The Palestinian Authority leadership, just before Christmas, announced that celebrations this year would be limited to religious festivities, because of the ongoing wave of terrorism against Israelis — attacks that some of our leaders are calling the “Al-Quds Intifada” or the “popular uprising. Our leaders also told the Christian population that there was no reason to celebrate while Palestinians were being shot and killed by Israelis — meaning those Palestinians killed while stabbing Jews with knives or running Jews down with cars.

On the eve of Christmas, however, it became clear that the real reason behind the PA’s decision to cancel public celebrations had nothing to do with Israel or the “intifada.” The decision, it turned out, came after threats by Muslim extremists to target Christians and their holy sites. Christian residents of Bethlehem and Ramallah said they received threats and demands to cancel celebrations from various Islamic groups. Their threats come in the context of ongoing Islamist persecution of Christians not only in the Palestinian territories, but also in other Arab countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt.

It is this campaign of intimidation against Palestinian Christians that prompted the Palestinian Authority security forces to arrest scores of Islamists in the West Bank ahead of Christmas.

Read the article “The Real Threat to Palestinian Christians: Radical Islam” on gatestoneinstitute.org.