January 30, 2006
by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International

JERUSALEM – The Lutheran bishop of the Holy Land, Munib Younan, has urged Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip not to panic over the militant Islamic group Hamas' victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Christians in Palestine have been unsettled by Hamas' sweeping victory. The group's charter calls for the establishment of an Islamic state in all of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"We ask the Palestinian people, especially Palestinian Christians, not to panic and arrive at hasty conclusions, but to persevere and remain steadfast in this land," Bishop Younan said in a statement issued on Jan. 30.

Hamas won a decisive majority in last week's legislative elections. The group, which has political and militant wings, will now play a key role in governing Palestine, but the makeup of the new government is not clear.

"Now more than ever, we need to continue to be an active, integral part of the people and to continue as Christian witnesses for justice, instruments of peace and ministers of reconciliation," said Younan, a native Palestinian.

His comments reflect concern that the Hamas victory could speed up Christian immigration from the Holy Land, where Christians are an increasingly small minority.

There are now about 50,000 Christians living in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem. They make up less than 2 percent of the Palestinian population.

Once Palestinians have recovered from the "shock" of Hamas' victory, Younan said, they should try to understand why the militant Islamic group won a landslide victory, with 77 percent of the vote. He attributed the result to Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation, corruption in the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' extensive charity network, and Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last September.

"This is a moment of challenge and possibility in the midst of unexpected change," he said, adding that the Lutheran church will "watch, pray and work unceasingly and prophetically, so that the policies implemented for the Palestinian people will be guided by justice, equality and freedom."

Presbyterian News Service