Western Standard - Persecution of Palestinian Christians intensifies

00:00:00.000 Today I'm joined by Ihab Hassan.

00:00:26.760 He is a Palestinian Christian human rights activist.

00:00:32.040 He's originally from Ramallah, but he's based in Washington, D.C. right now.

00:00:37.440 I've been following his work on Twitter or X for a little bit of time now as he documents a lot of the struggles faced by Palestinian Christians.

00:00:49.940 A lot of people, myself included, have had a very distorted view of how Christians fit into that conflict.

00:01:01.040 Most people don't think about the Christians at all.

00:01:02.780 They think about Israeli Jews, they think about Palestinian Muslims, but it's a lot more complicated than that.

00:01:11.180 In particular, as it involves Israeli settlers outside of Israel proper into the West Bank and the Christian minority.

00:01:19.940 in the West Bank. I traveled to the West Bank myself while I was also visiting Israel in December

00:01:27.940 because I wanted to document some of what I had been seeing, including from Eub Hassan on his

00:01:33.380 account. I want to see these things for myself. I traveled to Bethlehem, which everyone knows is

00:01:39.140 the birthplace of Christ, but also the village of Taibe, which is the last entirely Christian

00:01:44.740 village in the west bank and these places have been facing an incredible uh amount of economic

00:01:52.820 social and increasingly violent pressure to get out and make room for settlers in some areas

00:02:00.020 um but i wanted to talk to uh ihab myself because a lot there's been a lot of developments on this

00:02:06.660 front since the uh israeli attack on iran began so let's uh bring him in now i'm happy to welcome

00:02:13.460 ihab hassan uh yeah thank you very much for joining me today from uh i think much safer uh

00:02:20.420 washington dc thank you for having me there uh you're just let's just get a just a bit about

00:02:27.380 yourself first i've described you as a human rights activist but you're originally from

00:02:31.940 ramallah and you're a palestinian christian uh just tell us a bit about yourself and how you

00:02:37.940 ended up in the position you're in yeah yeah actually i'm i'm yeah i i'm a human rights

00:02:43.700 activist i came to to the united states in 2023 to study uh at catholic university in human rights

00:02:49.780 program i graduated and i started my uh activism in in this field like even like where i was my

00:02:56.740 i'm a student and i started like even for october 7th we were working like on on on the human rights

00:03:03.460 activist things and building a peace bridge between Israel and Palestinian people and as you

00:03:09.700 know like in October 7 everything changed and I start I shift my focus more on human rights activists

00:03:18.580 you went to the Catholic university so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you're a Catholic right

00:03:23.700 no I'm evangelical evangelical really okay okay well I'm gonna have to go down this rabbit hole

00:03:30.340 a bit um most of uh you know the christians i came into contact with and i'm mostly aware of

00:03:38.260 in uh in jerusalem uh east jerusalem and the west bank they're they're catholic they're greek

00:03:45.620 orthodox uh i interviewed pastor jack who's a greek meccalicite catholic church and i don't

00:03:52.180 even really know what that means i don't really have that i don't entirely it's really odd these

00:03:56.500 Yeah, there's the Georgian Orthodox Church.

00:04:02.100 Armenian too.

00:04:03.620 Yeah, I see an Armenian, Georgian and Armenian.

00:04:07.320 I've seen a lot, and a little bit of Coptic even.

00:04:10.180 I've actually, but there's a very notable lack of Protestant denominations there, in particular evangelical.

00:04:21.600 Maybe tell me a bit more about that.

00:04:22.800 What kind of particular part of it?

00:04:25.680 the christian population in palestine it's very like very tiny minority like less than one person

00:04:31.360 and when we are talking about the protestant minority we're talking a very very tiny minority

00:04:36.020 like least 10 000 out of 35 000 christians in palestine in west bank i guess so the the the

00:04:42.840 the evangelical the protestant uh christian in palestine that person is like very very tiny like

00:04:48.240 very very uh well few numbers like we're talking about just a few hundred people yeah well i know

00:04:54.940 I come from an evangelical background as well

00:04:57.980 and you ask most evangelicals

00:04:59.920 well what church do you belong to

00:05:01.620 they normally just say well I'm kind of non-denominational

00:05:03.800 but you know there is

00:05:05.080 well some just call themselves

00:05:07.800 non-denominational but there's

00:05:09.000 Pentecostal, there's some of the branches of

00:05:11.660 Baptist, what do you belong to a particular

00:05:13.860 branch, particular church

00:05:15.660 I'm here at

00:05:17.780 Washington DC I attend like

00:05:19.600 a non-denominational one so but I still

00:05:21.720 believe they are evangelical

00:05:22.500 yeah they call like the southern denomination but the iberic the evangelical yeah but a part

00:05:27.860 of the southern baptist denomination uh i have no idea okay okay yeah uh very interesting okay well

00:05:35.140 you you just got more interesting in my books because uh you're a minority of a minority of a

00:05:39.860 minority yes in this case you're uh okay that's that's fascinating well okay uh tell me i i'm

00:05:46.980 interested in your background then because most of you know like catholics in the west bank they

00:05:52.180 come from very old catholic families orthodox people come from very old orthodox families

00:05:57.780 uh is your family evangelical or you know did you your family come from a different branch of

00:06:02.260 christianity and you discovered it uh tell me about it no no like like as i told you like

00:06:06.820 that when the evangelical palestinian christian it's like it's rooted like in a few uh hundred

00:06:12.980 years and they are they exist but as i said like we are very very very small minority so that's

00:06:19.620 that's uh just we're talking about a few hundreds people we feel like uh the numbers is very little

00:06:26.260 so that's why the the like there is a few evangelical church in west bank and in gaza

00:06:32.180 even unfortunately the one in gaza it's got bombed entirely it's it was turned to be church and

00:06:37.780 hospital in gaza and casted and in taipei when we're talking about the the the entire christian

00:06:45.140 village of taipei there is i believe i believe personally they're just like few members of

00:06:50.020 evangelical uh families there but the entire uh village is uh you're catholic and orthodox

00:06:58.100 yeah and the greek meclokite catholic church which i said i don't i don't quite understand

00:07:03.620 what that is but they seem very friendly but i yeah it's a bit over my head um so uh

00:07:11.060 You know, Bethlehem is now a, by a very significant margin, a majority Muslim town now, or city, depending on how you're classifying Bethlehem.

00:07:25.280 Tibet, we mentioned, you know, is the last entirely Christian community in the West Bank, but Bethlehem is now majority Muslim.

00:07:33.320 I always thought that was because they were being persecuted by the Muslims.

00:07:38.720 Of course, there are, you know, there's the Hamas types who are extreme and probably less welcoming of Christians.

00:07:44.220 But for the most part, you know, that's not most of the Muslims in Bethlehem.

00:07:51.060 I found the Muslims, the Christians in Bethlehem and the Muslims tended to get along.

00:07:55.900 It's just that Christians have a much lower fertility rate than the Muslims.

00:07:59.640 Muslims, after the 1948-49 War of Independence for Israel, there was a lot of refugees from what is now Israel who came in.

00:08:07.100 and Christians have just been kind of getting pushed out over time.

00:08:11.380 We should put up some images or video on a side here that I shot while I was in Bethlehem.

00:08:18.980 I had heard it described as an open-air prison before,

00:08:21.680 and I always just assumed that was kind of radical Hamasnic propaganda.

00:08:26.780 But then I saw it with my own eyes.

00:08:28.400 You walk through Bethlehem, and you think you're incarcerated in an American prison.

00:08:34.400 yeah unfortunately recently like israeli army like instilling more iron gates which is literally

00:08:41.240 what open air prison means when we say that that way that term is that like literally it's your

00:08:47.400 your movement your movement it depends really actually on the israeli army if they would open

00:08:52.940 the gates or not so you are literally in in a prison there in a place where you can't move you

00:08:58.920 can't get out of your town and get into a few house if the israeli army exists of there on

00:09:04.080 decided to shut down the the gates and this is like we're talking about uh around a thousand

00:09:10.800 iron gates and checkpoints suffocating the west bank and including the christian towns and cities

00:09:16.480 and we are talking about christian towns and cities yeah like most of that most of the christian

00:09:20.800 towns and cities are mixed with muslims like half and half or something but there is although the

00:09:26.720 entirely christian village in the west bank which is taipei and taipei also like they just recently

00:09:32.560 instilled uh instilled like uh three iron gates around it and suffocating it and tended like

00:09:41.280 um yeah so you know a lot of it is not you know it's not israel the israeli air force is not

00:09:48.080 bombing these christian communities but it's uh it's it's largely settler pressure the settlers

00:09:54.080 are often religious radicals in many cases um they uh you know not all cases but many many cases

00:10:02.880 they are uh who believe that the land is granted to them and them exclusively and they try to apply

00:10:08.960 economic pressure you know they'll build these walls around communities to kind of strangle them

00:10:13.760 off um in taiba though there's been an escalating violence uh no no cat no no one murdered recently

00:10:24.360 in taiba i know there's been murders in other villages non-christian villages around it by

00:10:28.460 settlers uh but taiba itself has um experienced escalating violence attack attacks and desecrations

00:10:36.080 on churches torching of vehicles uh significant assaults you know with broken bones that kind of

00:10:42.160 thing um and that's been escalating for some time it kind of ramped up to a new level last uh last

00:10:48.720 last june it kind of you know it's it's a steady ramp up but but there's been a lot of activity

00:10:53.920 just in the last few weeks since the uh war with iran started yeah probably a little bit more about

00:11:00.080 that yeah since the the the war started with iran actually it's it has been always the case like

00:11:05.840 when israel in israel is the world war with uh with iran or yaman or other like even gaza they

00:11:12.240 there's resources like discolored their attacks because for them it's like first because the

00:11:17.200 israeli army is complicit in these attacks they are turned blind eyes and they don't act uh to

00:11:23.280 to prevent these attacks so since two weeks there was repeated israeli gathered at the entrance of

00:11:29.360 the christian village of taipei they blocked the entrance like throw stones and uh at cars

00:11:34.720 by passing cars and that literally uh with along with that with an iron gate instilled by the

00:11:42.880 israeli army at the entrance of the of the christian bridge of taipei and that it is like

00:11:48.000 been escalating and unfortunately many christian families are now in the christian bridge of taipei

00:11:54.000 are considering to leave because of these getting attacked because it's not stopped non-stop like

00:11:59.280 since forever they were pleading with that with that with the world community with the christian

00:12:03.760 leaders with the christian community around the world to pressure israel to to put stoke to these

00:12:08.720 attacks and uh and nothing happened um i you know if if someone goes through your uh you know your

00:12:17.520 twitter your x feed right now they might actually be surprised by how fair and balanced it is uh

00:12:22.560 you know it's you know as a someone from a persecuted minority i i might just assume that

00:12:28.800 it's going to be all one-sided you know poor christians evil israeli settlers but that's

00:12:33.440 that's not what you see going through your feed. It's, uh, you know, you, you've got something

00:12:37.340 posted on, uh, you know, showing, um, Israelis who have got, uh, you know, olives and dates and

00:12:44.300 whatnot, uh, for Muslims as they're finishing, uh, their Ramadan fast. Uh, you know, it's a very

00:12:50.060 positive stories, including one, uh, where an Israeli settler was actually successfully

00:12:56.580 prosecuted for murdering um uh murdering a palestinian i'm not sure if the palestinian

00:13:03.400 was christian or or muslim but where someone was was successfully prosecuted so you know you're

00:13:09.980 the stuff the kind of content you're sharing tends to actually be fairly balanced it's not all just

00:13:14.660 one side even though you're obviously coming at it from the perspective of a palestinian christian

00:13:18.800 um so you you know i know you just shared one story where uh a settler was successfully prosecuted

00:13:25.860 and has been imprisoned for the murder of a Palestinian...

00:13:31.280 For a Palestinian mother, I should have been.

00:13:34.160 Yeah.

00:13:36.000 So there is a case there of a successful prosecution,

00:13:39.540 but it does seem, from the content you're sharing

00:13:42.880 and from the people I spoke to in the Christian community of the West Bank,

00:13:46.840 that for the most part, the Israeli army, as you just said, the IDF,

00:13:51.040 and the Israeli police and justice system

00:13:53.040 mostly turn a blind eye to these things, though, right?

00:13:55.860 unfortunately unfortunately it's the it's a rare case actually and this is happened in 2018

00:14:01.140 the story i just shared it happened in 2018 and that settlers was a minor at that time and now

00:14:07.140 it's they're converting him like after after eight years of of the murder of aish arabi which is the

00:14:12.260 matter of eight uh uh yeah this is cases unfortunately are rare that the cases were

00:14:18.420 israelis that are persecuted uh just in recent like two weeks israelis settlers like murder

00:14:23.620 seven Palestinians in the West Bank and no even arrests have been made so with that with the

00:14:30.260 current Israeli government everything is different and Israeli settlers actually they are protected

00:14:36.900 and enabled by the Israeli government and with full impunity they don't face any consequences

00:14:41.860 of their crimes against Palestine and it's either Muslims or Christians in the West Bank like 99%

00:14:48.500 of this incident of settler's attacks,

00:14:50.940 like it's ended with no investigation.

00:14:53.520 Israeli army and Israeli police

00:14:55.080 just declosed the cases

00:14:56.120 against no one, against Annam.

00:14:59.760 They just declosed it.

00:15:01.620 I don't want this question to seem too on the nose,

00:15:04.520 but why do you think it is

00:15:06.200 that the IDF, Israeli police,

00:15:08.220 and justice system,

00:15:09.840 not universally, but for the most part,

00:15:12.520 do not investigate

00:15:14.420 and do not prosecute in cases

00:15:16.280 where you've got very clear cases

00:15:18.120 of not just murder but you know like taiba it's you know there's tons of arson uh violent severe

00:15:25.800 assaults short of murder but you know these kinds of attacks from kind of radical settlers who uh

00:15:33.080 very clearly trying to drive people off the land why is it that israeli authorities israeli military

00:15:39.480 for the most part again not entirely but for the most part don't seem to prosecute these cases

00:15:44.680 because they are complicit in in in these attacks like i can't tell you like many of these cases

00:15:49.880 where the researchers aren't israeli sitters they were like reverse soldiers they are not just like

00:15:54.840 israeli sitters they are already like uh serving the idea in the israeli army and that's why

00:16:00.920 many of these cases are like closed with no investigation like that uh one of the sitters

00:16:06.200 who killed uh two palestinians in the west bank last week he was an israeli served soldier which

00:16:12.280 is like he's in duty uh so yeah so uh the israeli army uh literally following the policy of the

00:16:19.560 israeli government which is to give these settlers impunity of of these attacks and the end goal is

00:16:26.280 to ethnic lands palestine and the west bank to push them out to and they are they are they are

00:16:31.560 talking about publicly they are not even hiding it or just like uh uh like talking about something

00:16:37.240 not clear or not not uh not it's not there the israeli finance minister smarter she clearly

00:16:43.720 said that the end goal is to empty the west bank from palestinians so either christian muslim so

00:16:49.960 they are following the policy of their government so i i want to just follow on that last point

00:16:54.760 because i think you know among you know western mostly christian supporter uh zionism zionist

00:17:02.360 supporters of of israel in the west some many turn a blind eye and they say well they're just

00:17:10.060 getting rid of radical they're a bunch of radical muslims they're hamas types and surely some of

00:17:15.100 those are are people they're getting rid of but uh they're also getting rid of moderate muslims

00:17:21.100 and christians christians who have a track record of precisely zero terrorism in the region

00:17:26.220 ever um in your in your view are do the israelis um are are they making any differentiation in

00:17:38.340 trying to push palestinians out between christian and muslim or are they treated more or less the

00:17:43.780 same no it is the same they are treating the same so when you attack the entire the entire

00:17:49.000 religion entire group of people you are not discriminated you are not like differentiate

00:17:52.960 between who's extreme so who's not this is actually i believe it's ridiculous to to have even this

00:17:58.000 claim because most of these attacks like just against palestinian civilians uh uh who like

00:18:04.720 just in their homes like it's like a chamber of taipei like a chamber of taipei there's zero

00:18:08.960 literally zero record of any uh attack serious attack from the question which of taipei against

00:18:14.400 anyone so no there's just like the end goal for them is just to push these people out of their

00:18:20.800 land and which is unfortunately if it's if it's gonna happening uh for a while it's they will

00:18:26.560 succeed on this unfortunately and the way it looks away because uh uh as i as i told you like uh

00:18:33.520 earlier many christian uh uh families unfortunately now they are considering to leave either from met

00:18:39.840 sahur which is they are now uh under um a pressure from a new israel illegal israel settlements they

00:18:47.360 just established uh out of the on on the outskirt of that of the town or the shavage of tibia

00:18:54.720 which is the office like uh unimaginable like hardship living under the occupation uh closed

00:19:02.160 gates uh economic hardship so so life for palestinian christian and palestinian joan

00:19:09.520 those back now it's like I'm powerful. So you know maybe if you could speak to

00:19:16.480 how you view Christian Zionist doctrine fitting into Christianity more broadly but also how it

00:19:24.080 fits with evangelical Christianity more specifically. I don't see it fit to be honest

00:19:30.000 I don't see it fit because it's a betrayal of of of the Christian principle to stand with with

00:19:35.840 with the noble people. As a Palestinian Christian, we are really like, we feel betrayed by those

00:19:43.040 Christians who refuse to speak out, who refuse to stand with their fellow Palestinian Christian,

00:19:50.240 but instead they are standing with their ideology about supporting Israel completely,

00:19:54.960 entirely, regardless of what they are doing to their fellow Palestinian Christians,

00:19:59.680 or like a human in general like to to to civilians in general so for me no like christianism is not

00:20:08.320 fit like with uh with the christianity at all this is my own perspective and this is actually

00:20:13.520 uh perspective of like 99 percent of palestinian christian too who disagree with the christian

00:20:19.040 zainism because for them christianism is like it's it's an indirisible to their suffering

00:20:24.320 like this is not uh a new suffering they're just like decades of suffering of palestinians christian

00:20:29.280 muslim but i see it in general and just to fill for their prophecy or whatever is that

00:20:36.400 so let's talk a bit more about the doctrine of maybe christian zionism a bit more uh i wasn't

00:20:42.000 going to as much but your background makes i think a more interesting conversation uh now um

00:20:49.120 you know kind of at its basic high level it's you know there's the old testament promises to

00:20:54.720 the jewish people of the land and uh you know kind of defines what that land is and it's

00:21:00.480 significantly larger than 1948 green line borders of israel but yeah this is the promised land to

00:21:09.040 the promise to the chosen people but um you know my my understanding of the new testament is

00:21:18.240 that the promises to the people of Israel became now promises to all humanity. Everyone who

00:21:26.580 accepts Christ, everyone who, yeah, everyone who, everyone who acknowledges Christ, that promise

00:21:32.700 goes from a parochial promise to a particular people, to all humanity. And there is no longer

00:21:38.820 a covenant with just a specific people, but it's now a covenant with, with everyone who's in,

00:21:43.260 who's in the church that's that's how i understand it but christian zionist doctrine

00:21:49.000 i it it does believe in that that it's universal but it also seems to hold on to the idea that

00:21:58.720 there is also a separate that the old the old covenant the old testament is still applicable

00:22:04.500 and not overridden by the new testament so that there's essentially two covenants one with the

00:22:11.020 jewish people and then one with everyone else at the same time yes that's that's what i think

00:22:14.200 that's how i'm seeing it what's your take yeah that's also what they believe in that's actually

00:22:18.200 that's true that's what they believe in and they have like uh is like israel is still a promised

00:22:23.340 land without even defining that order of this promised land without even like the consequences

00:22:27.500 of that indigenous people that lives there without even the consequences of what a syrian christian

00:22:31.640 without even like anything that we have to support israel uh entirely completely that's what they

00:22:36.760 believe in and that's actually it's it's a trail of the principle of of christianity of that jesus

00:22:44.020 teaching so for me like uh i i've been like talking with many people who are christian

00:22:50.120 scientists and they were trying to convince me that what they believe in is true but it doesn't

00:22:54.600 make any sense for me at the end because actually it's uh it's heresy that's why i believe it in

00:23:00.320 like because if you're if you're if your ideology actually deprive you from showing the humanity to

00:23:06.540 to to to people who are suffering you know in ghazza and the waspanic whatever so this is a

00:23:11.960 problem in your religion is not in the problem with these people or who they are what they what

00:23:16.040 what they are for what the religion is yeah i mean i like the the old testament and the old covenant

00:23:23.100 is you know god speaking to his people the jewish well jewish people later part but you know the

00:23:29.840 the descendants of Abraham, and then more specifically, you know, Israel after that.

00:23:38.200 But the New Testament is universalist.

00:23:40.760 It is not speaking just to a people.

00:23:44.820 It's speaking to all humanity.

00:23:49.080 And so when you're speaking with fellow evangelical Christians, but who are Zionist,

00:23:54.560 you know, what is it you're telling them?

00:23:57.980 you you say it's a heresy um now i remember uh father jack of the greek michaelic catholic

00:24:03.500 church in taba he said you know that that doctrine cannot be true because that would

00:24:07.820 make god a racist that god prefers some people over over others and the god of the new testament

00:24:14.220 is universalist and embraces all humanity you know how do you challenge those who who

00:24:21.100 hold that there is still i really i really challenge them not from theological perspective

00:24:26.460 when i challenge these christians i challenge them like from what you speak about there is

00:24:30.860 some people who are suffering and these fanatic settlers like these extreme settlers who are

00:24:35.340 tourists according to many israeli people not just to me the money israeli people money israeli

00:24:40.460 official is even talking about them in in in that way they call them like tourists and you are

00:24:45.980 prepared to support this tourist because you have you have an ideology that's uh like give you that

00:24:54.460 that that thoughts that these people are better than others blah blah blah so for me like at least

00:24:59.980 like deal with the facts on the ground that these palestinian people are suffering under the attack

00:25:04.780 by israeli sitters regardless of what i do you believe in regards what everything is written

00:25:09.500 if you really believe in the ideology that like literally supporting it means supporting these

00:25:14.460 terrorists this mean like it's it's it's it's disgusting it's disgusting when even the israeli

00:25:20.700 people israeli jewish friends and so you wish like people who i know who call these israeli

00:25:27.100 officials who are calling these settlers tourists literally and you can't even condemn these attacks

00:25:33.580 even like when these attacks also in your fellow christians when you're only christian people in

00:25:40.780 palestine i'm not here to discriminate between the attacks on christian muslim but even like

00:25:45.660 from their perspective if you are really a christian because you're a christian but you

00:25:49.020 still don't show sympathy for palestinian christians just because they were attacked by

00:25:53.580 israeli jewish settlers this is a problem i think this is ideal and many times i challenge them

00:25:59.260 actually they retreat like they they will have no answer most of times what they would answer

00:26:04.540 these things what they would say and they would say yeah but it's bad blah blah but they

00:26:08.460 at the end they don't even uh have dare to utter that word to condemn these attacks to say this

00:26:14.620 It's a text horrible, it's a text bad, it's a text, you know.

00:26:19.260 Yeah, I mean, most of how I look at, I look at this through a relatively secular lens of, you know,

00:26:24.840 I think the Jewish people should have a homeland.

00:26:26.940 I think Israel should exist, but it should exist along the relative lines of the Green Line, 1948, 1949,

00:26:36.140 with maybe parts of Jerusalem up for debate.

00:26:38.700 But that's how I've generally seen it.

00:26:41.660 But I've become more interested in, you know, in the theological aspects of this because it's driving so much of Western support for Israel that goes beyond reasonable support of being a friend.

00:26:53.700 You know, I'd like the West to be friendly and generally supportive of Israel, but treating it as just another friendly neighbor, another country in the neighborhood that we can trade with.

00:27:05.940 We can, you know, do whatnot with friendly nations.

00:27:09.420 guess what like even the palestinian authority recognize israel

00:27:12.740 right to exist even the palestinian authority and the palestinian people

00:27:16.500 recognize israel 65 percent of palestinian people in the

00:27:19.800 response shows that they are supportive to state solution

00:27:23.080 which is mean israel the state of israel live side by side with the state of

00:27:26.740 palestine so this is not like a stance of like uh

00:27:29.920 the majority of palestinian people know they they don't want and and the

00:27:33.880 question of right to exist things it's it's beyond us like in oslo

00:27:37.680 called the Palestinian Authority signed

00:27:39.740 and recognized Israel as a

00:27:41.740 state. So, and we

00:27:43.520 should start off that point about we

00:27:45.700 recognized Israel as a state

00:27:47.320 and Israel in exchange did not recognize

00:27:49.420 Israel as a state and they never gave us a state.

00:27:52.320 Yeah.

00:27:55.520 So I want to talk more about Western,

00:27:58.780 you know,

00:27:59.700 I said earlier that

00:28:01.360 the,

00:28:02.940 you know, the most consistent thing

00:28:05.660 I heard from Christians

00:28:06.780 in the West Bank was that they feel abandoned and ignored by Christians in the West.

00:28:13.920 You know, in many cases, I feel like betrayal, betrayal to me implies it's explicit.

00:28:22.760 I think for the most part, Western Christians just either don't really know about the plight

00:28:30.860 facing Palestinian Christians, and we're told, we're kind of propagandized that actually

00:28:35.880 Israel as their protectors. And maybe that's true to an extent inside of Israel proper, but it's

00:28:40.700 certainly not true in the West Bank and in Gaza, where there's Christian minorities. Israel is very

00:28:45.520 much not their protector there. I think betrayal implies that it is intentional. I think that

00:28:54.140 Western Christians, for the most part, either just don't really know about it, or are turning a blind

00:28:59.960 eye to it because it because it doesn't fit neatly into the narrative of uh you know westernized

00:29:07.900 israelis on one side and radical islamist muslims on the other because that's a nice nice neat

00:29:14.320 two-dimensional narrative the christian minority muddies that whole thing up and makes a much less

00:29:20.560 clean story uh what do you think is uh responsible for how western christians are for the most part

00:29:32.100 just not responding or paying attention to what's happening to the palestinian christians

00:29:35.880 we are bringing the attention to them we are bringing that's why we are now advocating for

00:29:42.180 what is saving christian and we launched a campaign called save west bank christians

00:29:46.600 we are literally just urge people to sign a petition to send it to to to to us president

00:29:52.740 trump to stop the settlers attack to stop the settlements in those bank that's in danger of

00:29:58.240 the palestinian christian represent the uh the the oldest christian community in the world

00:30:04.560 so for me like it's betrayal because it's not about people who don't know that these things

00:30:10.500 exist these attacks and these pressure on the palestinian christian community exist for me

00:30:15.080 betrayal because after even you see that what's really going on with these attacks you still

00:30:21.160 choose to tear blind eyes to look away and to indifference of what's really going on to your

00:30:27.940 fellow Christians so that's what betrayal for me yeah abandoned by who refuse to know or refuse to

00:30:34.220 look at what's really going on but betrayal by those who knows very well what's really going on

00:30:38.880 but still they choose the side who's attacked their fellow Christians over stand with them

00:30:44.000 well that's what you're doing you're you're trying to bring away you're trying to bring

00:30:47.940 awareness to it because like frankly i like i i i i'm i follow these kinds of issues generally uh

00:30:56.140 and even i wasn't that aware of it until quite recently until it caught my attention and i went

00:31:01.340 over there uh so you're trying to bring awareness to it but for the most part western christians

00:31:07.080 are just not aware of this they don't they don't really know what's happening as i said they're

00:31:11.740 They're kind of told that actually Israel is the defender, protector of Christians in the area.

00:31:17.180 And again, that's debatable.

00:31:19.140 Perhaps it's true to an extent inside of Israel, but it's not true in the West Bank and Gaza for the Christian minorities there.

00:31:26.560 Most Christians don't know.

00:31:27.600 So I know part of your job is bringing awareness to these things.

00:31:31.360 Why do you think it is that Western Christians, for the most part, just have no idea about any of this?

00:31:38.000 well part of it unfortunately the western media who choose not to report these days

00:31:45.800 who not to tell them the true story about what's really going on there so most of part like just

00:31:50.420 these vagueness language that about all attacks by by by somehow by without mentioning given who

00:31:57.820 attacks and like biased coverage of of of the events in the west bank and gaza that's really

00:32:04.840 like let people to don't know what's really going on if they which is very hard these days just to

00:32:09.780 rely on on on these media outlets people relies on what they are saying in in online and they

00:32:16.960 we have like um a tons of evidence of the persecution of palestinian christian and

00:32:22.880 at the hand of three settlers and those really aren't what's um you know i we've got a not

00:32:31.980 entirely but i know a largely christian audience um you know uh what would you say to you know our

00:32:38.780 audience who are you know dominantly western christians dominantly generally supportive

00:32:45.180 of israel uh you know people are you know we're pretty gung-ho on you know attacking any kind of

00:32:54.540 radical islamist ideology you know terrorist organization um you know what's the message you

00:33:01.820 would have to to that kind of western christian crowd i i have been interviewed by the vaticani

00:33:09.500 news like uh uh last july and my message to them was actually stop it stop the israeli

00:33:17.340 persecution and i think when the palestinian christians are in the west bank and gaza before

00:33:22.060 it's too late before it's even like you have nothing to call for you stop it uh before it's

00:33:28.060 too late because unfortunately since then that that attacks escalate every time it's getting

00:33:34.620 worse every time it's worse because no one really put a real pressure on israel to stop these attacks

00:33:40.460 to stop these policies who are really just pushing people out of their lives muslim and christian in

00:33:46.140 the west bank i guess back to what we were just talking about um you know you said you know the

00:33:53.260 the western media doesn't really report on the persecution of west bank christians um and it's

00:34:01.900 largely a media blackout there's a little bit you know you got vatican news but that's not very

00:34:05.740 widely read by most people um you know we're an independent media outlet that's we've just started

00:34:11.660 picking up this story in the last year as i've become aware of it here um we're not covering it

00:34:18.620 but why do you think that why do you think that is that it's it's just not getting major residents

00:34:25.100 in western media um you know covering covering this dimension of the conflict

00:34:33.100 yeah it's just because that the media choose not to it's just because uh but why do you think that

00:34:38.860 is why do you think they choose not to i i would i would like i don't have a real answer of this

00:34:44.380 question because this answer like have many you know aspects of why they are doing this i'm not

00:34:48.940 gonna dive into now about why these like media like companies uh decided to not coverage and

00:34:55.420 they have to buy us uh coverage of of what's going on in the west bank or in gaza it's really

00:35:02.300 have many aspects and it's it's i i see it like a little bit changing to be honest for some media

00:35:09.020 like they are start like really to cover what's really going on i i have been like connected by

00:35:14.140 many of these medias and give them like my my testimonies or giving like my sources about what's

00:35:20.060 really going on it's either in the by israelis citrus like this let's let's talk about the

00:35:24.780 citrus um my focus here on australia citrus uh and their attacks because i'm one of the sources

00:35:31.900 of the information about these attacks.

00:35:35.840 So it's changing a little bit,

00:35:37.780 but it's like years and decades of blind eyes

00:35:40.620 of the Palestinian suffering.

00:35:42.060 It's still like it's...

00:35:44.060 We are not...

00:35:46.260 These companies, it seems like they are not ready

00:35:48.320 to really cover the truth

00:35:49.960 of what's really going on in the West Bank.

00:35:51.500 And we are just urging them to do.

00:35:53.980 We are just urging them to take the step

00:35:55.940 and really to cover what's really happening there.

00:35:59.840 I want to turn briefly to Lebanon.

00:36:01.900 I know, you know, you're from the West Bank. That's the focus of of your work. But Lebanon, you know, is well, it's a mixed country, Sunni, Shia, Druze and and Christian.

00:36:16.060 the israelis have uh essentially ordered the clearing out of the people of a strip of land

00:36:24.920 along southern lebanon right now um christian communities and uh and shia muslim communities

00:36:32.760 for the most part um i i some people are raising the alarm that this is potentially a plan for

00:36:41.180 Israel to clear the population out to create a buffer zone, and then eventually settle it.

00:36:47.740 But I mean, on all sides of the debate, there's alarmists who go too far, you know, that Israel

00:36:53.140 is trying to take over everything and that they're, you know, they're hog wild. And the other

00:36:56.300 side, Israel can do no wrong. This must be entirely reasonable. Where do you fall on in the kind of

00:37:02.740 the clearing out in of the population in southern Lebanon right now is do you think this is just a

00:37:07.120 temporary thing war measure or or do you think this is a part of a plan to perhaps create a

00:37:13.660 buffer zone and then eventually settle it with with israel i'm i'm i'm well aware of what whether

00:37:18.560 israeli options said who really want to offer zoom for a very long time and the people who

00:37:23.500 displaced from these like areas which is like many of them are christians they will not be allowed

00:37:28.440 under uh under that the safety or the security of the israeli border which is we don't know like

00:37:34.800 there is no borderline of that so and uh i am aware enough to also for many christian villages

00:37:41.120 in the south who refuse to leave or refuse to leave there they're like you know uh father bri

00:37:47.040 who was killed like uh last week also one of those people who refused to leave um their village and

00:37:54.240 they choose to stay there and we have to we have to to to to bring it uh awareness and attention

00:38:00.880 to what's really going on to this village because

00:38:02.820 according to the Israeli

00:38:04.400 plan, all of these villages

00:38:06.920 must evacuate and these people

00:38:09.020 still refuse to evacuate. So we don't

00:38:11.020 know what's really going to happen to them.

00:38:13.240 What's really going to happen to them.

00:38:15.120 Alright, well is there anything you want to add

00:38:16.660 before I let you go?

00:38:18.540 Thank you so much for having me.

00:38:21.280 Alright, where can people

00:38:22.580 find more about you and

00:38:24.720 follow your work?

00:38:26.600 On Twitter.

00:38:29.520 What's your Twitter handle?

00:38:30.880 It's Ihabhassanin.

00:38:32.880 Ihabhassanin.

00:38:34.880 Ihabhassanin.

00:38:36.880 So it's I-H-A-B-H-A-S-S-A-N.

00:38:38.880 Yes.

00:38:40.880 Yeah. I strongly encourage folks

00:38:42.880 watching or listening to

00:38:44.880 go on X,

00:38:46.880 go on Twitter, and

00:38:48.880 follow your account.

00:38:50.880 It's

00:38:52.880 an interesting perspective people are not seeing

00:38:54.880 and it's very balanced.

00:38:56.880 I

00:38:58.880 don't see it as kind of the you know one side it's it's it's not a cheerleader account i i find it

00:39:04.380 just very um very insightful and and getting a ton of information that we're just not going to get

00:39:09.740 from most legacy uh media in any anywhere in the west right now thank you so much derek all right

00:39:16.860 yeah uh thank you very much for your time and uh god bless in the work you're doing thank you so

00:39:22.640 much. I appreciate it. Bye. All right. That's Ihab Hassan. He is a Palestinian Christian human

00:39:29.320 rights advocate currently based in Washington, D.C. For more information on this, you can read

00:39:37.140 a piece that I wrote after my trip to the West Bank in Israel in December called The Last

00:39:43.580 Christians of the Holy Land. You can read that. You can also watch the short documentary. We'll

00:39:48.780 maybe link to it at the end of the video here. It's only 20 odd minutes. It's a very short

00:39:53.720 documentary. Trying to give you some insight into the struggles faced by Christians in the West

00:40:00.200 Bank, places like Bethlehem and Thai by right now. Thank you very much for joining me today and God bless.

00:40:18.780 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 17, 2026

Persecution of Palestinian Christians intensifies

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