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Ecumenical News International
By Michele Green
Jerusalem, 26 April (ENI)--A Roman Catholic parish school and a bible
study centre in the West Bank have been firebombed twice in the past two
months in a spate of unexplained anti-Christian violence in the
Palestinian territories. All took place since the Islamist Hamas
movement won a legislative election in January, Christian clerics said.
A priest at the Roman Catholic Al-Ahliyya College in the West Bank city
of Ramallah said several firebombs were thrown into a school sports room
in early March, causing serious damage and destroying all the equipment
stored there.
A month earlier, several petrol bombs were thrown into a classroom, he
said. The priest also said a Protestant bible study
centre in the town of Bir-Zeit near Ramallah was attacked and phrases
from the Muslim Koran were daubed on doors. Window-panes in a Lutheran
church in Ramallah were shattered by unknown assailants in recent weeks,
he said.
"Our college, our parish school was established in 1856 and during the
history of our school such things have never happened before," the
parish priest, Father Ibrahim, told Ecumenical News International.
He said he did not know who was behind the violence, but did not believe
that Hamas was involved as leaders of the movement who visited his
parish after hearing of the attacks and offered to send guards to
protect the compound.
One theory is that the violence has been perpetrated by members of the
rival Fatah faction in an effort to discredit Hamas and
fuel chaos in the Palestinian territories.
"We reported it to the police and up until now we know nothing," Father
Ibrahim said.
A Christian humanitarian worker in the Gaza Strip said a Baptist bible
study centre that serves as a charity arm for the local
Christian community received threats several weeks ago demanding it to
close down or it would be firebombed.
"Fliers handed out in downtown Gaza City ordered them to shut down their
work in Gaza. It said if they didn't do it then their
building would be burned down," the aid worker said. "They continued to
work there. Some people received threats from an
unknown group."
Christians in the Holy Land make up less than two per cent of the
population.
http://www.eni.ch/highlights/news.shtml?2006/04
(Articles from Ecumenical News International are only available
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