Israel denies non-Jews human rights

Israel and the occupied territories are not only home to Christianity’s holiest sites, but also home to a significant Palestinian Christian population.

They are subject to discrimination in employment, unequal municipal funding, physical threats of violence from police, under-funded educational systems, discrimination in housing rights, and political marginalisation.

Today, Christians are the fastestshrinking segment of Israel’s population, in part due to these discriminatory policies.

The Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, as well as the rest of the West Bank, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights, is now in its 51st year, the longest military occupation since the end of the 19th century.

Israel wants to remove the indigenous Palestinian Muslims and Christians from the holy city, and to replace them with Jewish extremists.

Israel continues its illegal occupation of Palestine and continues to violate the basic religious rights of the Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike.

Christian Palestinians who are citizens of Israel suffer from the same widespread official and unofficial discrimination that other non-Jews do, in everything from land ownership and housing to employment and family reunion rights.

Israel has been called the only true democracy in the Middle East but since Israel has annexed the Palestinian Territories the Palestinians are part of that country yet they are denied any say in government, are not allowed to exercise freedom of speech by holding peaceful rallies, do not receive the same access to medical care, and have had their economy systematically sabotaged by the Israelis.

Emmanuel Peek, Glenwood, Durban