Only Christian TV station in Holy Land closes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Only Christian TV station in Holy Land closes*
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Friday November 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The only Christian television station in the Holy Land has closed after
11 years because of a lack of funding.
Nativity television, or al-Mahed as it was known in Arabic, broadcast a
mix of church services, films and discussion programmes 24 hours a day
from a small studio in Bethlehem, not far from the Church of the Nativity.
Samir Qumsieh, the Greek Orthodox owner and director of the channel,
said it had lost around $800,000, half of which were his own personal
debts. "I have hundreds of letters thanking me and gratitude shields
thanking us from all the churches but nobody translated this into
financial support," he said. The station closed yesterday.
"I reached the point where I couldn't continue any more," he said.
The channel broadcast mostly in Arabic, and Mr Qumsieh said he sometimes
had Muslims and Jews phoning in to talk on discussion programmes.
Mr Qumsieh has been an often outspoken advocate for the shrinking
Christian community in Bethlehem. He said Christians were leaving the
city in large part because of the sharp economic slowdown brought about
by the Israeli occupation and the effect of the concrete West Bank wall
that runs nearby. Some Christians have also said they feel under
pressure from conservative Islamist groups which are on the rise across
the Palestinian territories.
"Emigration is our great nightmare," Mr Qumsieh said. He believes the
Christian community was likely to shrink drastically within the next two
decades and he said he too would now be looking for work abroad. He said
his family was typical of Bethlehem's Christians, with four grown-up
brothers who live and work abroad.
Unemployment runs as high as 65% in Bethlehem and farmers complain that
large areas of their land have been taken up by the West Bank barrier
and the several Jewish settlements that have been built nearby. The
Christian population of the town of Bethlehem is thought to be around
40% today, down from around 90% in the 1940s.