Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat lashes out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for accusing the Palestinian Authority of discriminating against its Christian population.
“It is Israel that has been engaged in the forcible displacement and transfer of Palestinians, including Christians” since 1948, Erekat says in a statement.
“Dozens of Palestinian Christian communities were in fact ethnically cleansed by Israel and now live as refugees,” he adds, accusing Israel of a “massive campaign of land grabbing” in the area around Bethlehem.
Erekat calls on all “peace-loving people” to condemn the “cynical use of religion to justify the oppression of the people of Palestine.”
Speaking to Christian journalists on Sunday, Netanyahu noted the sharp drop in Christians as a percentage of Bethlehem’s population, which he said was due to persecution by the PA.
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