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This is a guest post from the JPF family by Em and was first published on Medium.

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by Em

I was having what I thought was a reasonably civil discussion with an (ostensibly) Palestinian writer on this platform. They had been complaining about how unfair it was that they were not “getting a fair hearing”, and that “Zionist trolls” were misrepresenting everything they were trying to say.

As is my habit (at least initially), I let this person air their grievances about how terribly unfair things were for the Palestinians. I replied, asking didn’t they think that things were also unfair for other communities in the Middle East. Perhaps particularly the Christian minorities which are rapidly shrinking to zero across the Arab world? (I had already pointed out that Jewish communities had already been reduced to effectively zero in most Arab countries.)

Their response was immediate, blaming Israel for the situation. I think perhaps they meant particularly within the Gazan and West Bank majority Palestinian communities, where the number of Christians has been declining steadily.

I pointed out that this phenomenon was happening across the Arab world, citing Lebanon and Iraq as examples;

The Persecution of Christians in Lebanon

www.algemeiner.com

And that it seemed unlikely that Mossad was responsible for all of the below incidents:

“Iraqi Christians have been victims of executions, forced displacement campaigns, torture, violence and target of Sunni Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Christians have fled from the country and their population has collapsed under the democratic government.[42] The majority of Christians have either fled to Iraqi Kurdistan or abroad. A population project by the Shlama Foundation has estimated that there are about 150,000 Christian Assyrians remaining in Iraq as of July 2020.[43] This is down from about 1,500,000 in the year 2003.[44]

In 2003, Iraqi Christians were the primary target of extremist Sunni Islamists. Many kidnapped Christians were forced to leave Christianity or tortured.

On August 1, 2004, a series of car bomb attacks took place during the Sunday evening Mass in churches of two Iraqi cities, Baghdad and Mosul, killing and wounding a large number of Christians. Jordanian-Iraqi Sunni Arab Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was blamed for the attacks.

In 2006, an Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, was snatched off the streets of the Sunni city of Mosul by a Sunni group that demanded a ransom. His body was later found, the priest’s arms and legs had also been cut off.

In 2007, there were reports of a push to drive Christians out of the historically Christian suburb of Dora in southern Baghdad, with some Muslim Arabs accusing the Christians of being allies of the Americans. A total number of 239 similar cases were registered by police between 2007 and 2009.[45]

In 2008, a priest named Ragheed Ganni, was shot dead in his church along with three of his companions.

In 2010, Sunni Islamist groups attacked a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad during Sunday evening Mass, on 31 October 2010 killing more than 60 and wounding 78 Iraqi Christians.[47]

In 2011, Sunni extremists assassinated a Christian randomly using sniper rifles. Two months before the incident, 2 Christians had been shot for unknown reasons in Baghdad and 2 other Christians had been shot by a Sunni jihadist in Mosul.

On 30 May 2011, a Christian man was beheaded by a Sunni man in Mosul.[48]

On 2 August 2011, a Catholic church was bombed by Sunni extremists in the Turkmen area of Kirkuk, wounding more than 23 Christians.

On 15 August 2011, a church was bombed by al-Qaeda in Kirkuk center.[49]

On November 24, 2013, in Mosul, a Christian journalist was gunned down in a targeted attack.

On 25 December 2013, in Baghdad, Sunni extremists detonated two bombs targeting Christians observing Christmas in the Al-Dora area of the Al-Rashid district. First, a bomb was detonated in the mainly Christian Athorien (Hay Al-Athoriyeen) neighbourhood market, killing at least eleven and injuring 40. Then a bomb was detonated outside the St. John’s Roman Catholic Church targeting Christmas service worshippers, killing 27 and injuring 56.[50]”

I waited expectantly for a reply, as surely this time there would be some sympathy shown for other suffering minority communities. Not only was such reply not forthcoming, but my Palestinian friend’s next move was to delete their piece (thereby deleting my points), and blocking me. At least I assume that was what happened. Being blocked, presuming that I am, makes it difficult to check.

It also means that I was unable to share the news that in only ONE Middle Eastern country that I could detect was the Christian minority population not being persecuted, but was in fact growing slightly. It also, btw, has a significant Arab Muslim population, with full democratic rights, and even an integrated Defence Force, Police, and Judiciary. I’ll give you another clue, it’s also the world centre for the Ba’hai faith, a true religion of peace which has suffered much persecution in other nearby countries.

Ba’hai world centre

What’s that you ask? Where is this country, this paradise of enlightenment, this model for the ignorant to learn to follow, this bastion of tolerance in a bigoted and intolerant region?

Let me tell you. It’s that well-known “apartheid” ridden “ethnostate”:

Israel.

Am Yisrael Chai!