Father Louis Salman's expulsion threatens Palestinian Christians

A few weeks ago, the Israeli occupation authorities expelled Father Louis Salman from Palestine. Originally Palestinian and holding a Jordanian passport, Fr. Louis was the parish priest of Beit Sahour, one of the most important Christian communities near Bethlehem, and served in the Youth Ministry of Palestine. His last service took place on 10 May, an emotional moment for him and hundreds of Palestinian youth who bid him farewell.

The Israeli decision not to allow him to continue serving in Palestine has strongly affected the youth ministry as well as his parishioners, who cannot understand how their beloved priest — who brought hope to his community even during the toughest days of the Israeli genocide in Gaza — will no longer be among them.

While his community carries deep sorrow over his expulsion, the Catholic Church has remained silent. Palestinian media covered the situation as a new Israeli aggression against Palestinian religious rights. However, for foreign Christian media outlets, the reports were largely irrelevant. This once again shows a reality that is not always addressed: the historical differences between the approach of indigenous Palestinian Christian congregations, which demand justice, freedom, the rights of return, and self-determination, and foreign ecclesiastical hierarchies.

The latter are often concerned about their own privileges and matters regarding real estate and pilgrimage, rather than the daily life of their congregations under Israeli occupation and exile. But for Palestinian Christians, this is a matter of survival.

Israeli attacks against the indigenous Christian presence in Palestine should not be taken out of the context of the broader attacks against the Palestinian people. Israeli government policy in support of further annexation in the occupied Palestinian territory and the ethnic cleansing of several areas has incentivised settlers to step up their attacks against Palestinians. Many Christians are suffering the consequences of such events in places such as Jerusalem, Taybeh, Birzeit, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour.

It is precisely in these biblical Shepherds’ Field where the Israeli government approved a new colonial settlement that has recently been built in the area of Osh Gharab, escalating attacks against civilians. This is one of 19 new colonial settlements approved by the Israeli government and supported by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a committed Christian Zionist.

Israel’s targeting of Christian Arabs is also not limited to Palestine. As a matter of ongoing policy, visas for Christians from other Arab countries to conduct pilgrimages in Palestine are rarely issued.

An ongoing pattern of attacks

Fr. Salman is not the first serving member of the clergy to be deported by Israel; other important cases include Catholic Fr. Ibrahim Ayyad and Anglican Bishop Elia Khoury.

Sadly, the recent expulsion is also unlikely to be the last.

It is clear that the parish priest was targeted because the occupation did not want to allow a leader of one of the most organised youth movements in Palestine — someone who stood with dignity for the rights of his people, doing what any other priest should have done in his place – to continue his efforts. He never violated the Church’s position, Holy See diplomacy or international law.

Fr. Salman’s ministry was mainly about bringing hope to his people, including through Palestinian contextual theology, which, from the beginning, provided existential answers to a people whose denial of the right to self-determination has largely been justified through the misuse of the Bible.

This was precisely what he did at every stage of his pastoral work, which the world was witness to when he led prayers following the assassination of renowned Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was a Palestinian Christian from Jerusalem.

Indeed, Fr. Salman understood his role as the guide of a youth movement in a country under occupation and severe economic crisis. Through their pastoral work, he has given young people a strong sense of purpose.

Nevertheless, despite the great efforts deployed by Pope Leo to demand justice, denounce colonialism and enhance the role of the Church among the oppressed, the silence of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem over this latest Israeli attack on the indigenous Church of Palestine is deafening. They have left thousands of Palestinian Christian youth without a spiritual guide.

There is an imperative need to demand Fr. Salman’s return to Palestine as part of the ongoing efforts to preserve the significant and dynamic indigenous Christian community. It is significant that he was expelled in the same week that Palestinians marked 78 years since the beginning of the Nakba, when over 70% of the Palestinian people became refugees. For the churches, it meant the ethnic cleansing of most of their parishioners, to the extent that over 30 parishes were closed in 1948.

78 years later, the forcible displacement hasn’t ended. This time it was a priest; tomorrow, it may be his whole community. Whether the Israeli occupation succeeds in taking more land and pushing more Palestinians away will depend not only on the resilience of the Palestinian people, Christians and Muslims, but also on whether the international community, including Churches, finally takes concrete measures to implement its moral and legal obligations in Palestine.

Xavier Abu Eid is a Political Scientist who holds a PhD in Religion, Theology and Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and is a former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Follow Xavier on X: @xabueid

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