The Oft Forgotten Minority In Israel

The Most Controversial Priest in Israel

"Christian priest in Israel is at the center of an escalating Facebook battle—complete with death threats—after calling on Christian-Arab teens to start volunteering for the Israeli army.

Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek-Orthodox priest from the town of Nazareth, is openly calling on Christians to start doing something they have almost never done: join the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). Most Arab-Christians, a minority within the Arab minority in Israel, consider themselves Palestinians, and joining the Israeli military is seen as taboo.

Which is why Nadaf and the small group of ex-army Christians around him have been the target of a Facebook campaign by Arab Christians in recent months. Last week, someone posted a wanted sign with Nadaf’s picture on it, offering a reward on his head. It also offers a sum of money for his deputy, who served as an Israeli paratrooper."

This is, after all, the birthplace of Christianity.