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Palestinian Arabs

Muslim 'Palestinians' firebomb Christian 'Palestinians'


By Stan Goodenough
September 05, 2005

Muslim Palestinian Arabs plundered a town of Christian Palestinian Arabs in southern Samaria Sunday, setting houses and cars ablaze in an apparent ?revenge? attack after a Christian man dared to date a Muslim woman.

Christian families in the town of Taibe were forced into the streets, had their homes firebombed, and had to flee to neighboring villages for protection as the violence raged into the night.

No one was injured in the attack, despite the fact that the PA police took hours to respond to calls for help, according to reports.

The crowd of Muslims descended on the town a few days after a Muslim woman was allegedly killed by her family for having become involved in a relationship with a Christian from Taibe. The offending woman was forced to drink poison and then quickly buried earlier this week.

Islamic law forbids cross-religion relationships and imposes the strictest penalties on Muslims who transgress. So-called honor killings ? where families kill members (usually women) accused of such ?crimes? are widespread in Arab countries.

In the Kingdom of Jordan, the law states that family members who carry out honor killings are ?totally exempt from sentence.? Between 28 and 60 such murders are estimated to take place annually in that country.

The Palestinian Authority also permits these killings, with up to 22 a year reportedly taking place.

If the history of Muslim-Christian relations in Judea and Samaria is an indication, the danger exists that Sunday?s violence could trigger a Christian exodus from yet another Christian-majority urban area in the land slated for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The once Christian town of Bethlehem is today 95 percent Muslim, many Christians having moved out after the Palestinian Authority took over the ancient birthplace of Jesus just before Christmas in 1995.

Christian ?Palestinians? form a tiny minority against the overwhelmingly Muslim majority and under Islamic law and tradition, would have little recourse to protection if accused of any crime by Muslims in a future Palestinian state.

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