into the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. They make up the largest refugee population in the world.
**One thing that might be confusing is that there are Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs. Israeli Arabs are the Arabs who were not expelled by the Israeli military in 1948 and 1967. They have Israeli citizenship. Palestinian Arabs are the Arabs who were expelled from their homes and pushed into Gaza, The West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. They do not have Israeli Citizenship.
To make this even more confusing, all Arabs from the Holy Land consider themselves Palestinians even if they are Israeli citizens (Because they are ethnically Palestinian Arab). So the Arabs who live within Israeli Territory are called Israeli Arabs (though still Palestinian ethnically). The Arabs who do not live in Israeli Territory are called Palestinian Arabs. Israeli Arabs have exponentially more rights in the land than Palestinian Arabs.
Hamas: This is the Islamic party that has governed in Gaza since 2007. It’s a political party with its Palestinian opposition, Fatah. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt. Hamas is a militant group and frequently engages in terrorism against Israel. Hamas does have support in the West Bank but the Palestinian Authority is the governing body there with its president from the Fatah party. Like any political party, Palestinians are divided on their support of Hamas, especially in their engagement in terrorism. They have taken control of Gaza but that doesn’t necessarily mean all citizens of Gaza support them.
Palestinian Authority (PA): This is the Palestinian self-governing body that exercises (partial) civil control over the West Bank. It was originally set up as an interim self-government in the 90’s and was supposed to eventually gain full control of the West Bank and Gaza. However, peace talks fell through with Israel, and Hamas denounced the agreement and assumed full control of Gaza. The PA still exercises control today in the West Bank.
Mahmoud Abbas: He has been the President of the Palestinian Authority since 2005 and is a member of the Palestinian “Fatah” political party. He is internationally recognized as the President of the State of Palestine.
Benjamin Netanyahu: He is the Prime Minister of Israel and a member of the right-wing Likud party. He is the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister.
The IDF: IDF stands for Israeli Defense Forces. This is the Israeli military, including ground force, air force, and navy. The IDF serves and protects Israel and exercises military control over the Palestinian Territories. The Israeli Security Service Law requires that all citizens of Israel (except those who qualify for exemption) must serve in the various branches of the IDF. At the age of 18 every Israeli citizen is drafted into the military or imprisoned. The IDF is generally the face of Israel that Palestinians see the most.
Messianic Jews: Messianic Jews are Christians. They are Christians that are ethnically Jewish. They make up 2% of the Israeli population.
Palestinian Christians: Palestinian Christians make up the Arab Christian population in Palestine. They make up 1% of the Palestinian population. The Christian population in Palestine is dwindling. The Palestinian pastor of the church I went to in Bethlehem put it this way, “The Palestinian Church feels like a mouse running around between two fighting elephants - the Jews and the Muslims.”
____
Ending on the note of Palestinian Christians, I’m going to share two quotes from Salim Munayer, executive director of Musalaha:
“You know, when you are a Christian and you’re a minority, you desire to be in contact, fellowship, and relationship with Christians from other places. I remember visiting a church in Dallas and they said, “We have a brother from Israel” and I spoke for a few minutes and after that, people came to shake my hand.
I still remember very vividly and distinctly, one man came and said, ‘Oh I’ve waited so long to shake a hand from someone from Israel. I love the Jewish people.” and all of that. I said, “Yes, great. I do love the Jewish people too, but I am not a Jew, I am a Palestinian.” This man took his hand from my hand, turned and left.
You experience that again, again, and again. And you ask the question, ‘What is wrong with me?, What is wrong with my Christianity?, What is wrong with these people’? And you come to the conclusion, something is wrong with their theology. Their theology causes them to reject a brother that doesn’t fit their end time theology. And that is sin.”
____
“Palestinian Christians have lived for centuries in this land. They struggle to stay in this land as the minority, keeping, as they understand, a Christian vocation, mission, or calling. Suddenly, they meet Christian groups of people that say to them, ‘You, Palestinian Christian, are an obstacle for the second coming of Jesus. You need to move out in order to make room for the Jew from the diaspora to come here.’
So the average Palestinian Christian says, ‘Wow, I’m an obstacle for the salvation of the world. I am an obstacle for the second coming of Jesus? What’s going on? God doesn't love us? God loves one group of people more than he loves us? What has happened with all of the time we have been here?’
So quite often, I meet Christian Zionist groups that do not understand the implications of their Christian Zionism. The implications of Christian Zionism, the way we hear it here, is: to accept this ideology is to commit suicide as a people group.”
-Salim Munayer