Palestinian Christians live in constant fear according to this rare article about their plight in Gaza. And no, it's not fear of the Israelis.

Here with an item from last week's news that you might not have heard about: Unidentified gunmen blew up the YMCA library in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. While no one was hurt, two guards were temporarily kidnapped while the offices were looted, a vehicle stolen and all 8,000 books destroyed. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Fatah accused Hamas of being behind it. Hamas, for its part, strongly denied any responsibility and condemned the attack. Meanwhile, confidential sources in Gaza told the Jerusalem Post that the attack was in response to the reprinting of the Muhammad cartoons in Danish newspapers last week.

The supposed motivation for the attack, and the fact that it was not big news, illustrates the dire situation faced by many Christians living in the Palestinian territories.

So where are all the protests by Church leaders, Christian Aid, Caritas, Christian Peacemakers, etc? Admittedly, they might hear little about this problem, because of absence of freedom of the press in Gaza, and control of information for propaganda purposes by Hamas. But surely they have some awareness of it - could it be that they don't really care?

Even if the reporters came, what would they be told? It is well known that Christian Palestinians who have been subject to firebombings, seizures of homes and businesses, assaults and death threats still tell foreign visitors that they have excellent relations with their Muslim neighbours. After the foreigners go home, these Christians must remain, and are loath to give any reason for jihadist extremists to think that they are stirring up trouble.

Occasionally, though, the truth is told in articles like this one, but they make little impact. The usual protesters about the defence barrier and the inconvenience it causes to Palestinians (mostly Muslim) in the West Bank, seem to take little notice. Which is why some of us suspect that prejudice underlies their behaviour. They seem so willing to condemn the Jewish state for any problems it might cause its largely Muslim neighbours, and unwilling to speak up for fellow Christians suffering oppression by those same Muslims. As for the Christian Arabs, apparently largely abandoned by Christian organisations which seem to take little interest in their plight:

It is an awful way to live. It is more awful still that so few know, or care about it.

Has the wind changed direction? Is a balmy breeze of common sense beginning to blow across the icy wastes of prejudice surrounding Israeli-Palestinian issues? Just a few years ago, you might have expected Catholic Church statements to be biased in favour of the Palestinian view, and show little or no sympathy for Israelis.

Now read Speaking a Word of Hope at a Critical Time for the Holy Land by the snappily named Co-ordination of Episcopal Conferences in Support of the Church of the Holy Land and the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land and feel a sense of hope. They recognize the security concern of Israelis as well as the difficulties suffered by Palestinians. The contribution to the latter in Gaza by Hamas could have been mentioned, perhaps, but at least a recognition of the rights of Israelis is an improvement.

Well, what did I say yesterday? Poor Lubov Razdolskaya has barely been buried by her grieving family, while her husband and other victims of the Palestinian murder attack still suffer in hospital. Yet, as though nothing had happened, the Independent Catholic News chooses this moment to publish a call from Bishop Kenney to remove the security barrier which largely protects Israelis from such terrorist attacks. He calls it an insult to human dignity.

Not as big an insult as being murdered, surely? And why are the lives of one people worth less than the convenience of another? Here he complains about some minor inconvenience caused to Palestinians by checkpoints set up to protect Jewish lives.

These children had travelled sometimes for many hours and through various check-points in order to be there for the feast of the children for the day when the Church celebrates the Epiphany. The irony of that situation was not lost on many of the adults present. The feast celebrates that God showed himself as a human being to the people who were not Jews.

But here’s a note of hope, as pleasantly surprising as seeing buds starting to appear on trees at the end of winter. Archbishop Rowan Williams has given a lecture to the House of Lords on Religious Hatred and Religious Offence

Stephen Pollard picks out an appropriate passage and comments:

Credit where it's due. Rowan Williams, who previously I had thought at best a waste of space and, sometimes, a lot worse in his attitude towards Israel, has made a remarkably strong attack on antisemites and the elision of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Do read it, and also Dr Irene Lancaster's thoughts on the subject.

In their almost 50 years of marriage, they were rarely apart.
But on Tuesday afternoon, as Lubov Razdolskaya's cloth-wrapped body was lowered into an open grave in a Beersheba cemetery, her husband Edward Gedalin fought for his life a short distance away in Soroka Hospital.

Both were victims of Monday's suicide bomb attack in Dimona, in which Lubov was the sole fatality.

It’s sadly predictable. The Christian press is strangely quick to publish anything critical of the Jewish State, and in support of a largely Muslim people which intimidates its Christian minority. It happily amplifies Palestinian propaganda against the anti-terrorist ‘wall’ which has saved so many lives. Yet when a terrorist does break in, murdering a wife and mother, approaching her 50th wedding anniversary, and seriously injuring her husband and many others, they are silent. There is not one word of condemnation for this evil act or of sympathy for its victims. It is not even mentioned.

You will look in vain on the Ekklesia site for any mention of this atrocity – instead they continue to bleat in support of the people who produced these murderers. Israeli and Palestinian groups deplore tightening of Gaza blockade.

Meanwhile, all we have had from Independent Catholic News over the past few days is this exercise in petty spite and hatred by a member of the Christian P*ss Taker Teams. Oh, sorry (adjusts spectacles and looks more closely) it says “Christian Peacemaker Teams.” Who would have thought it?

Will "Christian Peacemakers" behave like Christians (“I was sick and you visited me”) and go to visit Edward Gedalin and other victims in hospital, or offer support and sympathy to the grieving family? If they are not going to behave as Christians ought, then they might as well change their name.