THE JEWISH STATES CREED: DIVIDE PALESTINIANS AND RULE The leaders also stressed the firm national position of the Christians in refusing to join a military that exercises violence against the rights of the Palestinian people. Although Christian Palestinian citizens of Israel are currently exempt from military service along with Muslims, a government decision made in February to re-classify Christians as a separate ethnicity distinct from Arab raised fears that mandatory enrollment would follow, as it did for Palestinians of the Druze religion in the 1950s. About 10 percent of Palestinian citizens of Israel, also called Arab-Israelis, are Christians, while the majority of the remaining are Muslims and Druze. Although the majority of Palestinians were expelled from their homes inside Israel during the 1948 conflict that led to the creation of the state of Israel, some managed to remain and their descendants today make up around 20 percent of Israels population.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:18:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015