Editing Palestinian Christians (section)

===In the Palestinian Authority (from 1994)===
[[File:Orthodox priest family.jpg|thumb|[[Clerical marriage|Married Eastern Orthodox priest]] from [[Jerusalem]] with his family (three generations), c.&nbsp;1893]]
Christians within the [[Palestinian Authority]] constituted around one in seventy-five residents.<ref name=larry/> In 2009, [[Reuters]] reported that 47,000–50,000 Christians remained in the West Bank, with around 17,000 following the various Catholic traditions and most of the rest following the Orthodox church and other eastern denominations.<ref name="ReutersFactbox"/> Both Bethlehem and [[Nazareth]], which were once overwhelmingly Christian, now have Muslim majorities. Today about three-quarters of all Bethlehem Christians live abroad, and more Jerusalem Christians live in [[Sydney]], [[Australia]], than in Jerusalem. Christians now comprise 2.5 percent of the population of Jerusalem. Those remaining include a few born in the Old City when Christians there constituted a majority.<ref name=fdd>{{cite web|url=http://www.defenddemocracy.org/usr_doc/Christian_Exodus_final_2.pdf |title=The Christian Exodus from the Middle East|publisher=[[Foundation for the Defense of Democracies]]|access-date=17 August 2009|author=Jonathan Adelman and Agota Kuperman|date=24 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524055344/http://www.defenddemocracy.org/usr_doc/Christian_Exodus_final_2.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2006}}</ref>

In a 2007 letter from Congressman [[Henry Hyde]] to President [[George W. Bush]], Hyde stated that "the Christian community is being crushed in the mill of the bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and that expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were "irreversibly damaging the dwindling Christian community".<ref>{{cite news|title=Jesus and the Separation Fence|first=Ofer|last=Shelah|publisher=[[Ynet]]|date=29 May 2006|access-date=7 May 2007|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3256347,00.html|archive-date=2 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202180115/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3256347,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Plea for Palestinian Christians|author=Robert Novak|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=25 May 2006|access-date=7 May 2007|url=http://www.cmep.org/Alerts/2006May25.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407181632/http://www.cmep.org/Alerts/2006May25.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=7 April 2007|author-link=Robert Novak|url-status=dead}} Reprinted at 'Churches for Middle East'.</ref>

In November 2009, Berlanty Azzam, a Palestinian Christian student from Gaza, was expelled from Bethlehem and was not allowed to continue her studying. She had two months left for the completion of her degree. Berlanty Azzam said the Israeli military handcuffed her, blindfolded her, and left her waiting for hours at a checkpoint on her way back from a job interview in Ramallah. She described the incident as "frightening" and claimed Israeli official treated her like a criminal and denied her an education because she is a Palestinian Christian from Gaza.<ref>{{cite news |last=Flower |first=Kevin |date=9 December 2009 |title=Israel court: Deported Palestinian student can't return |publisher=[[CNN News]] |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/09/gaza.student/index.html |access-date=1 January 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924221921/http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/09/gaza.student/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>