Editing Palestinian Christians (section)

===Modern history===
{{See also|Bethlehem#Christian population}}
[[File:Palestinian Christian Scouts Nativity Church in Bethlehem Christmas Eve 2006.jpg|thumb|left|Palestinian Christian Scouts on Christmas Eve in front of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem (2006)]]

During the [[Ottoman Empire]], foreign powers enjoyed positions of guardianship towards minorities, including the French for the Christians of [[Syria]], [[Lebanon]] and [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem|Orthodox Christians]] more specifically came under the protections of the [[Russian Empire]]. This placed Palestinian Christians with protection privileges, and access to missionary schools, which enabled them to engage in commerce with European traders. In addition, Christian merchants had lower rates of duty to pay than their Muslim counterparts, and thus they established themselves as bankers and moneylenders for Muslim landowners, artisans and peasants. This growing middle class produced several newspaper owners and editors and played leading roles in Palestinian political life.<ref>{{cite book|url=|title=The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine|author=Bernard Regan|publisher=Verso Books|date=30 October 2018|page=57}}</ref>

The category of 'Palestinian Arab Christian' came to assume a political dimension in the 19th century as international interest grew and foreign institutions were developed there. The urban elite began to undertake the construction of a modern multi-religious Arab civil society. When the British received from the [[League of Nations]] a mandate to administer Palestine after [[World War I]], many British dignitaries in London were surprised to discover so many Christian leaders in the Palestinian Arab political movements. The British authorities in the Mandate of Palestine had difficulty understanding the commitment of the Palestinian Christians to [[Palestinian nationalism]].<ref>Laura Robson, ''Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine,'' University of Texas Press, 2011 p. 159</ref>[[File:55.Bethlehem.jpg|thumb|upright|Four Bethlehemi Christian women, 1911]]Palestinian Christian-owned ''[[Falastin (newspaper)|Falastin]]'' was founded in 1911 in the then Arab-majority city of [[Jaffa]]. The newspaper is often described as one of the most influential newspapers in historic Palestine, and probably the nation's fiercest and most consistent critic of the [[Zionism|Zionist]] movement. It helped shape Palestinian identity and [[Palestinian Nationalism|nationalism]] and was shut down several times by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and [[Mandatory Palestine|British]] authorities, most of the time due to complaints made by Zionists.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ironcagestoryofp00khal|url-access=registration|quote=rashid khalidi the iron cage.|title=The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood|author=Rashid Khalidi|access-date=2016-01-25|publisher=Beacon Press|date=2006-01-09| isbn=9780807003084 }}</ref> Following the British takeover of Palestine in 1918 during the final stages of the [[World War I|First World War]], groups called "[[Muslim-Christian Associations]]" were formed across the new [[Mandatory Palestine]] in order to oppose the Zionist movement and implementation of the Balfour Declaration.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kayyali |first=Abdul-Wahhab Said |title=Palestine: A Modern History |date=1981 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=086199-007-2}}</ref> In the 1920s, it was noted that the inhabitants of [[Beit Kahil]], [[Dayr Aban]] and [[Taffuh]] were originally Christian.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Ben-Zvi |first=Itzhak |author-link=Yitzhak Ben-Zvi |title=שאר ישוב: מאמרים ופרקים בדברי ימי הישוב העברי בא"י ובחקר המולדת |publisher=none |year=1967 |location=תל אביב תרפ"ז |pages=409–410 |language=Hebrew |trans-title=She'ar Yeshuv}}</ref>
The [[Nakba]] left the multi-denominational Christian Arab communities in disarray. They had little background in theology, their work being predominantly pastoral, and their immediate task was to assist the thousands of homeless refugees. But it also sowed the seeds for the development of a [[Liberation Theology]] among Palestinian Arab Christians.<ref>Nur Masalha, Lisa Isherwood, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wKVbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22  ''Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101174807/https://books.google.it/books?id=wKVbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22 |date=1 November 2022 }} The Lutterworth Press, 2014 pp. 21–22</ref> There was a differential policy of expulsion. More lenience was applied to the Christians of the Galilee where expulsion mostly affected Muslims: at [[Ma'alot-Tarshiha|Tarshiha]], Me'eliya, [[Dayr al-Qassi]], and [[Sabalan, Safad|Salaban]], Christians were allowed to remain while Muslims were driven out.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} At [[Iqrit]] and [[Kafr Bir'im|Bir'im]] the IDF ordered Christians to evacuate for a brief spell, an order that was then confirmed as a permanent expulsion. Sometimes in a mixed Druze-Christian village like al-Rama, only the Christians were initially expelled towards Lebanon, but, thanks to the intervention of the local Druze, they were permitted to return. Important Christian figures were sometimes allowed to return, on condition they help Israel among their communities. [[Maximos V Hakim|Archbishop Hakim]], with many hundreds of Christians, was allowed reentry on expressing a willingness to campaign against Communists in Israel and among his flock.<ref>Motti Golani, Adel Manna, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Bmu_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 ''Two Sides of the Coin: Independence and Nakba 1948,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112425/https://books.google.it/books?id=Bmu_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 |date=4 March 2016 }} Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, 2011 pp. 120, 130</ref>

After the war of 1948, the Christian population in the West Bank, under Jordanian control, dropped slightly, largely due to economic problems. This contrasts with the process occurring in Israel where Christians left ''en masse'' after 1948. Constituting 21% of Israel's Arab population in 1950, they now make up just 9% of that group. These trends accelerated after the 1967 war in the aftermath of Israel's takeover of the West Bank and Gaza.<ref>Laura Robson, ''Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine'', p. 162</ref>