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6 Goat and Chicken Diplomacy: Israel and Its Christian Communities Testing Freedom of Religion The Christian communities in Israel and their world centers based their attitude toward the new state on two basic criteria: freedom of religious worship and lack of discrimination. Israel’s policymakers knew only too well how important it was to mitigate Christian hostility, particularly where Jerusalem was concerned. Freedom of religion for all and safeguarding of the Holy Places were acknowledged to be official objectives and were given official expression in the Declaration of Independence on 15 May 1948.Among the achievements to which Israel’s leaders pointed with pride was this explicit guarantee to respect the full equality before the law of all religions. This guarantee entailed recognition of the right of Christian communities to appoint ecclesiastical functionaries , to own property, and to maintain ecclesiastical courts with judicial powers; recognition of Christian holidays as days of rest for the Christian population ,and representation of Christian citizens in the Knesset.The state sanctioned the existence of more than fifty private schools run by the various Christian communities, and granted Christian clerics the legal authority to conduct marriage ceremonies for members of their community. As further examples of its respect for other religions, Israel cited the broadcasting of Christian prayer services over Israel Radio during Christian festivals ; distribution of Christmas trees at Yuletide; the granting of permits to several thousand Christians to cross over to Jordan to visit Holy Places there during Christian festivals, and the fact that Christians were allowed to join the Histadrut (Israel’s General Federation of Labor). According to a 1956 internal memo of the Christian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Religious Affairs : “The government of Israel is honoring its commitments and promises toward the Christian world, and is doing everything in its power to guarantee for all its citizens, irrespective of whether they are Jews or non-Jews, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of worship and prayer. This should come as no surprise since thereby Israel is observing the humanitarian principles exBialer , Cross on the Star 6/9/05 8:43 AM Page 121 pounded by Israel’s seers and prophets.”1 Israeli officials liked to contrast this situation with “the tragic plight of the Christian minority in most of the Arab countries—from Tunisia to Sudan, from Egypt to Syria.” Understandably, Israel was led to believe that its efforts were bearing fruit when Pope Paul V1 declared at the end of his visit to Israel: “We note with satisfaction that our Catholic children living in this country continue to enjoy the rights and freedom which today every human being is entitled to enjoy.”2 This declaration was not ungrounded, nor was the assertion in a recently published two-volume history of the Israeli Foreign Ministry: “Since the establishment of the state, Israel’s governments have displayed a positive attitude towards the Christian churches in the country.”3 The newly accessible archival material,however,reveals that this idyllic picture disregarded the complexities of the situation and its positive and negative manifestations, which affected Israel’s relations with the Church in the local and international arenas. A frank report in 1954 by the adviser on Christian affairs to the minister of religious affairs drew a far from rosy picture of Israel’s relations with its Christian communities.“What is the situation after five and a half years of work and efforts?” he asked, and his reply was categorical: “Despite our concessions to the churches and the Christian communities in Israel, and despite the many benefits we have showered on them, we are now at loggerheads with almost all of them.Our relations with the Catholics are very bad,relations with the Protestants are deteriorating daily,and even the Orthodox,theArmenians,the Copts, and the Syrians have complaints and grievances which, for the time being, are not voiced out loud because these communities have no patron at the moment who is willing to do battle for them.”4 As will be shown below, the report was only a mild reflection of much more rancorous confrontations.Whereas Israel has widely publicized its achievements in this area, its problems and, in particular , its covert intentions with regard to the Christian minority have so far been largely unknown.The newly available material in the State Archives casts light on the true situation. Handling a Minority: The Organizational Dimension From the first, the problem of the Christian communities in Israel was bound up and interrelated with...

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