Israel Matzav

Hamas attacks the YMCA

Hamas terrorists attacked the Gaza branch of the YMCA this morning, setting off explosives in a library and burning thousands of books.

The gunmen laid a second explosive device near a computer in the library but it failed to detonate. Two security guards on the scene were not able to block the intruders; they were taken by them from the YMCA and later released in the northern Gaza Strip.

The latest incident is another link in an ongoing chain of attacks against Palestinian Christians which has worsened since Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip last June.

However, Christians in the West Bank were not faring much better and the Christian population in both territories has been continually dwindling.

The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5% of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, down from at least 15% a half century ago, according to some estimates. No city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the Christian exodus than Bethlehem, which fell under full Palestinian control last decade as part of the Oslo Accords. The town of 30,000 is now less than 20% Christian, after decades during which Christians were the majority. Elsewhere in the PA territories, only about 3,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, live in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, among a strongly conservative Muslim population of 1.4 million.

This is not the first time that Hamas has burned down a YMCA. But the YMCA condemned Israel for 'violence' against the 'Palestinians' in 2001, and I doubt that this little incident will change their views.

I know: Let's give the 'Palestinians' a state reichlet so that when they finish with the 'Saturday people' they can go after the 'Sunday people.'

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:37 PM