Page 17 - North Star 2024

Catholic church, which constitutes a war crime. Of course, she is blatantly wrong, and she likely knows it. Christianity has existed and flourished in Gaza since the beginning of the religion itself, over two millennia ago. The Deputy Mayor is simply parroting a common propagandist lie, conjured to ignore the Christian communities of Palestine and paint the entire region as a fanatic Islamist hellhole of intolerance and authoritarianism. This is a widely used farce employed within anti-Palestine rhetoric.
The history of Christianity in Gaza can be traced back to literally the times of Jesus. As described in the Bible, Philip the Apostle traveled down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza to spread the word of Jesus’s crucifixion. The Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest church in Gaza, has housed Christian worshipers since the 5th century, AD. Today, the over 1,000 Christians living in the region “speak of feeling an ethnic connection to Gaza, as Palestinians, and a spiritual one, as Christians”, according to The New Yorker. “Relations between Christians and Muslims in Gaza are peaceful. . . the parish emphasizes the participation of parishioners in interfaith outreach for elderly people and the poor; Christian schools, including a primary school run by Sister Nabila, educate thousands of Muslim children.”
Yet the Christian community has oen been deliberately erased from the narrative when Westerners discuss Gaza. The anti-Palestine lobby would like to paint a picture of the region as an authoritarian, illiberal breeding ground of Islamist terrorism that stamps out religious tolerance. Thus, it is convenient to simply not mention Gaza’s thriving Christian community that has lovingly co-existed and cooperated with the region’s Muslims for generations upon generations. That same Christian community has been bombed, attacked, and massacred by Israeli attacking forces during the onslaught on Gaza since October 2023. Other Christian institutions in the region include the Catholic Holy Family Church and the Gaza Baptist Church. The first of those churches recently released a video of parish children praying with the audible sounds of bombs and airstrikes in the background.
The Church of Saint Porphyrius, which is also the third oldest church in the entire world, has been home to refugees of all religions during the military bombing of Gaza. It served the same purpose in 2014 during a similar Israeli attack. On October 19th, 2023, this church was bombed by the IDF, killing 18 people, including several children. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued the following statement in response: “Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost