Most Christians in Israel are not Arabs. This is a little known fact. The Palestinian Arab population came with the Muslim conquest hundreds of years after Jesus walked the Land. But there was another people group during that period called Arameans. Jesus Himself spoke Aramaic as well as Hebrew.
Today, most of the so-called Arab Christians are actually Arameans. The great news is that Israel has now recognized them as a separate ethnic identity among Israeli citizens. I have written of this previously, (Israeli Christian Citizens in the IDF?) but this is a further update. Here is the new article:
Israeli Christians Officially Recognized as Arameans, Not Arabs Earlier this year, Israel took the first step in recognizing the nation’s Christians as an independent minority. Now, local Israeli Christians can register as a distinct ethnicity, as well. Lumped together with the Arab population for centuries, Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) has been instructed to now recognize the bulk of the country’s Christians as Aramaeans, the actual ethnicity of most of the region’s Christians prior to the Arab Muslim conquest. “The existence of the Aramean nationality is clear and obvious,” wrote Interior Minister Gideon Saar in his official directive to the PIBA. Saar noted that local Aramean Christians have a distinct “historical heritage, religion, culture, descent and language” – all the conditions necessary to be recognized as a national or ethnic group. The change in the national registry will be by request for those Christians born into Christian families or clans and who can speak Aramaic. Financial Spots
This decision will liberate the Aramaic Christians from being under the thumb of the Muslims. Already, these Christians are loyal citizens of Israel, serving in the Israel Defense Forces with distinction. They are clearly pro-Israel. I praise God for this wonderful news. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East where Christians are valued equally. Most Muslim countries officially discriminate against Christians at the least, and commit genocide at the worst. We need to pray for persecuted Christians and rejoice at the recognition they now have in Israel.
For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. Ephesians 2:14-15 NASB
Pray for the true peace of Jerusalem!
Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists (READ MORE)
[…] Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists (READ MORE) […]
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