April 26, 2006
by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International

JERUSALEM – A Roman Catholic parish school and a Bible-study center in the West Bank have been fire-bombed twice since the Islamist Hamas movement won a legislative election in January, according to Christian clerics.

A priest at the Roman Catholic Al-Ahliyya College in the West Bank city of Ramallah said several fire-bombs were thrown into a school sports room in early March, causing serious damage and destroying equipment stored there. About a month earlier, he said, several petrol bombs were thrown into an Al-Ahliyya classroom.

In other recent incidents, he said, a Protestant Bible-study center in the town of Bir-Zeit near Ramallah was attacked, and phrases from the Muslim Koran were daubed on its doors; and windows in a Lutheran church in Ramallah were shattered by unknown assailants.

"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 didn't know who was behind the violence, but didn't believe that Hamas was involved. He said leaders of the movement who visited his parish after hearing of the attacks offered to send guards to protect the compound.

One theory is that the violence is the work of the rival Fatah faction, aimed at discrediting Hamas and creating 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 center that serves as a charity arm for the local Christian community was threatened with fire-bombing if it didn't close its doors.

"Fliers handed out in downtown Gaza City ordered them to shut down their work in Gaza," the aid worker said, "and if they didn't do it, then their building would be burned down. They continued to work there. Some people received threats from an unknown group."

Christians in the Holy Land account for less than 2 per cent of the population.

Presbyterian News Service