I always get very ignorant letters, many hateful, which I don’t mind. I find it fun to reply to those who hate and especially to those whose hatred has moved them to close their eyes to reality and turn other people’s tragedy into a political benefit for themselves. What’s also fascinating is that everyone who reads my columns which criticize Israeli government policies assumes I must be a Muslim. (By the way, these same ignorant people who read my columns that ALSO criticize Hamas and Palestinian and Arab and Islamic government policies, always fail to mention that!)

Here’s one such letter from a writer based in France, followed by my response (Every letter written to me is public, by the way, since I am a journalist and I write about public issues.):

—–Original Message—–
From: Jean-LouisTaffarelli [mailto:………]
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 3:46 AM
To: rayhanania@comcast.net
Subject: Facebook and Bethlehem

Dear Mr Hanania,
I just read your article about Facebook, thinking you were a muslim.
Now reading another of your articles I discover you are a christian.
You are most certainly aware of the fact that the christian population of Bethlehem is down to ten thousand, from about sixty thousand when the Palestinian Authority took over.
The reason being harassment and insecurity.
And this in spite of the fact that most christians in Israel side with the Palestinians.
Remember the occupation and looting of the Nativity Basilica for instance.
Just imagine the few christians in Saudi Arabia occupying the Kaaba to protest the interdiction to celebrate a christian ceremony.
What should we make of all this ? As a christian, if I lived in the Middle East I would certainly feel more comfortable in Israel than anywhere else.

Very sincerely Yours
Jean-Louis Taffarelli (France)

Dear Jean-Louis:

As a Christian, I am shocked and disgusted that you would abandon the plight of your fellow Christians in Bethlehem. In fact, as I read your email, I realized how ignorant you are about the facts and how political and hateful you must be. My relatives live in Bethlehem and I can tell you that the greatest oppression they face is not from the Muslims but from the Israeli government and the illegal, and brutal Israeli military occupation that is stealing their christian lands, denying them travel, destroying their homes and even killing their family members.

Israel says it doesn’t “intentionally” kill civilians but has “unintentionally” killed hundreds of civilians in the past two months in Gaza claiming they are trying to murder alleged terrorists — alleged in that they have never been accused, tried or convicted of crimes, nor where they killed in the act of a crime. But who cares about the laws, when you hate Muslims, correct?

Then there are my Christian relatives in Nazareth who are oppressed by Israel even more. Their Israeli Citizen ID Cards have special numbers on them so that the Israeli police will know immediately that they are Christian and NOT Jewish. They are routinely denied health services and many other state services, because they are not Jewish. Their land has been taken also, they are restricted on what they can own, build and farm.

And finally, most of my Christian relatives are denied access to East Jerusalem’s Holy Sites because they are NOT Jewish. Israel says Jerusalem is an open city. Open for whom? The Israeli government is worse than the Jordanian Government ever was, which restricted entrance to East Jerusalem to anyone with an Israeli passport but allowed Jews to enter Jerusalem if they did so from some other country than Israel. Yet Jordan is vilified but Israel’s government is not?

You are pathetic. And you are certainly not a Christian.

Thanks for writing
Ray Hanania

A PS to everyone to continue this topic further:

It is a fact that Christians are oppressed in the Islamic World. Muslims discriminate against Christian Arabs all the time, in Palestine and even in the United States. Christians are also equally persecuted by Muslims living int he United States. They are targeted and harassed by organizations like CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) excluded by groups like the IAP (Islamic Association for Palestine), and slandered by dozens of other Muslim American groups all the time.

Worse, Muslim Americans also boycott, blacklist and slander Christian Arabs who challenge their political views. In other words, if you agree with the Muslims, they love you and invite you to speak at their conferences. But when you question their policies and challenge their hypocrisies, they become worse fanatics against you than anyone.

And yes, Christian Arabs are discriminated against in Palestine. They have their churches burned down in the Gaza Strip and in Nablus and elsewhere when morons in the Islamic world protest the posting of cartoons that the Christian Arabs had nothing to do with. They are murdered and targeted as they were on the streets of Iraq, as was the Archbishop near Baghdad recently.

So, Jean and the rest, yes, there are issues. but don’t be a naive, ignorant fool and think that you can claim discrimination takes place by one group and pretend it doesn’t take place by others. Jean’s letter above would have made some sense if Jean had addressed the issue with PRINCIPLE. Yes, principle. That means when the Israeli Government murders a civilian Palestinian, Palestinians must denounce it. And when the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas murders a civilian Israeli, Palestinians must denounce that. PRINCIPLE ALSO MEANS that when the Israeli government murders a civilian Palestinians, Israelis should stop setting aside morality and principle, and they SHOULD DENOUNCE THAT TOO and stop making stupid excuses that “Israel doesn’t intentionally murder Palestinian civilians.”

The extremism among the Islamic fanatics, the extremism among the Israeli fanatics and the extremism from non-Arabs and non-Jews in France disgust me, and I am not going to stop writing about it at all.

Ray Hanania
[1] www.RadioChicagoland.com
[2] www.ArabWritersGroup.com