PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS
Who's on God's side?
___By Ann Hafften
___Religion News Service
___MINNEAPOLIS (RNS)--Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Lutheran from Bethlehem, believes there are signs of hope in his land despite a month of riots and unprecedented shelling by Israeli military forces.
___"The education of Palestinian children and youth is a hopeful sign of a nation in the making," he said.

AN ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES TANK fires on suspected Palestinian snipers near the Church of St. Nicholas in the Christian village of Beit Tala. (RNS photo)

___Raheb, who serves Christmas Lutheran Church of Bethlehem in the West Bank, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan, was in Minneapolis recently to provide another perspective on the plight of Palestinians in the Holy Land.
___In September, his church opened the Dar Al Kalima Academy, meaning "House of the Word."
___"The media should show not only the painful side, but also the hopeful side of Palestine," Raheb said. "What the media shows is bloodshed and rockets. But do Americans even see the helicopters? Their taxes have paid for Israel's Apache helicopters. You know, Apaches are not designed for defense but for attack--and they are attacking the 'little town of Bethlehem.' How can U.S. Christians see this and keep silent?"
___Speaking at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Raheb said his teenage daughter reported by phone that a friend's house in the Bethlehem area had been hit by a shell in late October.
___The house was "not completely destroyed--only the front was blown off," he quoted her as saying. "Their home is only partly smashed, and ironically we take that as positive news because it tells us the family was not injured or killed," Raheb said.
___"The destruction of public facilities and private homes has reached unimaginable levels, especially since Palestine has been in the process of developing its economic infrastructure," he said. "The new Israeli policy of bombing residential areas in Palestine has caused families to flee their homes in order to save their lives and that of their children."
___While many Christian Palestinians have emigrated, Raheb believes Christians have a special role in Middle East peacemaking.
___"Christians are a very important component in the Middle East," he said. "They are the guardians of pluralism; without them this society would become more exclusive. Christians are committed to education as a tool for peace. Christian values call for tolerance; Christianity in the Middle East is more tolerant than Judaism or Islam."
___Churches have played a role in integrating Christian refugees into the Bethlehem community, which is why Christians do not occupy the refugee camps of the West Bank, Raheb said. Twenty-eight Palestinian families fleeing the war in 1948 actually lived at Christmas Lutheran Church until 1956.
___Today two-thirds of the congregation is made up of refugees.
___"We Christians cannot change the world, but we can put forth signs, set an example. Like the 'salt of the earth,' quantity doesn't matter," Raheb said.

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