HOLY LAND: ‘Church continues to serve’ struggling families

As the war in Gaza shows no sign of stopping, the Church in the Holy Land is increasing help to preserve the region’s Christian presence, supporting hundreds of families who have lost their livelihoods.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has stepped up its support for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem – which includes the Palestinian territories – providing emergency help, food, housing, school fees and medical assistance to more than 600 Christian families.

Most Christians in the Holy Land work in the tourism sector and have lost their source of income because almost all pilgrimages to the region have been cancelled since the war in Gaza broke out last October.

ACN has also supported job creation programmes and helped Christian-run organisations survive, according to Dima Khoury, head of the patriarchate’s Social Services Department.

Ms Khoury told ACN that Christians in the region “thought the war would stop after five months but it continues.

“Many Christians lost their jobs, or had their salaries reduced, or live with no income at all.

“But life continues, they need to feed their families and pay tuition and rent. Life for them is terrible.”

She said: “The middle class became poor, and the poor became poorer.

“Many of the wealthy families, who owned their own businesses, left the country.”

She estimated that no more than 10,000 Christians in the West Bank receive permits to enter Israel for work, whereas authorities used to issue as many as 160,000.

Ms Khoury added: “As the war continues, we begin to worry that the Holy Land will become the next Syria, a never-ending war.”

She said: “The Church continues to serve, to provide help for these families during the war.”

Ms Khoury added that a significant portion of the aid is for medical support, especially for Palestinian Christians in the West Bank who cannot access state health programmes because they are not Israeli citizens.

Speaking with ACN, Sami El-Yousef, chief executive officer at the patriarchate’s Social Services Department said that, even though the situation is more serious than first expected, the Christian community has proven to be resilient and able to withstand enormous challenges.

Mr El-Yousef added: “If we focus too much on the political horizon we will just pack up and leave.

“However, this land has seen lots of crises before, and the Church has always found a way to be the means of support for the community.

“There is no reason to believe that this will be different.”

He concluded that, even though the present situation “is more difficult” than before, “the Christian presence will survive”, and the Church will continue “to be present with its institutions”.

 

With thanks to Filipe d’Avillez