In a statement shared with the SACBC Communications Office, an ecumenical group advocating for justice in Palestine addressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech at the UN General Assembly.

In the September 27 statement, signed by His Beatitude Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah (emeritus), Greek Orthodox Archbishop Attallah Hanna, Lutheran Bishop of the Holy Land Munib Younan (emeritus), and other leaders, call this assertion false.

“Bethlehem was a Christian-majority city until 1948… During the Nakba, about 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and three refugee camps were established in Bethlehem, changing the city’s demographic… By 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, the city already had a Muslim majority,” the statement reads.

The ecumenical group goes on to say that decades of Israeli occupation, closures, permit restrictions, and military operations have worsened living conditions, and many Christians and Muslims have emigrated, and the recent war in Gaza has devastated tourism, further prompting departures.

“Decades of Israeli occupation, causing harsh living conditions, provoked many Christians and Muslims to emigrate and this reality continues until today,” say the ecumenical leaders.

The statement stresses that the decline of Bethlehem’s Christian population is caused by Israeli occupation, not the PA. Christians and Muslims continue to live together, sharing struggles under occupation while seeking equality, justice, and peace.

Bethlehem, a city dependent on tourism, has suffered particularly in the past two years of Israel’s war on Gaza, with the almost complete stop of tourism and pilgrimage. Hundreds have left Bethlehem in the past months because of the ongoing ravages of Israeli occupation and military violence.

The leaders insist Netanyahu does not represent Palestinian Christians and call on the international community to focus on the occupation as the root cause of suffering.