Are Mideast Christians endangered species?
New film documents increasing persecution at hands of Muslims
October 18, 2002
A half-century ago, 15 percent of the Arab population in the Mideast were Christians.
Today that number totals just 2 percent.
What has happened to that population? Where have they gone? Why have they fled? What is life like now for the tiny minority of Christians still living in the Middle East – particularly within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority?
Those are the questions tackled in a new documentary, "Holy Land: Christians in Peril," by French filmmaker Pierre Rehov, the man who achieved some notoriety in Europe and the United States for earlier documentaries "Israel and the War of Images" and "The Trojan Horse," both sold exclusively in the WorldNetDaily store. In France, tens of thousands of videos have been distributed. In America, Rehov's work has been the subject of television news shows and countless radio talk show programs.
But this film is different. Rehov, a Jew, was so moved by what he witnessed with regard to Christian persecution in the Mideast while making his documentaries on the Arab-Israeli conflict that he chose to follow-up with this unique look at a largely unexplored topic.
What he found was that some 2 million Christians have fled the Arab countries in the last 20 years alone.
"This Christian exodus is a result of many factors, including the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, the related decline of the economy, but perhaps most significantly, the religious persecution these Christians encounter from their Muslim neighbors," he concluded.
The film includes interviews with Christian survivors who only feel comfortable telling their heart-breaking stories anonymously.
The film also explores in great depth the armed takeover and occupation of the Church of the Nativity by forces under the command of Yasser Arafat.
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