Gaza was Christianized at the very beginning of the 5th century by Saint-Porphyre and the church dedicated to it remains the largest in the territory today.
It is around the tomb of another saint, Hilarion, that one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Byzantine Levant is built, comparable in size to the Syrian complex of Saint Simeon. The Arab conquest of 637 led to an Islamization of the population first progressive, then massive.
During the four centuries of the Ottoman era, from 1516 to 1917, the Christian community, itself very minority, was dominated by the Orthodox Church, despite the late attempts of Western missionaries to establish the Catholic rite there, even the ‘Anglican. Christians in Gaza, however, play a notable role in the Palestinian national movement, foiling the maneuvers of the British mandate to mount them against their Muslim compatriots.
After the Israeli occupation of 1967, the YMCA, an acronym for the « Association of Young Christians, » became a nationalist home in Gaza, allied with the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Oslo-Israel peace accords in Oslo in 1993 resulted in the establishment of a Palestinian Authority, whose parliament has reserved seats for the Christian minority, one for the Gaza Strip.
In 2006, the deputy thus elected, Hussam Al-Tawil, was formally « independent », but supported in fact by Hamas, which won this legislative election. The Christian population of Gaza, already then reduced to some three thousand people, will not stop declining to around one thousand two hundred faithful today, compared to the two million inhabitants of the « band ». The extreme harshness of life in Gaza has indeed prompted many Christians to either emigrate or settle in the West Bank, Israel requiring the Palestinians the final choice of their residence in one or the other of these territories.
Christmas permits for Christians in Gaza were all the more precious and more than 900 applications had been filed this year. Israel, which had issued some 700 permits in 2018, has however decided to refuse them all this year and to grant Christians for Gaza for Christmas only one hundred exit permits to Jordan alone, via the Allenby Bridge across the Jordan. For the first time, Christians in Gaza will therefore be unable to participate in Christmas celebrations in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and will be denied access to the Christian Holy Places in Jerusalem and Nazareth.
Israel will issue permits to Christian Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to travel to Jerusalem and the West Bank during Christmas holidays « in accordance with security assessments, » said Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) on Sunday. a Ministry of Defense body responsible for liaison with the Palestinians.
The announcement came about ten days after a COGAT spokesperson told Reuters that Palestinian Christians in the coastal enclave would not be allowed to travel to Jerusalem and the West Bank during the holiday.
COGAT also announced on Sunday that it had finally decided to give entry permits to Christian Palestinians in the gang so that they could go to Jerusalem and the West Bank after consulting « all security services ».
« Authorizations to enter Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria will be issued in accordance with security assessments and regardless of age, » the defense ministry said in a statement using the biblical names for the West Bank.
Saleh al-Ziq, a senior official in the Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Commission based in Gaza, told The Times of Israel that so far 55 Christian Palestinians in Gaza – all elderly – permission to travel to Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Israeli embassy in France said on December 21 that there would be no ban on Christians in Gaza from traveling to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank to celebrate Christmas. « As every year, each request is examined on a case-by-case basis to ensure the safety of believers, » the institution said on Twitter before stressing « the attachment of the State of Israel to freedom of worship as well as the efforts made for many years to enable Christians around the world to celebrate Christmas in the Holy Land. ”
A number of Christian sites are located in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Jesus is believed to have been born.
Israel has placed heavy restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza. Officials in the Jewish state say these travel restrictions prevent terrorist groups from bringing weapons into the coastal enclave.
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