Palestinian Christians


Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within Palestine and Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.
Most Palestinian Christians belong to one of a number of Christian denominations, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Protestantism, among others. In the 1990s, an estimate by Professor Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University postulated that approximately 6.5% of the global Palestinian population was Christian, and that 56% of this figure was living outside of Palestine and Israel.
, Palestinian Christians comprise between 1% and 2.5% of the population of the West Bank, and about 3,000 of the population of the Gaza Strip. According to official British Mandate statistics, Christians accounted for 9.5% of the total population in 1922 and 7.9% of the total population in 1946. Over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war between the Palestinian Arabs and the Palestinian Jews, a large number of these Christians—as part of the Arab community—fled or were expelled by Jewish militias from what would become recognized as Israeli territory following the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which resulted in Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Christian population has increased as a whole, but has decreased as a percentage of the total Palestinian population.
Many individuals of the Palestinian diaspora who identify as Christians are descendants of the post-1948 Palestinian Christian refugees who fled from the Arab–Israeli conflict and settled in Christian-majority countries.

Ethnic identity

Palestinian Christians of different denominations are united by a common ethnic and Christian identity, as well as the experience of a connection to the birthplace of Christianity and a role in caring for its holy sites. Many Palestinian Christians are descended from early Christians, and they have sometimes called themselves "living stones". Although religion is perceived as a partly divisive factor, the common Palestinian and Arab identity of Palestinian Christians is also shared with Palestinian Muslims.
That Christian Arabs in Palestine see themselves as Arab reflects also the fact that, as of the beginning of the twentieth century, they shared many of the same customs as their Muslim neighbors. In some respects, this was a consequence of Christians adopting what were essentially Islamic practices, many of which were derived of sharî'ah. In others, it was more the case that the customs shared by both Muslims and Christians derived from neither faith, but rather were a result of a process of syncretization, whereby what had once been pagan practices were later redefined as Christian and subsequently adopted by Muslims. This was especially evident in the fact that Palestine's Muslims and Christians shared many of the same feast days, in honor of the same saints, even if they referred to them by different names. "Shrines dedicated to St. George, for instance, were transformed into shrines honoring Khidr-Ilyas, a conflation of the Prophet Elijah and the mythical sprite Khidr". Added to this, many Muslims viewed local Christian churches as saints' shrines. Thus, for instance, "Muslim women having difficulties conceiving, for instance, might travel to Bethlehem to pray for a child before the Virgin Mary". It was even not uncommon for a Muslim to have his child baptized in a Christian church, in the name of Khaḍr.

Geographic distribution

Diaspora

The majority of Palestinian Christians live in the Palestinian diaspora.

Israel

Of the total Christian population of 185,000 in Israel, about 80% are designated as Arabs, many of whom self-identify as Palestinian.
In 2024, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 180,300 Christians in Israel, of which c.141,900 are Arab Christians living in the Northern District, Haifa District and other areas, with 44% in just three locations: Nazareth and Nof HaGalil, Haifa and Jerusalem. The c.38,400 non-Arab Christians live mainly in the Tel Aviv District and Central District, and in the Northern and Haifa Districts.

Palestine

In 2009, there were an estimated 50,000 Christians in the Palestinian territories, mostly in the West Bank, with about 3,000 in the Gaza Strip. In 2022, about 1,100 Christians lived in the Gaza Strip – down from over 1300 in 2014. About 80% of the Christian Palestinians live in an urban environment. In the West Bank, they are concentrated mostly in Jerusalem and its vicinity: Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Ramallah, Bir Zayt, Jifna, Ein Arik, Taybeh.
In 2017, the most recent census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 46,850 Christians in the Palestinian territories, the vast majority living in the West Bank, which accounted for 45,712 Christians, while the Gaza Strip was home to just 1,138 Christians. Christian communities in the West Bank were highly concentrated, with nearly three-quarters living in three governorates: the Bethlehem Governorate, the Ramallah & Al-Bireh Governorate, and the Jerusalem Governorate. Smaller Christian populations were present in the Jenin Governorate, the Nablus Governorate, the Jericho & Al-Aghwar Governorate, and other governorates, each accounting for less than 2% of the total. In the Gaza Strip, Christians were concentrated primarily in the Gaza Governorate, with very small communities in the North Gaza, Khan Yunis, Rafah, and Deir Al-Balah Governorates.
GovernorateChristians%
Bethlehem23,16511%
Ramallah & Al-Bireh10,2553%
Jerusalem8,5582%
Jenin2,6991%
Nablus6010.2%
Jericho & Al-Aghwar2851%
Hebron590.01%
Tubas and the Northern Valleys540.1%
Tulkarm210.01%
Qalqiliya110.01%
Salfit40.01%
Total West Bank45,7122%
Gaza1,0820.2%
North Gaza200.01%
Khan Yunis160.004%
Rafah120.01%
Deir Al-Balah80.003%
Total Gaza Strip1,1380.1%
Total46,8501%

Demographics and denominations

1922 census

In the 1922 census of Palestine there were approximately 73,000 Christian Palestinians: 46% Orthodox, 40% Catholic.
The census recorded over 200 localities with a Christian population. The totals by denomination for all of Mandatory Palestine were: Greek Orthodox 33,369, Syriac Orthodox 813, Latin Catholic 14,245, Greek Catholic 11,191, Syriac Catholic 323, Armenian Catholic 271, Maronite 2,382, Armenian Orthodox 2,939, Coptic Church 297, Abyssinian Church 85, Church of England 4,553, Presbyterian Church 361, Protestants 826, Lutheran Church 437, Templars Community 724, others 208.
The census also listed 10,707 Palestinian Christians living abroad, making up the largest portion of the Palestinians living abroad at the time: 32 in Australia, 17 in Africa, 1 in Austria, 1 in Belgium, 1 in Bulgaria, 2 in Canada, 242 in Egypt, 34 in France, 59 in Germany, 1 in Greece, 7 in Italy, 4 in Morocco, 1 in Mesopotamia, 1 in Paraguay, 5 in Persia, 4 in Russia, 1 in South Africa, 11 in East Africa, 7 in Sudan, 6 in Sweden, 1 in Switzerland, 2 in Spain, 122 in Syria, 95 in Transjordan, 8,517 in South and Central American republics, 17 in Turkey, 6 in the United Kingdom, 1,352 in the United States, and 158 whose locations were unknown.

Denominations

Around 50% of Palestinian Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, one of the 15 churches of Eastern Orthodoxy. There are also Catholics, Oriental Orthodox, Protestants, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Church leadership

is the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem since 2005. He replaced Irenaios, who was deposed by the church synod after a term surrounded by controversy and scandal over a sale of property owned by the Greek Orthodox Church to Jewish investors. The Israel government initially refused to recognize Theophilos's appointment but finally granted full recognition in December 2007, despite a legal challenge by his predecessor Irenaios. Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia the highest ranking Palestinian clergyman in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is the leader of the Latin Catholics in Jerusalem, Palestine, Jordan, Israel and Cyprus. The office has been held by Pierbattista Pizzaballa since his appointment by Pope Francis on 6 November 2020. George Bacouni, of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, is Archbishop of Akka, with jurisdiction over Haifa, Acre and the Galilee, and replaced Elias Chacour, a Palestinian refugee, in 2014. Moussa El-Hage, of the Maronite Church, is since 2012 simultaneously Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Haifa and the Holy Land and Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine.
The Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem is Suheil Dawani, who replaced Bishop Riah Abou Al Assal. Bishop Dr. Munib Younan is the president of the Lutheran World Federation and the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.