Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) - Israel's Government Statistical Office has published its up-to-date data concerning the number of Christians in Israel. According to this State agency, there are 146,000 Christians in Israel (apparently including Jerusalem, but not the Occupied Palestinian Territories), of whom 119,000 belong to the Arab national minority, and 27,000 are "non-Arab", mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
These 27,000 Christians must be classified as "Hebrew-speaking Christians," says the Israeli Franciscan, Father David-Maria A. Jaeger. "This is a more positive and more informative designation than simply 'non-Arab'. They all live within the Hebrew-speaking majority in Israel, and would represent an opportunity for the Church to be implanted within Israeli society, if only there were an appropriate ecclesial structure to bring them together and help them to integrate their national and religious identities." More than fifty-seven years after the establishment of the State of Israel, Father Jaeger remains the only "Hebrew-speaking" Catholic priest born and raised in Israel.
