Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Christian runs for Palestinian Presidency

Ray Hanania is an award winning journalist and commentator, standup comedian and American Palestinian peace activist. He coordinates the National Arab American Journalists Association and is a diversity board member with the Society of Professional Journalists where he has received three Lisagor Awards for column writing. In addition Ray hosts a morning radio show in Chicago.

Ray Hanania has announced that he intends to run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. If he is successful he will succeed Mahmoud Abbas.

Ray is a Christian.

Ray’s father George, emigrated to Chicago in 1926 with an older brother following the death by drowning of another brother. He drowned while swimming at the quarry outside of West Jerusalem. Ray describes the circumstances as follows:

“The police reports noted that bystanders nearby refused to help him with Jews believing he was Arab, Muslims believing he was Jewish and Christians believing he was a Jew. That hatred, only a few years old at the time, has become the actualization of today’s Arab-Israeli conflict. Although my dad could not foresee the tragedy that was unfolding in Palestine, it was too much for him and he decided to find a place where people could live without the hate.”

In speaking of Christian Jewish Muslim relations in the Holy Land, Ray writes:

“Ever since I was a child, I remember the heart and spirit of the Palestinian Revolution was to create a "secular independent Palestinian State where Muslims, Christians and Jews" could live together as equals and in peace.

It was a mantra of my mentor, the late Professor Ibrahim Abu-Lughod who was an activist partner with the late Edward Said. Christian and Muslim Arabs fought for Palestine as indistinguishable brothers and sisters in conflict, they taught me. But now that they are gone, their lessons are being lost.

Both the conflict and attitudes have changed. Raising the issue of Christian rights in the Arab World provokes a reprimand from Palestinians and Arabs, not because the simmering Christian-Muslim Arab conflict does not exist, but rather because the critics hope that if we pretend it doesn't exist and not discuss it, it will go away.

Instead, when the issue of Christian relations in the Arab World is raised and overcomes the resistance, it is placed immediately into the political context of the abuses of the Israeli occupation causing the disappearance of the Christian presence in Palestine.

But it is not just the fault of the Israelis, whom the Arabs blame for everything; although in truth, the Israelis are no different and they blame the Arabs for everything, too. The issues of blame are symptoms of the problem, not the cause of the problem. So is the simmering relations between Muslims and Christian Arabs.”


Ray’s observations dovetail with the mission and message of United Christian Communities. On our website, www.UnitedChristianCommunities.org , in discussing the problem of the flight of Christians from the Holy Land, we point out:

“Some try to place the blame on Palestinian Muslims by alleging Muslim acts against Christians such as threats, roadblocks to permitting Christians buying land, arson attacks on Christian property, rapes, forced marriages and, in the case of at least one Muslim convert to Christianity, murder.

Others try to place the blame on Israelis by alleging discrimination in education, employment and public services that Israeli-Arabs face, as well as the spillover effects of Israeli policies with respect to Palestinians.

The fact is we don't have the time for these blame games. Injecting the politics of the region into discussions of how we halt and then reverse the decline of Christians in the Holy Land simply drowns out the Christian message.”


Now Ray Hanania is not running for the Palestinian presidency on a Christian platform, but rather on a Palestinian platform. His message, though, as well as his personal history, say something of importance for all Christians. We wish him well.