PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Country Dossier January 2019 Open Doors International / World WatCh ResearCh Unit January 2019 [email protected] www.opendoorsanalytiCal.org This version has been prepared by Open Doors Norway PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – WWR Country Dossier – January 2019 World Watch List 2019 1 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – WWR Country Dossier – January 2019 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – Country Dossier (January 2019) No copyright - This report is the property of World Watch Research (WWR), the researCh department of Open Doors International. It may be used and distributed free of charge, but please always acknowledge WWR as the source. Contents World WatCh List 2019 .................................................................................................................. 1 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – Country Dossier (January 2019) ...................................................... 2 Contents .................................................................................................................................... 2 IntroduCtion .............................................................................................................................. 4 WWL 2019: Keys to understanding Palestinian Territories .......................................................... 5 IntroduCtion .............................................................................................................................. 5 Link for general baCkground information ................................................................................. 5 Recent country history .............................................................................................................. 5 The religious landscape ............................................................................................................. 6 The political landscape .............................................................................................................. 6 The socio-economiC landsCape ................................................................................................. 7 Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................. 7 External Links - WWL 2019: Keys to understanding Palestinian Territories ............................. 8 WWL 2019: ChurCh History and FaCts ......................................................................................... 10 How many Christians? ............................................................................................................. 10 How did Christians get there? ................................................................................................. 10 What ChurCh networks eXist today? ....................................................................................... 10 Religious context ..................................................................................................................... 11 Notes on the Current situation ................................................................................................ 11 WWL 2019: Short & Simple PerseCution Profile ......................................................................... 13 IntroduCtion ............................................................................................................................ 13 What type of persecution dominates? ................................................................................... 13 Who is driving perseCution? ................................................................................................... 13 What it results in ..................................................................................................................... 13 Violence .................................................................................................................................. 14 Examples of specific persecution in the reporting period ...................................................... 14 WWL 2019: PerseCution DynamiCs ............................................................................................. 15 2 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – WWR Country Dossier – January 2019 IntroduCtion ............................................................................................................................ 15 Position on World WatCh List (WWL) ...................................................................................... 15 Persecution engines ................................................................................................................ 15 Drivers of persecution ............................................................................................................. 16 Context .................................................................................................................................... 18 Christian communities and how they are affected ................................................................. 19 Pressure in the 5 spheres of life and violenCe ........................................................................ 20 5 Year trends ........................................................................................................................... 22 Gender specifiC persecution ................................................................................................... 24 Persecution of other religious minorities ................................................................................ 25 Future outlook ........................................................................................................................ 25 External Links - WWL 2019: PerseCution DynamiCs ................................................................ 26 Additional Reports and ArtiCles .................................................................................................. 28 WWR in-depth reports ............................................................................................................ 28 Open Doors artiCle(s) from the region .................................................................................... 28 World Watch Monitor news articles ....................................................................................... 28 Recent country developments ................................................................................................ 28 3 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – WWR Country Dossier – January 2019 Introduction This country report is a collation of documents based around Open Doors World WatCh List (WWL)1 inCluding statistical information on world religions, Christian denominations, and people groups prepared by the World Christian Database (WCD)2. Further news and analysis is supplied by World WatCh Monitor3 and WWR staff. World Watch List Palestinian Territories Points WWL Rank WWL 2019 57 49 WWL 2018 60 36 WWL 2017 64 23 WWL 2016 62 24 WWL 2015 58 26 Scores and ranks are shown above whenever the country was among the fifty highest scoring countries (Top 50) in the WWL 2015-2019 reporting periods. Please note: The highlighted links in the text can be found written out in full at the conclusion of each main section under the heading “External links”. 1 See: https://www.opendoorsuk.org/perseCution/Countries/ 2 WCD website: http://www.brill.Com/publiCations/online-resources/world-christian-database 3 See: https://www.worldwatChmonitor.org/ 4 PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – WWR Country Dossier – January 2019 WWL 2019: Keys to understandinG Palestinian Territories Introduction Link for General backGround information BBC country profile: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14630174 Recent country history After Islamist Hamas won a decisive majority in the parliamentary elections of 2006, a national unity government was formed inCluding both members of Hamas and Fatah. Tensions over control of the Palestinian security forces led to a civil war in Gaza, in which Hamas took power by force in 2007. Since then, there have been two rival administrations within the Palestinian Authority. The relationship between both politiCal parties is CharaCterized by mutual distrust, revealing the influence of tribalism and clan rivalries within the Palestinian Arab community. Adherents of the one have been imprisoned and abused by the other. Rapprochement efforts between Fatah and Hamas resulted in the formation of a Palestinian Unity Government in June 2014. This move was meant to pave the way for parliamentary elections, however these have not been held as the Unity Government resigned in June 2015. In April 2017, President Abbas imposed sanctions on the Gaza strip after Hamas established its own administrative committee, deducting 30-50% from the salaries of PA staff in Gaza. A reconciliation agreement was reached in OCtober 2017, with Hamas agreeing to hand over the Control of the border CheCk points to the Palestinian Authority. However, no real steps towards reconciliation have been made since and Hamas has still full control in Gaza. In July 2017, Israel ereCted safety measures around the Al-Aqsa mosque after two Israeli poliCe men had been killed. This ignited violent protests, causing the death of at least six people. Both Fatah and Hamas Condemned the Israeli measures, Calling on Palestinians to proteCt the mosque. After two weeks of protest, Israel removed all safety measures. The 70th commemoration of the Nakba on 15 May 2018 (Nakba means "disaster" in Arabic; this term is used to refer to the events which occurred during