Published by
Al-Araby
Al-Araby
The birthplace of Christ, Palestine was once home to a sizable Christian community. According to UN figures from December 1946, 145,000 Christians lived in the country, representing 12% of the total Palestinian Arab population. In the wake of the 1948 Nakba, 75,000 Palestinian Christians were expelled from their homes and became refugees in neighbouring countries, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza, which already had a Christian population of 35,000. Around 39,000 others remained in their homes in what later became Israel, setting roots as the nucleus of the Palestinian Christian community b…