The Order Attends UN Solidarity Day with Palestine

23rd of December 2024

UNITED NATIONS (Geneva, Switzerland) ― Dr. Miceál O’Hurley, the Special Envoy of the Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George the Great Martyr to the United Nations, represented the Grand Knight and the Order during the UN’s commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Friday, November 29, at the Palais des Nations. This annual observance, held in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 32/40B of December 2, 1977, took on special significance in 2024 as the ongoing violence and destruction in the Levant escalated into a humanitarian crisis surpassing the severity of conflicts such as the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1982 Lebanon War.

The Order’s presence at the commemoration highlighted its unwavering support and solidarity with Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, the Orthodox Christian community of Saint Porphyrios, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Palestinian people, and other embattled Christian minority communities in the region. A 2017 census estimated that 47,000 Christians resided in Palestine, primarily in the West Bank. Today, less than 2% of Palestinians in Gaza identify as Christian, with the majority belonging to the Orthodox or Catholic traditions. The number of Christians in the West Bank has declined by over 50% since the 1967 census.

The decline of Christians in Gaza and the West Bank is a reflection of the general contraction in size of Christian communities throughout the Levant over the past 75-years. The reasons for the exodus of Christians from the region are myriad but notably includes restrictions on movement of all persons in Palestine. As an example, the UN Refugee Agency cites:

Demolition of Christian areas in the West Bank remains a serious issue. In 2016, construction began of a new section of the separation barrier near the Palestinian Christian town of Beit Jala which appears destined to cut Palestinians off from their olive groves – a vital source of livelihoods and cultural symbolism – and ease the expansion of the nearby Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo.

Difficulties for Christians in Palestine were thrust to the fore in 1948 when the founding of Israel resulted in the displacement of Palestinian Christians as well as Muslims throughout the region. Due to the historic and universal presence of Christian communities throughout the world, the Nakba became a catalyst for Palestinian Christians to leave the region en masse. Declining birth rates amongst Palestinian and Arab Christians has also contributed to a lower proportional presence of the ancient Christian communities in the Levant. Lower birth rates, leading to a drop in the Christian share of Palestine’s population over the decades – from an estimated 10 per cent in 1948 to around 1 per cent today – has been cited as an additional, causal factor in the disappearance of Christian communities in what is fast becoming a bi-polar Jewish-Muslim region.

The engagement with Christians remaining in the region has been mixed. In June 2024, the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue’s report, titled “Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem” cited a “notable increase” in attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem. According to the report, In 2023, according to the group, there were 11 instances of verbal harassment, seven violent attacks, 32 attacks on church properties, a cemetery desecration, and 30 formally reported cases of spitting at or toward clergy and pilgrims. The report noted that every clergy member the Rossing Center spoke to in 2023 said they were spit at multiple times a week. The trend towards right-wing, authoritarian politics in Israel has created socio-political pressure on all minority groups in Israel.

The Vatican-appointed Latin Patriarch, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said, “…the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community has come under increasing attack, with the most rightwing government in Israel’s history emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalised religious property at a quickening pace”. Writing in the Time of London in 2022, His Beatitude, Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem said he believed the aim of Israeli extremists was to drive the Palestinian Christian community from Jerusalem’s Old City. The Old City included sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam including cardinal Christian sites such as the Holy Sepulcher, the Garden Tomb, the Mount of Olives and other ancient sites of pilgrimage and worship in Jerusalem. The Israeli Foreign Ministry and police officials acknowledge problems but have derided the views as “one-sided” and reflecting an “incomplete picture of the situation”.

While the Palestinian Authority has included Christians in its governments, Christians under their jurisdiction also face challenges. Christian children of school age are guaranteed separate religious education classes in Palestinian schools. Christian family life is culturally guaranteed being afforded Christian ecclesiastic courts for family law matters. Despite such ecclesiastic autonomy for religious freedom, education and family law, Christians continue to face discrimination. Complaints following the Second Intifada (2000) support claims that Christian land-owners in Bethlehem have been targeted for extortion by petty officials in the Palestinian Authority or that local gangs relying on threats and intimidation are rarely pursued when their victims are Christians. As with Israel, the Palestinian Authority indicates they share some of the concerns raised by Christians in their jurisdiction but deny the extent of the claimed discrimination.

At the outset of the Nakba, 90% of Bethlehem and surrounding villages identified as ‘Christian’. By 2016, the then-Mayor of Bethlehem, Vera Baboun, warned that the city’s population had dropped dramatically to just 12% of its former presence (a paltry 11,000 people). Throughout the West Bank, administered by the Palestinian Authority, estimates prior to the October 7th attacks on Israel indicated that fewer than 50,000 Christians remained – a drop of nearly 74% since 1948. The figures for Gaza, controlled by the US-designated terrorist group Hamas, claimed less than 1,100 Christians were left prior to the recent round of violence. Given the inordinate exodus of Palestinians capable of travelling abroad to destinations of choice, the majority of whom were Christians with relatives in Europe or the Americas, it is anyone’s guess how many Christians remain in Gaza and the West Bank today.

A report published by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom claims the Israeli security wall, begun in 2002, “made it particularly difficult for Bethlehem-area Christians to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and it made visits to Christian sites in Bethany and in Bethlehem difficult for Christians who live on the other side of the barrier, further fragmenting and dividing this small minority community”.

The celebration of the annual ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’ focused, rightly so, on the immediate cessation of hostilities that have been so devastating to the region and caused critically high levels of emigration and refugees to flee. Dr. Miceál O’Hurley, acting on behalf of the Order of Saint George the Great Martyr focused his attention on building good-will relationships with existing partners in the region including other religious organizations such as Monsignor Riyyan Chaves Mendoza, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations (Geneva); First Secretary Yannick Galeazzi of the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (Geneva); the Palestinian Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Geneva) His Excellency Ambassador Ibrahim Khreishi; Mr. Bader M. Al-Mutairi, Acting Head of the Permanent Mission of The OIC to The United Nations (Geneva) and International Ambassador for Humanitarian Diplomacy the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; and others at the United Nations. Further visits by Dr. O’Hurley included The Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Chambésy and the World Council of Churches, Geneva were made to further the efforts of The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George the Great Martyr within the context of inter-Orthodox and inter-ecumenical cooperation and dialog.

The Order is honored to have attended the United Nations gathering in Geneva and to advocate for both Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christian communities. Of all the sacred places on earth, none holds more divine mystery than Palestine—the land where the Savior’s footsteps crisscrossed and consecrated the soil, where He preached the eternal Word, healed the blind, cast out the demons of darkness, and raised the dead to life. This is the ground where heaven kissed earth, and the divine manifested in the most sacred of ways.

As Orthodox Christians, we are called to a profound and sacred duty: to protect these holy sites entrusted to the care of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. These sites are not merely places but living sanctuaries of Christ’s presence. Yet, as we safeguard the sacred, we must also stand firmly with the Christian people of this land—the living witnesses of Christ’s love and grace—who endure trials and hardships while preserving their faith and heritage in the very birthplace of Christianity.

To safeguard these lands and support the Christian communities is to become co-workers in God’s divine will, protecting both the living testament of His incarnation and the people who bear His name. It is to preserve the sacred mysteries that dwell within these holy places, where time and eternity meet, and the spirit of Christ continues to touch all who approach. Let us rise with reverence and devotion, knowing that by protecting what is sacred and standing with the faithful, we honor the divine mystery itself and keep the light of Christ’s love burning brightly—not just for ourselves but for all generations to come.

Dear reader, please consider joining as a member and partnering with the Order to assist the Christians of the Holy Land and the Middle East. Your help, however large or small, reaches far beyond your own home and community, offering hope and support to those who carry the torch of faith in the land of our Savior.

Below are pictures of Dr. Miceál O’Hurley, the Special Envoy of the Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George the Great Martyr to the United Nations. To view the images in higher resolution, please click on them to open the gallery format: