|
|
It is well known that during the second half of the nineteenth century the people of Bethlehem began to emigrate to the Americas due to the bad situation, unemployment, oppression, and the imposition of heavy taxes on the inhabitants, as well as mandatory military service. Thus many of the inhabitants of Bethlehem and its District were forced to emigrate abroad in their quest to earn a living and to enjoy a better life. Most of them went to such countries as Chile, Honduras, the United States and others.
Nowadays, Christians of the Holy Land are emigrating because of the socio-economic and political conditions which act as constraints on the prospects of advancement for communities, families, and individuals. The unstable political conditions prevailing today are similar to those prevalent early in the twentieth century under the Ottoman Turks.
The migration rate has doubled during the current conflict.
Occupation has disrupted daily life, closing schools and shutting
shops and other businesses. Also Palestinian Christians hve
been hit particularly hard, both by the collapse in tourism
and by road closures that have sealed off the West Bank.
The next generation of the Palestinian Christians might build lives far from the land where they and Christianity were born.
|
