Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church accuses Christian evangelicals in the U.S. of abandoning their fellow Christians in the Occupied Territories.

“They [US Christian evangelicals] have created a worldview in which support to Israel is integral to this American identity, American exceptionalism, American national Christian identity,” says Munther, a worldview that he thinks would change if they were to visit occupied Bethlehem, for Christians the birthplace of Christ, and see the situation on the ground for themselves.

Munther is no stranger to the apartheid rule of Israel, where government policy and a 708-kilometer separation wall disrupt the worship of thousands of Palestinian Christians.

Recalling conversations with fellow evangelicals from South Africa, Munther says they described the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as being “much worse than apartheid,” adding that “you would assume that people would respect what South African theologians, church leaders are saying.”

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