The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian Authority
A Second-Class People / Regional Repression of Christians / Official PA
Domination of Christians / PA Disrespect for Christian Holy Sites / The
PA Takeover of the Church of the Nativity / The PA and Jerusalem
Christians / Reduction of Christian Political Power / Harassment of
Palestinian Christians by Palestinian Muslims / The Palestinian
Christian Response
Jewish Viewpoints
March 16, 2004
By David Raab
The Christian community in the areas administered by the Palestinian
Authority (PA) is a small but symbolically important one. About 35,000
Christians live in the West Bank and 3,000 in Gaza,^1 representing about
1.3 percent of Palestinians. In addition, 12,500 Christians reside in
eastern Jerusalem.
This population is rapidly dwindling, however, and not solely as a
result of the difficult military and economic situation of the past two
years. Rather, there are numerous indications that the Christian
population is beleaguered due to its Christianity. Taken in context of
the condition of Christians in other Middle Eastern countries, this
picture is especially credible and troubling.
A Second-Class People
Under Islam, Christians are considered /dhimmi,/ a tolerated but second
class who are afforded protection by Islam. /Dhimmitude/ is integral to
Islam; it is a “protection pact” that suspends “the [Muslim] conqueror’s
initial right to kill or enslave [Jews and Christians], provided they
submitted themselves to pay tribute.”2
However, the reality of Christianity under Islam has often been
difficult. “Over the centuries, political Islam has not been too kind to
the native Christian communities living under its rule. Anecdotes of
tolerance aside, the systematic treatment of Christians…is abusive and
discriminatory by any standard….Under Islam, the targeted /dhimmi/
community and each individual in it are made to live in a state of
perpetual humiliation in the eyes of the ruling community.”3 As
described by a Christian Lebanese president, Bashir Gemayil: “a
Christian…is not a full citizen and cannot exercise political rights
in any of the countries which were once conquered by Islam.”4
Palestinian Christians have suffered as /dhimmis/ for centuries. An
English traveler in the Holy Land in 1816, for example, remarked that
Christians were not permitted to ride on horseback without express
permission from the Muslim Pasha.5
Other European travelers to the Holy Land mentioned the practice whereby
“a /dhimmi/ must not come face to face with a Muslim in the street but
pass him to the left, the impure side,” and described how Christians
were humiliated and insulted in the streets of Jerusalem until the
mid-1800s. The British consul in Jerusalem wrote that in the Holy Land,
particularly in Jerusalem until 1839, Christians were pushed into the
gutter by any Muslim who would swear: “turn to my left, thou dog.” They
were forbidden to ride on a mount in town or to wear bright clothes.6
In the early 1900s, sporadic attacks on Christians by bands of Muslims
occurred in many Palestinian towns.7 During the Palestinian Arab revolt
in the late 1930s, which involved very few Christians, if Christian
villagers refused to supply the terrorist bands with weapons and
provisions, their vines were uprooted and their women raped. The rebels
forced the Christian population to observe the weekly day of rest on
Friday instead of Sunday and to replace the tarboosh with the kaffiyeh
for men, whereas women were forced to wear the veil. In 1936, Muslims
marched through the Christian village of Bir Zayt near Ramallah
chanting: “We are going to kill the Christians.”8
In the early 1900s, with the Jewish return to the area, Palestinian
Christians began to band with the Muslims to oppose Jewish immigration,
at least in part as a way to deflect Muslim hostility away from
themselves. As Sir John Chancellor, British High Commissioner in
Palestine, put it in 1931: “Christian Arab leaders, moreover, have
admitted to me that in establishing close relations with the
[Palestinian] Moslems the Christians have not been uninfluenced by fears
of the treatment they might suffer at the hands of the Moslem majority
in certain eventualities.”9
>From 1953 until 1967, Jordan undertook to Islamize the Christian quarter
in the Old City of Jerusalem by laws forbidding Christians to buy land
and houses….It ordered the compulsory closure of schools on Muslim
holidays and authorized mosques to be built near churches, thus
preventing any possibility of enlargement.10
Regional Repression of Christians
The current Christian reality in many Middle Eastern countries is also
difficult. In Egypt, “Muslim, but not Christian, schools receive state
funding….It is nearly impossible to restore or build new
churches….Christians are frequently ostracized or insulted in public,
and laws prohibit Muslim conversions to Christianity….Islamic radicals
have frequently launched physical attacks on [Christian] Copts.”11
Saudi Arabia “is one of the most oppressive countries for Christians.
There are no churches in the whole country. Foreign workers make up
one-third of the population, many of whom are Christians. For their
entire stay, which may be years, they are forbidden to display any
Christian symbols or Bibles, or even meet together publicly to worship
and pray. Some have watched their personal Bibles put through a shredder
when they entered the country.”12
An official Saudi cleric, Sheik Saad Al-Buraik, pronounced in a Riyadh
government mosque, “People should know that…the battle that we are
going through is…also with those who believe that Allah is a third in
a Trinity, and those who said that Jesus is the son of Allah, and Allah
is Jesus, the son of Mary.”13
In Iran, “the printing of Christian literature is illegal, converts from
Islam are liable to be killed, and most evangelical churches must
function underground.”14 Christians are not allowed to testify in an
Islamic court when a Muslim is involved and they are discriminated
against in employment. A 1992 UN report cites cases of imprisonment and
torture of Muslims who converted to Christianity and of Armenian and
Assyrian pastors, the dissolution of the Iranian Bible Society, the
closure of Christian libraries, and the confiscation of all Christian
books, including 20,000 copies of the New Testament in Farsi.15
In Israel, too, Muslim fundamentalists seek to assert dominance over
Christian Arabs. “Attacks against and condemnation of Christians are
also often heard in mosques, in sermons and in publications of the
Muslim Movement.”16 In Nazareth, a significant clash developed in recent
years when Muslims sought to build a grand mosque next to the Basilica
of the Annunciation, the dominant Christian landmark in the town.17
Official PA Domination of Christians
Islam is the official religion of the Palestinian Authority.18 In
addition, fundamentalist Hamas and Islamic Jihad have promoted Islamic
influence on Palestinian society.
Officially, the PA claims to treat Palestinian Christians equally and
pointedly seeks to display this publicly. Christmas is an official
holiday. Arafat has stated as his mission “the protection of the
Christian and Muslim holy places,”19 and several Christians have held
prominent PA positions.
Occasionally, however, contrary messages slip through. In a Friday
sermon on October 13, 2000, broadcast live on official Palestinian
Authority television from a Gaza mosque, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya
proclaimed: “Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the
Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners,
not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them.”20
In addition, no PA law protects religious freedom.21 While asserting
that all Palestinians’ “liberty and freedom to worship and to practice
their religious beliefs are protected,” a PA Information Ministry
statement also stresses that: “The Palestinian people are also governed
by [Islamic] Shari’a law…with regard to issues pertaining to religious
matters. According to Shari’a Law, applicable throughout the Muslim
world, any Muslim who [converts] or declares becoming an unbeliever is
committing a major sin punishable by capital punishment…the
[Palestinian Authority] cannot take a different position on this matter.”22
In attempting to assuage Christians, the statement goes on to say that
capital punishment for conversion “has never happened, nor is it likely
to happen” in the Palestinian territories, but that “norms and tradition
will take care of such situations should they occur.”
The PA’s judicial system also does not ensure equal protection to
Christians. For example, an Israeli government report noted the failure
of the judicial system in Bethlehem to provide protection to Christian
land-owners.
The Comtsieh family (a Christian family) has a plot of land with a
building that serves as a business center in the city. Several years ago
a Moslem family from Hebron took possession of the building and started
to use it without permission.
The Comtsieh family filed a claim with the judicial system and after
long and arduous court hearings, the court ruled in the claimant’s favor.
However, the verdict was never enforced by the police and
representatives of the family from Hebron later appeared with a new
court verdict (signed by the same judge who ruled in the claimants’
favor previously), canceling the previous verdict and ratifying the
Hebron family’s ownership of the property.23
An Israeli government report in 1997 asserted more direct harassment of
Christians by the PA
In August 1997, Palestinian policemen in Beit Sahur opened fire on a
crowd of Christian Arabs, wounding six. The Palestinian Authority is
attempting to cover up the incident and has warned against publicizing
the story. The local commander of the Palestinian police instructed
journalists not to report on the incident….
In late June 1997, a Palestinian convert to Christianity in the northern
West Bank was arrested by agents of the Palestinian Authority’s
Preventive Security Service. He had been regularly attending church and
prayer meetings and was distributing Bibles. The Palestinian Authority
ordered his arrest….
The pastor of a church in Ramallah was recently warned by Palestinian
Authority security agents that they were monitoring his evangelistic
activities in the area and wanted him to come in for questioning for
spreading Christianity.
A Palestinian convert to Christianity living in a village near Nablus
was recently arrested by the Palestinian police. A Muslim preacher was
brought in by the police, and he attempted to convince the convert to
return to Islam. When the convert refused, he was brought before a
Palestinian court and sentenced to prison for insulting the religious
leader….
A Palestinian convert to Christianity in Ramallah was recently visited
by Palestinian policemen at his home and warned that if he continued to
preach Christianity, he would be arrested and charged with being an
Israeli spy.24
Another report in 2002, based on Israeli intelligence gathered during
Israel’s Defensive Shield operation, asserts that “The Fatah and
Arafat’s intelligence network intimidated and maltreated the Christian
population in Bethlehem. They extorted money from them, confiscated land
and property and left them to the mercy of street gangs and other
criminal activity, with no protection.”25
Similar findings were reported in the /Washington Times/ following the
PA takeover of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in April 2002.
Residents of this biblical city are expressing relief at the exile to
Cyprus last week of 13 hard-core Palestinian militants, who they said
had imposed a two-year reign of terror that included rape, extortion and
executions. The 13 sent to Cyprus, as well as 26 others sent to the Gaza
Strip, had taken shelter in the Church of the Nativity, triggering a
39-day siege that ended Friday.
Palestinians who live near the church described the group as a criminal
gang that preyed especially on Palestinian Christians, demanding
“protection money” from the main businesses, which make and sell
religious artifacts.
“Finally the Christians can breathe freely,” said Helen, 50, a Christian
mother of four. “We are so delighted that these criminals who have
intimidated us for such a long time are now going away.”26
Adding insult to injury, during this reign of terror, the PA’s Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades (declared a terrorist organization by the United
States) sent a letter to the Bethlehem municipality “requesting” aid in
the form of monetary contributions for military operations. Cynically
adding a symbol of Christianity to their extortion demand, the letter
was signed “Fatah/Al Aqsa Martyrs (and /Church of) Nativity/ Brigades”
[emphasis added].27
PA Disrespect for Christian Holy Sites
The PA has shown contempt for certain Christian holy sites, and there
has been significant desecration as well. For example, without prior
consent of the church, Yasser Arafat decided to turn the Greek Orthodox
monastery near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into his domicile
during his visits to the city.28 On July 5, 1997, the PLO seized
Abraham’s Oak Russian Holy Trinity Monastery in Hebron, violently
evicting monks and nuns.29
After the outbreak of Palestinian violence in September 2000, the PA’s
Tanzim militia chose the Christian town of Beit Jala to shoot at
Jerusalem over other locations from which they could have similarly
targeted communities built on land captured in 1967. They specifically
positioned themselves in or near Christian homes, hotels, churches
(e.g., St. Nicholas), and the Greek Orthodox club, knowing that a slight
deviation in Israeli return fire would harm Christian institutions or
homes.30
At one point, Andreas Reinecke, head of the German Liaison office to the
PA, protested:
I would like to draw your attention in this letter to a number of
incidents which occurred at “Talitakoumi” school in Beit Jala…which is
funded mainly by the Protestant Church in Berlin.
Over the last few days the school staff noticed attempts on the part of
several armed Palestinians to use the school premises and some of its
gardens for their activities. If they succeed in doing this, an Israeli
reaction will be inevitable. This will have a negative impact on the
continuation of the functioning of the school, in which no less than
1,000 [Christian] Palestinians study….You cannot imagine the kind of
upheaval which will be provoked among the supporters of this school [in
Germany] should they discover that the school premises are used as a
battle ground.31
The most glaring example of PA disregard for the holiness of Christian
shrines, however, was the April 2002 takeover of the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem by PA forces and their taking over 40 Christian
clergy and nuns as hostages. As confirmed by a senior Tanzim commander,
Abdullah Abu-Hadid, “The idea was to enter the church in order to create
international pressure on Israel….We knew beforehand that there was
two years’ worth of food for 50 monks. Oil, beans, rice, olives. Good
bathrooms and the largest wells in old Bethlehem. You didn’t need
electricity because there were candles. In the yard they planted
vegetables. Everything was there.”32
The PA Takeover of the Church of the Nativity
On April 2, 2002, as Israel implemented its Defensive Shield operation
to combat the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, in Bethlehem “a
number of terrorists took over St. Mary’s Church grounds and…held the
priest and a number of nuns there against their will. The terrorists
used the Church as a firing position, from which they shot at IDF
soldiers in the area. /The soldiers did not return fire toward the
church when fired upon/ [emphasis added]. An IDF force, under the
command of the Bethlehem area regional commander, entered the Church
grounds today without battle, in coordination with its leaders, and
evacuated the priest and nuns.”33
That same day, “More than 100 Palestinian gunmen…[including] soldiers
and policemen, entered the Church of the Nativity on Tuesday, as Israeli
troops swept into Bethlehem in an attempt to quell violence by
Palestinian suicide bombers and militias.”34 The actual number of
terrorists was between 150 and 180, among them prominent members of the
Fatah Tanzim. As the /New York Times/ put it, “Palestinian gunmen have
frequently used the area around the church as a refuge, /with the
expectation that Israel would try to avoid fighting near the shrine/”
[emphasis added].35
And in fact this was the case. The commander of the Israeli forces in
the area asserted that the IDF would not break into the church itself
and would not harm this site holy to Christianity. Israel also deployed
more mature and more reserved reserve-duty soldiers in this sensitive
situation that militarily called for more agile, standing-army soldiers.36
On the other hand, the Palestinians did not treat it the same way. Not
only did they take their weapons with them into the Church of the
Nativity and fire, on occasion, from the church, but also reportedly
booby-trapped the entrance to the church.37
On April 7, “one of the few priests evacuated from the church told
Israeli television yesterday that gunmen had shot their way in, and that
the priests, monks and nuns were essentially hostages….The priest
declined to call the clergy ‘hostages,’ but repeatedly said in fluent
English: ‘We have absolutely no choice. They have guns, we do not.'”38
Christians clearly saw the takeover as a violation of the sanctity of
the church. In an interview with CWNews, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran,
the Vatican’s Undersecretary of State and the top foreign-policy
official, asserted that “The Palestinians have entered into bilateral
agreements [with the Holy See] in which they undertake to maintain and
respect the status quo regarding the Christian holy places and the
rights of Christian communities. To explain the gravity of the current
situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy
places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates
back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied – for such
a lengthy time – by armed men.”39 On April 14, he reiterated his
position in an interview on Vatican Radio.40
On April 24, the /Jerusalem Post/ reported on the damage that the PA
forces were causing:
Three Armenian monks, who had been held hostage by the Palestinian
gunmen inside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, managed to flee the
church area via a side gate yesterday morning. They immediately thanked
the soldiers for rescuing them.
They told army officers the gunmen had stolen gold and other property,
including crucifixes and prayer books, and had caused damage….
One of the monks, Narkiss Korasian, later told reporters: “They stole
everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole
everything….They stole our prayer books and four crosses…they didn’t
leave anything. Thank you for your help, we will never forget it.”
Israeli officials said the monks said the gunmen had also begun beating
and attacking clergymen.41
When the siege finally ended, the PA soldiers left the church in
terrible condition:
The Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity seized
church stockpiles of food and “ate like greedy monsters” until the food
ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry. They also guzzled
beer, wine, and Johnnie Walker scotch that they found in priests’
quarters, undeterred by the Islamic ban on drinking alcohol. The
indulgence lasted for about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the
food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox
priests who were trapped inside for the entire ordeal….
The Orthodox priests and a number of civilians have said the gunmen
created a regime of fear.
Even in the Roman Catholic areas of the complex there was evidence of
disregard for religious norms. Catholic priests said that some Bibles
were torn up for toilet paper, and many valuable sacramental objects
were removed. “Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that
looked like gold,” said a Franciscan, the Rev. Nicholas Marquez from
Mexico.42
A problem that arose during the siege again shows Christian fear of
Muslim domination. Two Palestinian gunmen in the church were killed, and
the PA wanted to bury them in the basilica. “With two Muslim bodies
inside the Church of the Nativity, Christianity could be facing an
absolute disaster in Bethlehem,” said Canon Andrew White, the special
representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Middle East. “It
would be catastrophic if two Muslim martyrs were buried in the church.
It could lead to a situation like that in Nazareth,” he said.43 Only
after intensive mediation efforts were plans to bury the bodies inside
abandoned.
The PA and Jerusalem Christians
Despite having no legal standing in Jerusalem, PA officialdom has acted
similarly there. The PA, in fact, denies historic Jewish – and thus
Christian – ties to Jerusalem. Walid M. Awad, Director of Foreign
Publications in the Palestinian Ministry of Information, asserted: “The
location of the [Jewish] Temple on the Temple Mount is in
question….There are scholars who say that it might be in Jericho or
somewhere else 4 kilometers outside of Jerusalem.” Asked “The New
Testament talks of Jesus going to the Temple in Jerusalem. Are you
suggesting that Jesus went to Jericho rather than Jerusalem?” he
responded, “It depends on what temple you think he went to.”44 U.S.
Ambassador Dennis Ross asserted: “The only new idea [Arafat] raised at
Camp David was that the temple didn’t exist in Jerusalem.”45
A Christian leader, Father Marun Lahham, worries, “Frequent Muslim
declarations that…Jerusalem is [an] Islamic [city] trouble Christians.”46
The PA has begun to interfere with Jerusalem Christians:
[T]he Palestinian Authority-appointed Waqf (Moslem religious property)
authorities attempted to break through into the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher from the adjacent al-Hanaqa Mosque. [They] decided to install
a latrine on the roof of the Church. According to a May 11, 1997, report
in /Ha’aretz,/ “A Waqf internal report, written two weeks ago by the
Waqf’s Jerusalem engineer, ‘Isam ‘Awad, confirms many of the Christians’
claims in the conflict that has emerged adjacent to the Holy Sepulcher
Church regarding construction in the Church. The Church’s claim [is]
that the Waqf has harmed the historical and architectural substance of
the Holy Sepulcher, as a result of a construction addition to the
courtyard of the ‘Hanaqa,’ which leans on the wall of the Holy Sepulcher
and even darkens it by its height.”
Israel attempted to calm down the conflict after the Churches complained
and issued a work stoppage order against it, which was promptly ignored.
The same /Ha’aretz/ story reported that “The Jerusalem district
archeologist in the Antiquities Authority, John Zeligman, wrote to the
Waqf director, ‘Adnan Husayni, pointing out to the Waqf the damage to a
site that is declared to be an antiquity and threatens to go to law if
work is not halted immediately.” Finally, the illegal construction was
halted due to Israeli and world pressure, but we can be certain that
without such pressure the desecration would have continued.47
The PA-appointed Waqf is also working feverishly to convert the Temple
Mount, a site holy to Christians and Jews, into a mosque and erase any
traces of the Temple. In June 2000, /Ha’aretz/ reported that “the
Islamic Movement in Israel has a master plan to build a fourth mosque on
the eastern side of the Temple Mount” and that, in fact, according to a
head of the movement, “the entire area of the Temple Mount is an
inseparable and integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque.”48
The Wakf made a mockery of the laws of the State of Israel. Wakf
officials [had] requested and received a permit to open an emergency
exit in the new mosque in Solomon’s Stables. [But], in fact, the Wakf
tried to break through four of the underground arches in the northern
part of Solomon’s Stables. To do so, it dug a huge hole 60 meters long
and 25 meters wide in the earth of the Temple Mount…6,000 tons of
earth [were] removed. Some of it was scattered at dumpsites. Some was
dumped in the Kidron River. Antiquities dating back to [the first and
second Temple eras] were tossed on garbage heaps.49
Israel Antiquities Authority Director-General Shuka Dorfman affirms
“categorically” and “in an unequivocal manner, that there is
archeological damage being done [by the Waqf] to antiquities on the
Temple Mount.”50 Under the “guardianship” of the Waqf, “Palestinian
pirates are brazenly digging up Jewish artifacts from the holy Temple
Mount site and trying to sell them on the black market for as much as $1
million.”51
More recently, since the start of the Palestinian violence, the Waqf has
precluded Christians from visiting the Temple Mount, despite the fact
that no security considerations whatsoever are involved.
Reduction of Christian Political Power
Historically, not only has Bethlehem been a Christian city governed
primarily by Christians, but, with its sister towns of Beit Jala and
Beit Sahur, it has been the largest enclave of Christians in the West Bank.
Since assuming control in 1995, however, the PA has been Islamizing
Bethlehem. The city’s municipal boundaries were changed to incorporate
30,000 Muslims from three neighboring refugee camps, severely tipping
the demography. The city also added a few thousand Bedouins of the
Ta’amra tribe, located east of Bethlehem, and encouraged Muslim
immigration from Hebron to Bethlehem. The net result is that the area’s
23,000 Christians were reduced from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to a
minority by 2001.
Also, defying tradition, Arafat appointed a Muslim from Hebron, Muhammed
Rashad A-Jabari, as governor of Bethlehem. He fired the existing
Bethlehem city council that had nine Christians and two Muslims,
replacing it with a 50:50 council. While the mayor is a Christian, the
top bureaucratic, security, and political echelons, and the lower levels
as well, have been drained of Christians.52 Furthermore, “according to
the new local council elections’ regulations designed by the PA – but
not yet put into effect, however – mayors will be nominated by the
council members in their towns. Christians fear that these new
regulations will open the way to the nomination of Muslim mayors to the
traditional Christian towns.”53
While six out of the eighty-eight seats in the Palestinian Legislative
Council have been reserved for Christians,54 representing more than
double their proportion in Palestinian society, the Council is a fairly
powerless entity. Similarly, no Christian holds a position of power in
the Palestinian government.
Harassment of Palestinian Christians by Palestinian Muslims
Palestinian Christians are perceived by many Muslims – as were Lebanon’s
Christians – as a potential fifth column for Israel. In fact, at the
start of the recent violence in 2000, Muslim Palestinians attacked
Christians in Gaza, as confirmed by Fr. Raed Abusahlia, chancellor of
the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem.55
Anti-Christian graffiti is not uncommon in Bethlehem and neighboring
Beit Sahur, proclaiming: “First the Saturday people (the Jews), then the
Sunday people (the Christians).”56 The same has often been heard chanted
during anti-Israel PLO/PA rallies. Accused of wearing “permissive”
Western clothing, Bethlehem Christian women have been intimidated.
Finally, rape and abduction of Christian women is also reported to have
occurred frequently (especially in Beit Sahur), as was the case in
Lebanon.57
Christian cemeteries have been defaced, monasteries have had their
telephone lines cut, and there have been break-ins at convents.58
In July 1994, the /Wall Street Journal/ reported that Palestinian
Muslims would not sell land to Christians and that Christian facilities
and clubs had been attacked by Muslim extremists. Christian graves,
crosses, and statues had been desecrated; Christians had suffered
physical abuse, beatings, and Molotov cocktail attacks.59
Continuing the Islamic tradition of Saladin – who constructed two
mosques contiguous to and taller than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher –
mosques have mushroomed adjacent to and usually taller than churches.
Loudly amplified Muslim sermons have been aired during Christian
services, including the Pope’s April 2000 address in Nazareth, which had
to be halted until the Muslim call to prayer was concluded.60
In February 2002, Palestinian Muslims rampaged against Christians in
Ramallah, and the Palestinian Authority failed to intervene. As reported
by the /Boston Globe,/
The rampage began after Hanna Salameh, a member of a wealthy Christian
family, allegedly killed Jibril Eid, a Muslim construction contractor
from the Kalandia refugee camp, after the two men argued at the Israeli
army’s Kalandia checkpoint….A few hours later, hundreds of men poured
out of the refugee camp and went to Ramallah, where they burned
Salameh’s house and store. They then burned his brother’s store, damaged
several businesses owned by Christians not related to the Salamehs, and
torched the exercise room and terrorized more than 100 children at
Sariya, a scouting and youth center.
Palestinian police did nothing to stop this destruction, according to
numerous witnesses, but drew the line as the mob moved toward Christian
churches, whose leaders the Palestinian Authority is cultivating for
international support in its struggle with Israel.
While officials of the Palestinian Authority and of Fatah insisted that
the incident was simply about revenge and anger, many in Ramallah said
otherwise.
“The truth is this is a problem between Christians and Muslims,” said
one Christian businessman. “There is no security for us. Everyone is
taking the law in his own hands….This [accused] man’s brother, they
burned his house, his shops, his cars, and the police of Ramallah stood
by and watched. This is the democracy of Palestine?”
“The chief of security at Kalandia was in charge of this rampage,” said
a Muslim shopkeeper. “The mayor of Ramallah came, saw what was
happening, and withdrew. I am a Muslim, but I condemn this. These are
savage people.”61
Similar attacks have occurred in eastern Jerusalem.
Over the weekend, a gang of Moslem youths ransacked a pool hall near the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is frequented by Christian youths.
Four of the Christians were stabbed and lightly wounded; one of them
required hospitalization. Witnesses said about fifty Moslem youths
marched through the Christian Quarter to the pool hall Saturday
afternoon, chanting anti-Christian slogans. They attacked the Christians
inside, and broke chairs, tables, and other objects….Old City police
chief Dep. Cmdr. David Givati confirmed that there have been a number of
attacks by Moslems on Christian targets recently.62
The Palestinian Christian Response
Under the Oslo Accords, between 1995 and 1997 the Palestinian Authority
was given civilian control over 98 percent of the Palestinian population
of Gaza and the West Bank. Instead of embracing PA jurisdiction in the
spirit of Palestinian self-determination, however, Palestinian
Christians are fleeing.
Palestinian Christians have fled Islamic rule in the past. In the final
census conducted by the British mandatory authorities in 1947, there
were 28,000 Christians in Jerusalem. The census conducted by Israel
immediately after the Six-Day War in 1967, which ended the 19-year
Jordanian control of the eastern portion of the city, found just 11,000
Christians remaining. Some 17,000 Christians (61 percent) left during
the days of Jordan’s rule over Jerusalem.63
True, there has been a steady outflow of Christians from the Holy Land
for some time. Daughter communities in North and South America had
already outnumbered their mother communities by 1948.64 But this outflow
has accelerated since the rise of PA control.
Between the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords and the 1995 transfer of
Bethlehem to the PA, Palestinian Christians lobbied Israel against the
transfer. The late Christian mayor, Elias Freij, warned that it would
result in Bethlehem becoming a town with churches but no Christians. He
lobbied Israel to include Bethlehem in the boundaries of Greater
Jerusalem, as was the Jordanian practice until 1967.65
In December 1997, the /London Times/ reported: “Life in (PA-ruled)
Bethlehem has become insufferable for many members of the dwindling
Christian minorities. Increasing Muslim-Christian tensions have left
some Christians reluctant to celebrate Christmas in the town at the
heart of the story of Christ’s birth.”66 The situation has become so
desperate for Christians that, “during his visit to Bethlehem, Pope John
Paul II felt it necessary to urge Palestinian Christians already in
March 2000: ‘Do not be afraid to preserve your Christian heritage and
Christian presence in Bethlehem.'”67
On July 17, 2000, upon realizing that then Prime Minister Barak was
contemplating repartitioning Jerusalem, the leaders of the Greek
Orthodox, Latin, and Armenian Churches wrote to him, President Clinton,
and Yasser Arafat, demanding to be consulted before such action was
undertaken. Barak’s proposal also triggered a flood of requests for
Israeli identity cards by thousands of eastern Jerusalem Arabs. (This,
plus the fact that Israel’s own Christian population is actually
growing, refutes any claim that emigration is a result of Israel’s
treatment of Christians.)
Despite their beleaguerment, Palestinian Christians do not speak out
about their situation. “Out of fear for their safety, Christian
spokesmen aren’t happy to be identified by name when they complain about
the Muslims’ treatment of them…off the record they talk of harassment
and terror tactics, mainly from the gangs of thugs who looted and
plundered Christians and their property, under the protection of
Palestinian security personnel.”68
In fact, the Christians’ silence may be precisely because they are a
beleaguered minority with a long history of /dhimmitude./ As Lebanese
Christian Habib Malik describes:
This sentiment is motivated primarily by a desire for a unified position
vis-a-vis Israel. But it also stems from a deeper /dhimmi/ psychological
state: the urge to find – or to imagine and fabricate if need be – a
common cause with the ruling majority in order to dilute the existing
religious differences and perhaps ease the weight of political Islam’s
inevitable discrimination. The history of Palestinian Christianity has,
for the most part, been no different from that of /dhimmi/ Christianity
throughout the Levant.69
One Christian cleric in Jerusalem interviewed by this author compared
the behavior of Christian /dhimmis/ to that of battered wives or
children, who continue to defend and even identify with their tormentor
even as the abuse persists.
Palestinian Christians “internalized this dependence on the Muslim
majority as a social characteristic that persisted even after the
Ottoman reforms of the nineteenth century abolished these rules….The
Christians worried that Muslim religious emotions aroused against the
Jews might subsequently be turned against them.”70
* * *
Notes
1. Daphne Tsimhoni, “The Christians in Israel, the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip,” /Middle East Quarterly,/ Winter 2001.
2. Bat Ye’or, /Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide/
(Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 2002), p. 41.
3. Habib C. Malik, “Christians in the Land Called Holy,” /First Things:
A Journal of Religion and Public Life,/ January 1999.
4. Bashir Gemayel, /Liberte et Securite/ (Beirut, 1983), pp. 37-38,
cited in Bat Ye’or, p. 248.
5. James Silk Buckingham, /Travels in Palestine/ (London, 1821), cited
in Bat Ye’or, p. 98.
6. James Finn, as cited in Bat Ye’or, p. 100 and n. 65.
7. Yehoshua Porath, /The Palestinian Arab National Movement, 1929-1939:
From Riots to Rebellion/ (London, 1977), p. 109, cited in Bat Ye’or,
pp. 160-161.
8. Porath, pp. 268-70.
9. Yehoshua Porath, /The Emergence of the Palestinian Arab National
Movement, 1918-1929/ (Lon don, 1974), p. 303, cited in Bat Ye’or, p. 160.
10. Bat Ye’or, p. 235.
11. Jonathan Adelman and Aggie Kuperman, /Rocky Mountain News,/ December
22, 2001.
12. “Muslim Countries Becoming Bolder in Persecuting Christians,”
/Battle Cry Magazine,/ September/ October 2001.
13. “Saudi Telethon Host Calls for Enslaving Jewish Women,” from the
Saudi Information Service, as reported in the /National Review Online,/
April 26, 2002.
14. Adelman and Kuperman.
15. Bat Ye’or, p. 225.
16. Raphael Israeli, /Green Crescent Over Nazareth: The Displacement of
Christians by Muslims in the Holy Land/ (Frank Cass: London, 2002), p. 60.
17. Serge Schmemann, “Israelis Bar Mosque on Site in Nazareth,”
/International Herald Tribune,/ March 4, 2002.
18. Tsimhoni.
19. /Ibid./
20. MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 138, October 13, 2000.
21. U.S. Department of State, /International Religious Freedom Report:
Israel and the Occupied Territories,/ Oc tober 26, 2001.
22. Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information, December 1997, as
reported in
23. Danny Naveh (Israeli Minister of Parliamentary Affairs), /The
Involvement of Arafat, PA Senior Officials and Apparatuses in Terrorism
against Israel, Corruption and Crime,/ 2002,
24. /The Palestinian Authority’s Treatment of Christians in the
Autonomous Areas,/ Israeli Government, October 1997, translated to
English by IMRA.
25. Naveh.
26. Sayed Anwar, “Exiled Palestinian Militants Ran Two-Year Reign of
Terror,” /Washington Times,/ May 13, 2002.
27. Naveh.
28. /The Palestinian Authority’s Treatment of Christians in the
Autonomous Areas./
29. /Associated Press,/ as reported in Yoram Ettinger, “The Islamization
of Bethlehem by Arafat,” Jerusalem Cloakroom #117, Ariel Center for
Policy Research, December 25, 2001.
30. /Ibid./
31. Letter from Andreas Reinecke to Colonel Jibril Rajoub, Head of the
PA Preventive Security Apparatus in the West Bank, May 5, 2002, from IDF
Spokesperson, May 12, 2002.
32. /Yediot Ahronot/ on May 24 as reported in /Daily Alert,/ Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, May 30, 2002.
33. IDF Spokesperson, April 3, 2002.
34. Serge Schmemann, “Israeli Military Sends Tanks into Largest West
Bank City,” /New York Times,/ April 3, 2002.
35. “Sharon Proposes Arafat’s Exile While Israeli Forces Shell His
Compound,” /New York Times,/ April 2, 2002.
36. Amos Harel, “IDF Declares: We Won’t Forcefully Enter the Church of
the Nativity Holy to Christians,” /Haaretz, /April 5, 2002.
37. Baruch Kra, “IDF Maintains Cautious Approach in Bethlehem,”
/Haaretz,/ April 10, 2002.
38. Paul Martin, “Arafat Tells Gunmen to Refuse Deal,” /Washington
Times,/ April 8, 2002.
39. “Top Vatican Official Speaks on Bethlehem Cr isis,” /CWNews,/ April
10, 2002,
;art_id=13065.
40. “Vatican Proposes Independent Force to Halt Mideast Violence,”
Worldwide Faith News website, ,
April 15, 2002.
41. Margot Dudkevitch, “Gunmen Stole Gold, Crucifixes, Escaped Monks
Report,” /Jerusalem Post,/ April 24, 2002.
42. “‘Greedy Monsters’ Ruled Church,” /Washington Times,/ May 15, 2002
43. Ori Nir, “Arafat’s Terror in Church: Armed PA Security Forces
Keeping 50 Youths Hostage in Church of the Nativity Cellar,” /Haaretz,/
April 22, 2002.
44. Interview with Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA),
December 25, 1996.
45. Interview, /Fox News Sunday,/ April 21, 2002.
46. /Al-Quds,/ June 18, 1999, as reported in MEMRI, Special Dispatch No.
41, August 2, 1999.
47. Murray Kahl, “Yasser Arafat and the Christians of Lebanon,” January
13, 2002,
48. Nadav Shragai, “Islamic Movement Planning Fourth Mosque for Temple
Mount,” /Haaretz,/ June 18, 2000.
49. Andrea Levin, “Desperately Seeking the Temple Mount,” /Jerusalem
Post,/ July 11, 2000.
50. Etgar Lefkovits, “Antiquities Authority: Wakf Damaging Temple
Mount,” /Jerusalem Post,/ March 22 2001.
51. Uri Dan, “Temple Mount Artifacts Looted,” /New York Post,/ April 22,
2001.
52. Ettinger.
53. Tsimhoni.
54. /Ibid./
55. Margot Dudkevitch, “Church Denies Christians Fleeing PA Areas,”
/Jerusalem Post,/ October 26, 2000.
56. Andre Aciman, “In the Muslim City of Bethlehem,” /New York Times
Magazine,/ December 24, 1995.
57. Ettinger.
58. /The Palestinian Authority’s Treatment of Christians in the
Autonomous Areas./
59. Bat Ye’or, p. 244.
60. Tsimhoni.
61. Charles Radin, “Mob Fears Grow in West Bank,” /Boston Globe,/
February 6, 2002.
62. Bill Hutman, “Concern Over Moslem Attacks on Christians in Old
City,” /Jerusalem Post,/ July 18, 1994.
63. /The Palestinian Authority’s Treatment of Christians in the
Autonomous Areas./
64. Tsimhoni.
65. Ettinger.
66. Reported in Adelman and Kuperman.
67. “Yasser Arafat, Christmas, and the PFLP,” /Jerusalem Issue Brief,/
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 13, December 25, 2001.
68. Hanan Shlein, /Ma’ariv,/ December 24, 2001. Translated from the
Hebrew by Palestinian Media Watch.
69. Malik.
70. Tsimhoni.

March 16, 2004
U.S. BUSINESS NEWS

MGM Considers Special Dividend
Move Would Mean Windfall
Of $1 Billion to $1.6 Billion
For Investor Kirk Kerkorian
By BRUCE ORWALL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian would reap a windfall of between $1
billion and $1.6 billion if the film studio he controls,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., issues a one-time special dividend of $6 to $9
a share that the company is currently considering.
MGM has been talking about ways to “share the wealth” with shareholders
since last summer, when the company tried and failed to acquire Vivendi
Universal SA’s entertainment assets. MGM recently has eliminated all of
its debt and increased its annual cash flow to nearly $200 million in
2003. The idea of a dividend was floated as a possibility when the
company was in the early stages of considering its options.

In September, MGM Chairman and Chief Executive Alex Yemenidjian said
that the management had at the time decided against recommending any
kind of extraordinary dividend. Later, MGM bought back about 10 million
shares, at about $17 a share, through a Dutch auction that was completed
earlier this year.
‘Committed to Sharing’
Late Monday, however, MGM disclosed that it is contemplating a
“significant” one-time dividend payment, which people familiar with the
matter put at between $6 and $9 a share. “Our management remains
committed to sharing the company’s wealth with our shareholders,” Mr.
Yemenidjian said in a statement. He emphasized that neither the decision
nor its possible timing was yet final.
Of course, while all shareholders would benefit equally on a per-share
basis, the move would most clearly be a boon for the 86-year-old Mr.
Kerkorian, who controls about 74% of the company’s 235 million shares
outstanding. MGM would borrow money at low interest rates to pay the
possible dividend, which would probably be payable in about a month if
the company decides to proceed. The borrowing would then be quickly
repaid; MGM is expected to generate a total of $600 million to $900
million in cash flow over the four years from 2003 to 2006.
Mr. Kerkorian in recent years has at times seemed eager for a sale of
MGM, and the company has in fact said numerous times that it was
pursuing strategic alternatives. In 2001, the company held unsuccessful
talks to merge with Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures Entertainment. Later, the
company approached possible partners including Walt Disney Co. and
DreamWorks SKG. In 2003, Vivendi made an aggressive bid for the Vivendi
Universal entertainment assets, such as Universal Pictures, but didn’t
prevail. As recently as late last year, MGM held preliminary talks with
Time Warner Inc. that didn’t pan out.
As a rule, it is assumed that Mr. Kerkorian has been seeking a stock
transaction of some kind because of the preferable tax consequences. Yet
even as he has failed to sell the company, Mr. Kerkorian has at times
raised his stake in it. Harris Nesbitt Gerard analyst Jeffrey Logsdon
estimates that Mr. Kerkorian has put about $3 billion into MGM over the
years.
Now, the possible one-time dividend represents a way for Mr. Kerkorian
to realize some return on his investment in MGM, the legendary studio
that he purchased for the third time in 1996, at a low tax rate. The
one-time dividend also wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a sale. Once
such a payout is made, MGM’s stock would be expected to decline by about
the same amount as the dividend, though going forward, it would have
higher debt because of the proposed dividend plan.
Tax Consequences
The tax consequences of such a move for MGM shareholders are now more
appealing than they once were. A 2003 tax-relief law cut the personal
tax rate on corporate dividends from a maximum of 39.1% to 15%,
inspiring a wave of companies to raise their dividends. A portion of
MGM’s dividend could be ruled tax-free if it is judged to be a “return
of capital,” owing to the fact that MGM has generated net losses instead
of earnings in recent years.
MGM, with a 4,000-title film library, has generated greater operating
cash flows recently as a result of several factors, one of which has
been the explosion of DVD movie sales in the U.S. The company has also
done a better job of managing its feature-film business, betting less on
risky big-budget movies and more on modest titles such as “Legally
Blonde” and “Barbershop,” which can be enormously profitable if they
become hits.
Write to Bruce Orwall at [email protected]
URL for this article:
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The Times
March 16, 2004
Chess
Raymond Keene
Petrosian Remembered
With the Petrosian Memorial tournament in full swing I propose to give this
week a selection of games demonstrating the unique talent of the Armenian
world champion.
White: Boris Spassky
Black: Tigran Petrosian
World Championship
Moscow 1969
Queen’s Indian Defence
1 d4 Nf6 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 a3 Bb7 5 Nc3 d5 6 e3 Nbd7 7 cxd5 exd5 8 Be2 Bd6 9
b4 0-0 10 0-0 a6 11 Qb3 Qe7 12 Rbl Ne4
Petrosian has handled the opening skilfully and WHite has been prevented from
taking the initiative.
13 a4 Ndf6 14 b5 Nxc3 15 Qxc3 Ne4 16 Qc2 Rfc8 17 Bb2 c6 18 bxc6 19 Qb3 Qd7 20
Ra1 b5 21 a5
This move is a mistake, depriving Spassky of any meaningful strategic play.
21 … Bb7 22 Ne5 Qd8 23 Rfdl Qh4 24 g3 Qe7 25 f3 Ng5 26 h4
These clumsy pawn advances merely serve to weaken the white kingside.
26 … Ne6 27 f4 f6 28 Nf3 Nd8 29 Kf2 Nf7 30 Nd2 Rc4
If White ever captures this rook, the resultant opening of the long diagonal
(after … dxc4) will be fatal.
31 Qd3 Re8 32 Bf3 Bb4 33 Ba3 Bxa3 34 Rxa3 Nd6 35 Re1 f5 36 Raa1 Ne4+ 37 Bxe4
fxe4 38 Qbl Qd7 39 Ra2 Rec8 40 Nxc4
Spassky cannot resist the temptation any longer. However, the black bishop
and pawns now overwhelm White. Better chances for survival were offered by 40
Nb3.
40 … dxc4 41 d5 bxd5 42 Rd1
This position is extremely difficult for White. Black threatens to invade on
the kindside with his queen and also to advance the queenside pawns. Coping
with all these threats proves to be an impossible job.
42 … c3 43 Rc2 Qh3 44 Rg1 Qg4 45 Kg2 Qf3+ 46 Kh2 Qxc3 47 f5 Qc5 48 Rfl b4
49 f6 b3 50 rcf2 c2 51 Qcl e3 52 f7+ Kf8 53 Rf5 b2 54 Qxb2 clQ 55 Qxg7+ Kxg7
56 Rg5+ White resigns.

The Times
March 17, 2004
Raymond Keene
Double Jeopardy
Continuing my series to accompany the Petrosian Memorial event currently in
progress, here are two devastating victories from the Armenian champion’s
early career.
White: Tigran Petrosian
Black: Victor Korchnoi
Leningrad 1946
Dutch Defense
1 d4 e6 2 Nf3 f5 3 g3 Nf6 4 Bg2 d5 5 0-0 Bd6 6 c4 c6 7 b3 0-0 8 Ba3
This move removes a key defender of the vulnerable e5-square. After the
recapture by the knight on a3, this piece is well placed to transfer to d3,
where it eyes this weak square.
8 … Bxa3 9 Nxa3 Qe8 10 Nc2 Qh5 11 Qc1
An excellent move, covering a number of important dark squares. White also
has the long term idea to target c7.
11 … Ne4 12 Nce1 g5 13 Nd3 Nd7 14 Nfe5 Kh8 15 f3 Nd6 16 e4
White has already won the positional battle and now opens the game decisively
with this thematic advance. Black is now in big trouble as can be seen from
the variation 16 … dxe4 17 fxe4 fxe4 18 Rxf8+ Nxf8 19 Qa3 exd3 20 Qxd6 Kg8
21 Rfl and the black position caves in.
16 … Nf7 17 cxd5 18 exd5 exd5 20 f4
Petrosian has comprehensively outplayed the future World Championship
challenger and Black is now quite lost.
20 … Rd8 21 Qc7 b6 22 fxg5 Ba6 23 Nf4 Black resigns.
White: Tigran Petrosian
Black: Alexander Tolush
Moscow 1950
Queen’s Gambit Declined
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 d5 4 d4 c6 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Qc2 Bd6 7 Bg5 0-0 8 e3 Bg4 9
Ne5 Bh5 10 f4 Qa5 11 Bd3 h6
This is a blunder allowing White an overwhelming attach. Much better is 11
… Ne4.
12 Bxf6 gxf5 13 g4 fxe5 14 fxe5 Be7 15 0-0-0 Bg5 16 gxh5 Kh8 17 Qf2 f5 18 h4
Be7 19 Qf4 Black resigns.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 16, 2004
A Biological Dig for the Roots of Language
By NICHOLAS WADE
Once upon a time, there were very few human languages and perhaps only one,
and if so, all of the 6,000 or so languages spoken round the world today
must be descended from it.
If that family tree of human language could be reconstructed and its
branching points dated, a wonderful new window would be opened onto the
human past.
Yet in the view of many historical linguists, the chances of drawing up such
a tree are virtually nil and those who suppose otherwise are chasing a
tiresome delusion.
Languages change so fast, the linguists point out, that their genealogies
can be traced back only a few thousand years at best before the signal
dissolves completely into noise: witness how hard Chaucer is to read just
600 years later.
But the linguists’ problem has recently attracted a new group of researchers
who are more hopeful of success. They are biologists who have developed
sophisticated mathematical tools for drawing up family trees of genes and
species. Because the same problems crop up in both gene trees and language
trees, the biologists are confident that their tools will work with
languages, too.
The biologists’ latest foray onto the linguists’ turf is a reconstruction of
the Indo-European family of languages by Dr. Russell D. Gray, an
evolutionary biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
The family includes extinct languages like Hittite of ancient Turkey, and
Tokharian, once spoken in Central Asia, as well as the Indian languages and
Iranian in one major branch and all European languages except Basque in
another.
Dr. Gray’s results, published in November in Nature with his colleague
Quentin Atkinson, have major implications, if correct, for archaeology as
well as for linguistics. The shape of his tree is unsurprising < it arranges the Indo-European languages in much the same way as linguists do, using conventional methods of comparison. But the dates he puts on the tree are radically older. Dr. Gray's calculations show that the ancestral tongue known as proto-Indo-European existed some 8,700 years ago (give or take 1,200 years), making it considerably older than linguists have assumed is likely. The age of proto-Indo-European bears on a longstanding archaeological dispute. Some researchers, following the lead of Dr. Marija Gimbutas, who died in 1994, believe that the Indo-European languages were spread by warriors moving from their homeland in the Russian steppes, north of the Black and Caspian Seas, some time after 6,000 years ago. A rival theory, proposed by Dr. Colin Renfrew of the University of Cambridge, holds that the Indo-Europeans were the first farmers who lived in ancient Turkey and that their language expanded not by conquest but with the spread of agriculture some 10,000 to 8,000 years ago. Dr. Gray's date, if accepted, would support the Renfrew position. Several linguists said Dr. Gray's tree was the right shape, but added that it told them nothing fresh, and that his dates were way off. "This method is not giving anything new," said Dr. Jay Jasanoff, a Harvard expert on Indo-European. As for the dates, Dr. Jasanoff said, "The numbers they have got seem extremely wrong to me." Dr. Don Ringe, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania who has taken a particular interest in computer modeling of language, said that Dr. Gray's approach was worth pursuing but that glottochronology, the traditional method of dating languages, had "failed to live up to its promise so often that convincing linguists there is anything there is an uphill battle." In the biologists' camp, however, there is a feeling that the linguists do not yet fully understand how well the new techniques sidestep the pitfalls of the older method. The lack of novelty in Dr. Gray's tree of Indo-European languages is its best feature, biologists say, because it validates the method he used to construct it. Most historical linguists know a few languages very well but less often consider the pattern of change affecting many languages, said Dr. Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. "The field is being driven by people who are not confronted with the broad sweep of linguistic evolution and is being invaded by people like me who are only interested in the broad sweep," Dr. Pagel said. Glottochronology was invented by the linguist Morris Swadesh in 1952. It is based on the compiling of a core list of 100 or 200 words that Swadesh believed were particularly resistant to change. Languages could then be compared on the basis of how many cognate words on a Swadesh list they shared in common. Cognates are verbal cousins, like the Greek podos and the English foot, both descended from a common ancestor. The more cognates two languages share, the more recently they split apart. Swadesh and others then tried to quantify the method, deriving the date that two languages split from their percentage of shared cognates. The method gave striking results, considering its simplicity, but not all of the findings were right. Glottochronology suffered from several problems. It assumed that languages changed at a constant rate, and it was vulnerable to unrecognized borrowings of words by one language from another, making them seem closer than they really were. Because of these and other problems, many linguists have given up on glottochronology, showing more interest in an ingenious dating method known as linguistic paleontology. The idea is to infer words for items in the material culture of an early language, and to correlate them with the appearance of such items in the archaeological record. Cognates for the word wheel exist in many branches of the Indo-European family tree, and linguists are confident that they can reconstruct the ancestral word in proto-Indo-European. It is, they say, "k'ek'los," the presumed forebear of words like "chakras," meaning wheel or circle in Sanskrit, "kuklos," meaning wheel or circle in Greek, as well as the English word "wheel." The earliest wheels appear in the archaeological record around 5,500 years ago. So the proto-Indo-European language could not have started to split into its daughter tongues much before that date, some linguists argue. If the wheel was invented after the split, each language would have a different or borrowed word for it. The dates on the earliest branches of Dr. Gray's tree are some 2,000 years earlier than the dates arrived at by linguistic paleontology. "Since `wheel' is shared by Tocharian, Greek, Sanskrit and Germanic," said Bill Darden, an expert on Indo-European linguistic history at the University of Chicago, "and there is no evidence for wheels before the fourth millennium B.C., then having Tokharian split off 7,900 years ago and Balto-Slavic at 6,500 years ago are way out of line." Dr. Gray, however, defends his dates, and points out a flaw in the wheel argument. What the daughter languages of proto-Indo-European inherited, he says, was not necessarily the word for wheel but the word "k'el," meaning "to rotate," from which each language may independently have derived its word for wheel. If so, the speakers of proto-Indo-European could have lived long before the invention of the wheel. His tree, Dr. Gray said, was derived with the methods used by biologists to avoid problems identical to those in glottochronology. Genes, like languages, do not mutate at a constant rate. And organisms, particularly bacteria, often borrow genes rather than inheriting them from a common ancestor. Biologists have also learned that trees of any great complexity cannot be drawn up by subjective methods. Mathematical methods are required, like having a computer generate all possible trees < a number that quickly runs way beyond the trillions < and then deciding statistically which class of trees is more probable than the rest. Dr. Gray based his tree on the Dyen list, a set of Indo-European words judged by linguists to be cognates, and he anchored the tree to 14 known historical dates for splits between Indo-European languages. Many of the Dyen list cognates are marked uncertain, so Dr. Gray was able to test whether omission of the doubtful cognates made any difference (it did not). He also tested many other possible assumptions, but none of them produced an age for proto-Indo-European anywhere near the date of 6,000 years ago favored by linguists. "This is why our results should be taken seriously by both linguists and anyone else interested in the origin of the Indo-European languages," he wrote, in a recent reply to his critics. "We haven't repeated the errors of glottochronology," Dr. Gray said in an interview. "What we are doing is adding value, since we can make inferences about time depths which can't be made reliably in other ways." Dr. Gray said he had formed collaborations with linguists and hoped they would give his tree a warmer reception once his critics understood that he had not made the errors they cited. Some linguists are interested in the biologists' approach. "I think these methods are extremely promising," said Dr. April McMahon of the University of Sheffield and the president of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, though she expressed concern about Dr. Gray's emphasis on dating language splits. If the biologists' methods can date languages that existed 9,000 years ago, how much further back can they probe? "Words exist that can in principle resolve 20,000-year-old linguistic relationships," Dr. Pagel of Reading wrote in a recent symposium volume, "Time Depth in Historical Linguistics," adding that "words that can resolve even deeper linguistic relationships are not out of the question." Many linguists believe that once two languages have drifted so far apart that they share only 5 percent or so of their vocabulary, chance resemblances will overwhelm the true ones, setting a firm limit on how far back their ancestry can be traced. "That's a mistaken reasoning which shows the linguists are relying on a model of evolution they trash when they see it written down," Dr. Pagel said. He added that their argument assumed a constant rate of language change, the very point they know is wrong in glottochronology. Geneticists believe modern humans may have left Africa as recently as 50,000 years ago, perhaps in a single migration with very small numbers. Reconstructing language of 20,000 years ago would be a big stride toward whatever tongue those first emigrants spoke. But Dr. Gray has no plans in that direction. "It's hard enough to work out what happened 10,000 years ago, let alone 30,000 years ago," he said. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Armenia and Latvia set to boost ties
Arminfo
15 Mar 04
YEREVAN
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Shugaryan held a meeting today
with his Latvian counterpart Andris Teikmanis. The meeting was held
within the framework of bilateral consultations.
The press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told Arminfo news
agency that they discussed ways of stepping up bilateral relations and
the possibility of Latvia helping Armenia in the process of its
integration into European structures. The sides stressed the need for
closer cooperation between Armenia and Latvia in international
organizations.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Shugaryan expressed the hope
that through its membership of the European Union (EU), Latvia will be
able to help Armenia’s active participation in this structure. In
particular, they expressed the hope that Latvia will do its best for
the South Caucasus to be included in the EU initiative – “New
neighbours”. The Armenian deputy foreign minister talked about the
situation in the region at the guest’s request, and also prospects for
cooperation with the South Caucasus.
The Latvian delegation also held meetings with Armenian Deputy Speaker
Tigran Torosyan and representatives of the presidential administration
and the Armenian Defence Ministry.
Submitted by Janoyan Ana

EU to help Armenia with democratic reforms
Arminfo
15 Mar 04
YEREVAN
The sixth session of the Armenia-European Union commission for
interparliamentary cooperation started in Yerevan today.
The speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan,
stated at the opening of the session that Armenia’s membership of the
European Union (EU) is one of the priorities of the republic’s foreign
policy. He said that the main step of the republic’s integration in
the EU is its participation in the “Expanded Europe: new neighbours”
programme.
Artur Bagdasaryan noted that Armenia has already completed the process
of honouring its commitments to the Council of Europe. He stressed
that constitutional changes and reforms in the legal system should
also be carried out in the republic.
The head of the Armenia-European Union commission for
interparliamentary cooperation, Torben Holtze, stated that the last
few years have seen progress in Armenia’s fulfilment of its
commitments to the CE. He said that the republic has ratified all
international conventions and adopted almost all the laws required by
the CE. At the same time, he stressed that it is necessary to reform
the state’s electoral system in order to rule out violations during
elections in the future, as it was the case in the 2003 presidential
and parliamentary elections.
[Passage omitted: The EU is to allocate 20m euros to Armenia for
democratic reforms and for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict]
Submitted by Janoyan Ana

Presidents discuss problems of Georgia’s Armenian community
Arminfo
12 Mar 04
YEREVAN
Georgian Armenians should be full citizens of our country with equal
opportunities, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told a news
conference in Yerevan today.
At the same time, the Georgian president noted the need for concrete
work in regions. For example, he said that a Russian military base is
the only employer in Akhalkalaki [Georgian region populated by ethnic
Armenians]. “This is not a normal situation,” he said, adding that one
could not survive without a well-developed economy. Moreover, he
mentioned tough climatic conditions in the region. This circumstance,
as well as the fact that the region is located on the border, became
obstacles to the development of the region back during the Soviet era.
As for the demands that the political status of the Georgian region be
changed, Saakashvili said that this kind of issues could be resolved
exclusively within Georgia.
I am thankful to the Armenian president for his strict position on
territorial integrity and stability in Georgia and in the region as a
whole. This is in the interests of Armenia, Georgia and of the future
of the South Caucasus,” Saakashvili said.
At the same time, he noted that “any attempt to artificially disrupt
stability is doomed to failure, as Armenia has a president who
understands very well the significance of stability and peace and
second, understands that this intention can lead to tragedy, which I
would not advise anybody even to think about”.
He noted that he even did not welcome debates on this issue. He said
that sometimes people think about this. Those are the people who have
no idea about the region and its problems but are engaged in
theoretical alterations to maps, Saakashvili said.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan also underlined the similarity of
the positions of the Armenian and Georgian authorities, which called
for more harmonic and deeper integration of the Armenian diaspora into
Georgia’s economic, political and cultural life.
“This is the core on the basis of which concrete actions should be
taken. These include a road linking Tbilisi with the region of
Javakheti, a road which will create conditions for selling produce
from the region on Tbilisi’s markets and also economic programmes.
“We could work on this together,” Kocharyan noted. He said that the
main goal was proper integration of the Armenian community into
Georgian communities of these regions. “This is Armenia’s official
position,” the Armenian president said.

USA wants speedy reforms in Azerbaijan
Zerkalo, Baku
12 Mar 04
The key goal of US officials’ recent visits to Baku was to persuade
the Azerbaijani leadership to carry out radical economic and political
reforms, Azerbaijani daily Zerkalo has said. Washington wants
Azerbaijan and other South Caucasus countries to share its values and
pursue its policy. To that end, the USA is trying to attract
Azerbaijan to NATO and has promised Baku assistance in reorganizing
its army, Zerkalo said. However, the paper said, Washington’s military
aid is linked to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over Nagornyy Karabakh. Azerbaijan will have to make some compromises
in the peace talks, and US officials seem to have partly convinced the
Baku government, the daily said. The following is an excerpt from Rauf
Mirqadirov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 12 March
headlined “Washington insists on speedy reforms in Azerbaijan” and
subheaded “The White House will wait for another three months”;
subheadings inserted editorially:
Americans dominate Baku
Americans dominated Baku this week. Never has the capital of
Azerbaijan seen so many high level delegations during the course of
one week. Moreover, one cannot help but notice that predominant among
the Americans landing in Baku were State Department emissaries and
military officials.
Judge for yourselves. At the beginning of the week there was a
delegation from the US airforce college together with US Deputy
Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Lynn
Pascoe. Staying in the capital yesterday was a delegation headed by
the US State Department deputy director for European security and
political affairs, Eric Schultz, and the deputy political adviser at
the US mission in NATO, Bruce Rogers.
And arriving today in Baku from Washington is yet another very
impressive delegation comprised exclusively of military and diplomatic
officials. This time it is a mission of the supreme advisory council
to the US European Command (EUCOM), headed by the deputy commander of
the US European Command, Gen Charles Wald. Also part of the delegation
are Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe Adm Gregory
Johnson and many ambassadors of various ranks.
In a word, Azerbaijan is keeping diplomats and military officials
busy, while economic questions have moved down to the second order of
importance. It is clear why. The most important geopolitical task of
the USA in the region involving economic aspects has already been
resolved. The building of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is already
under way, and all the problems connected with the financing of this
project have been resolved.
Need for radical reforms
Today, the Americans are trying to accomplish several tasks at the
same time.
First, to talk the Azerbaijani leadership into some radical economic
and political reforms. As we have already learned from well-informed
diplomatic sources, this theme was key to questions discussed between
Lynn Pascoe and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Once again Pascoe brought to Baku’s attention the White House’s
position, concluding that relations between the two countries could be
raised to a qualitatively higher level only through assurance that
both governments share the same values, i.e. adhere to the principles
of democracy, respect and uphold human rights and liberal democracy.
If we put all the abovementioned from the diplomatic language into
plain language, Pascoe’s statements imply that Azerbaijan should share
the values recognized by the USA.
Pascoe, however, noted that the White House did not rule out the
possibility of inviting Ilham Aliyev to Washington on an official
visit before the US presidential elections. But, the same diplomatic
sources say that Pascoe stated that such an invitation could take
place only if Baku did not confine itself to verbal promises but took
real steps towards putting reforms into practice.
Washington gives Baku another three months
Delegation members did not hide the fact that Washington was
disappointed with the developments in Azerbaijan and with Baku’s
activities since 15 October [presidential elections]. Azerbaijani
officials were informed about this in a private conversation with a
member of the American delegation. At the same time, he [the
delegation member] said that Washington would wait for another three
months. If, by this time, serious steps towards reforms have not been
taken, then Washington will totally lose its faith in the ability of
the current Azerbaijani leadership to lead the country on the path of
integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, with all ensuing
consequences.
Second, the USA will try not to lose the initiative in the South
Caucasus to other players in the geopolitical game, above all, to the
European Union and Russia. Pascoe said this with typical American
straightforwardness at a meeting with Aliyev. Pointing out the growing
interest of the European Union in Azerbaijan and other countries of
the region, Pascoe said that the USA was making every effort “not to
stay behind” this competition.
USA wants “great changes”
The US diplomat said that he intended to discuss a number of issues
with Aliyev and to hold an exchange of views on “great changes” in the
region. In fact, Pascoe hinted that Washington was worried about an
undisguised increase in the activity of the European Union in the
South Caucasus, where up until recently the USA has regarded its
position as unshaken. However, now that “a democratically-elected
president” came to power in Georgia, the European Union is ready to
include the South Caucasus countries into its Wider Europe – New
Neighbourhood policy. This means that the EU sees the region within
its ranks in the near future. It is no coincidence that in Baku,
[Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili proposed creating a
mini-European Union of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Having left the
Azerbaijani capital, he included Armenia and then Russia in this list.
Things are clear with Russia – the EU does not want to see it as its
member for good reasons, at least in the near future. But the EU views
the South Caucasus as a single geopolitical and economic space. It is
no coincidence that the EU’s special representative for the South
Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, has more than once said that this
organization treated equally all the three countries of the region.
USA wants South Caucasus to pursue its policy
The USA, in principle, is not against this prospect but would like to
see the South Caucasus countries as countries pursuing Washington’s
policy, like Spain, Poland and some other countries in the Eastern
Europe. Therefore, the USA is trying to attract the countries of the
South Caucasus, above all Azerbaijan and Georgia, to NATO where
Washington still has the final say. The USA thinks that this process
should be completed over the next two or three years.
However, except for the aforesaid, the armed forces of the regional
countries have to be reorganized to meet NATO standards and also the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has to be resolved. Strange as it may
seem, but these two problems interrelate.
It is no coincidence that at a meeting with Azerbaijani Defence
Minister Safar Abiyev, Eric Schultz and Bruce Rogers discussed
strategic partnership between Azerbaijan, the USA and NATO. US
ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish noted at the meeting that
US-NATO cooperation with Azerbaijan and other countries of the South
Caucasus was aimed at eliminating instability in the region. He said
that the USA intended to continue cooperation with Azerbaijan to
ensure security. Harnish noted that the USA was expecting Safar
Abiyev’s visit to the USA where aspects of military cooperation
between the countries would be discussed.
[Passage omitted: at a meeting with the US delegation, Safar Abiyev
said the liberation of Karabakh was priority]
USA promises military assistance
The matter is that without a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, the
USA cannot render proper assistance to Azerbaijan to reorganize and
upgrade the army in compliance with NATO standards.
Suffice it to say that the Armenian group of the Congress took
painfully the US decision to allocate to Azerbaijan in military
assistance several million dollars more than to Armenia.
We have learned from diplomatic sources that during the negotiations
in Baku, Washington’s emissaries promised assistance to Azerbaijan in
reorganizing the army and in creating a large unit under NATO
standards within two or three years.
Need for compromises
However, Azerbaijan will have to make certain compromises in the
Karabakh peace talks.
It seems that the emissaries have managed to partly convince Baku’s
officials. Not long ago, the Azerbaijani leadership did not rule out
that the negotiations had to be started from scratch. However, Ilham
Aliyev recently expressed his surprise at a pessimistic statement made
by the Russian deputy foreign minister over the situation in the
negotiations to settle the Karabakh conflict.
Aside from this, against the background of the US week in Baku, a
surprising report has emerged saying that Aliyev will pay a visit to
Bratislava (Slovakia) on 18-19 March to attend an international
conference “Towards a Wider Europe: The new Agenda”.
[Passage omitted: list of countries which are to attend the
conference]

Innovations-Report, Germany
March 15 2004
Hydrogen as an alternative energy to petrolium

The key aspect of the project is the obtaining of metal hydrides with
the capacity to “store” the hydrogen used in automotive vehicle fuel
batteries.
Under the auspices of the Strategic Plan for Materials and Energy
being carried out by INASMET, the Armenian Institute of Chemistry &
Physics of the National Academy of Sciences has signed a joint
working agreement on order to make progress in one of the future
energy sources such as fuel cells based on using hydrogen.
This alternative energy source to fossil fuels (petroleum and its
derivatives) has, amongst other advantages, that of being
non-contaminant, given that the only by-product is water due to the
combustion of hydrogen. Energy user sectors such as automotive one
and aeronautic are the most likely beneficiaries of this alternative
energy.
On the occasion of the signing of the joint co-operation contract and
in order to continue work started in 1999 between both bodies,
professor S. Kharatyan, the sub-director of the Armenian Institute,
accompanied by researcher, doctor A. Sargyan, have visited Inasmet
Technological Centre.
The agreement involves the development of SHS (Self-propagating
High-temperature Synthesis) technology that has relevant applications
in the industrial sector (energy and metallurgy), in obtaining
enhanced-specification materials at competitive prices. The technical
team at INASMET already has ten years of experience in this
speciality and applications widely accepted industrially have been
obtained, such as powders for special coatings or high-specification
porous materials.
One aspect of the new agreement – more directly related to hydrogen
energy – will be the development of new production methods for metal
hydrides as raw material for fuel cells, given that they are an
efficient form of `storing’ hydrogen through SHS technology.
The Armenian Institute of Chemistry & Physics, founded in 1975, is
developing new lines of technological research, initiated in Moscow,
amongst the advantages of which are those involving simplicity,
rapidity and low energy consumption throughout the whole process.
In 1999 the first steps were taken for the joint enterprise between
INASMET and the Armenian institution in order to obtain cermets,
materials composed of ceramic and metal for applications in extreme
operating conditions. The first relevant steps in that two different
research teams and professionals from two distinct cultures have come
together and, apart from overcoming language barriers, the Armenians
in particular have had to go through work permit procedures under
very difficult conditions. With the signing of this agreement, many
of these difficulties have been overcome and there are very positive
expectations for both partners for advancement in these technologies.
Contact :
Cristina Alberdi
INASMET
[email protected]
(+34) 943 003668