Charlie Kirk believed that Christians aren’t just unwelcome in Palestinian-controlled areas—they face real danger.

“I’ll never forget when I was driving down to Hebron last year,” Charlie recalled. “We’re driving down south from Jerusalem, and there’s this sign—and I don’t speak Arabic nor do I speak Hebrew. So I turned to my driver and said, ‘What does that sign say?’ There was no English translation, and there was an arrow in the middle and an arrow to the right and an arrow to the left. And the arrows to the right and left were red and the arrow in the middle was black or some other, not a warning color. And so I said, ‘What does that mean?’ They said, ‘Well, if we turn right, you’ll die.’ ‘What do you mean, you’ll die?’ ‘Well, if you turn right, you go into the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, and as a Christian, a Westerner, or a Jew, they’ll kill you.’”

Israel Welcomes Christians—The Palestinian Authority Doesn’t

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinian Authority divided Judea and Samaria into three parts: Area A, fully controlled by the PA; Area B, under joint but mostly PA control; and Area C, under Israeli administration. Palestinians can move freely across all three. Israelis, however, are forbidden from entering Area A and warned not to enter Area B. Near towns like Bethlehem, bright red signs read: “The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden, dangerous to your lives, and against Israeli law.”

For Charlie, that contrast revealed the double standard at the heart of the region’s politics. 

“If Arabs come into the Israeli-occupied areas, they’re given benefits and rights to vote. You go into the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, you get your head cut off,” he said.

Charlie saw Israel, on the other hand, as inviting for Christians. 

“The Israeli community has been very welcoming of us as Christians and our faith in the homeland,” he explained to a student. “I have not felt that kind of reciprocity from the Islamic world. And I’ll finally say this: There is a disturbing trend with Islam across the West where they are antagonistic towards Christianity, that they are taking over a lot of areas that used to be dominantly Christian. I feel a lot safer with Israelis than I do with most Arab Muslims.”

Bethlehem—the birthplace of Jesus—is a prime example. “Do you know who controls Bethlehem? Arab Muslims control Bethlehem,” Charlie told a college student. When the student asked when Muslims had ever stopped Christians from visiting, Charlie didn’t hesitate: “All the time! Oh my goodness. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

He extended that warning to other holy sites as well. 

“There is a lot of evidence that shows that when Arabs take over holy sites, they do not allow Christians to go to them,” he told an audience. “And I’ll prove it to you. It’s very hard for Christians to go to the birthplace of Christ, Bethlehem. It’s controlled completely by Arab Muslims. It’s very dangerous. You could still go, but it’s not easy. I think it would be a tragedy that I will not be able to bring my daughter to the Garden Tomb or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher or the Mount of Olives or the Mount of Beatitudes.”

Charlie compared that to his experience in Israel: “When we as Christians go to Israel, we are celebrated and treated like the most amazing you could ever imagine,” he told Christians during a speech.

Christians under the PA

Christian Arabs living under Palestinian Authority control face persistent persecution, just as Christians do in other Islamic-ruled regions. The abuses include intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombed churches and institutions, job denial, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping, forced marriages, sexual harassment, and extortion. Too often, Palestinian Authority officials are either directly responsible or complicit in these violations.

Those who convert from Islam to Christianity are especially vulnerable. Without protection, they become easy targets for Islamic violence, and some have even been murdered simply for their faith. It’s a systematic assault on the very existence of Christians under PA control.

The roots of this persecution lie in centuries-old Islamic concepts of dhimmitude, which cast non-Muslims as inherently inferior. As dhimmis, Christians face crippling legal, political, cultural, and religious restrictions and are never treated as equals to Muslims.

Yet despite these facts, some Palestinian Christian leaders—and even certain Western Christian figures—blame Israel rather than the actual perpetrators. Others who witness the abuse firsthand stay silent, letting the persecution continue unchecked. The goal is clear: Palestinian Muslims seek to maintain Muslim control, not Christian presence.

Bethlehem offers a striking example. After the PA took control in the 1990s, Yasser Arafat redrew the city’s municipal boundaries to secure a Muslim majority in future elections. He annexed roughly thirty thousand Muslims and a few thousand Bedouins from surrounding areas, dramatically shifting the city’s demographics.

Arafat also broke with tradition by appointing a Muslim governor. By Palestinian law, the Bethlehem City Council is supposed to maintain a Christian majority, but Muslim influence now dominates decision-making. While eight of the fifteen seats are still officially reserved for Christians, municipal elections have repeatedly limited their representation.

Arafat’s consolidation of power culminated in a symbolic—and telling—act: converting the Greek Orthodox monastery next to the Church of the Nativity into his personal residence, cementing Muslim control over a city that has been central to Christian heritage for centuries.

A Global Pattern of Persecution

Charlie saw the problem as far bigger than the Palestinian territories. “Islam is not compatible with open-air Christianity,” he said. “They want you to kind of at best stay in your corner; at the very least there is mass persecution. You think the Coptic Christians have been treated well the last 10 years? I mean, come on, man. There was a mass persecution of Christians over the last decade. They’re leaving these countries. A lot of their heads are being cut off.”

For Charlie, Israel is a rare place in the Middle East where Christians could live freely, worship openly, and feel safe.

The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, represents what happens when radical Islam takes root: fear, repression, and violence against believers. As Charlie saw it, the contrast couldn’t be clearer—Christians thrive where Israel governs, and they suffer where Hamas or the PA rules.

Because for Charlie, that wasn’t just geopolitics. It was a moral dividing line between civilization and barbarism.

LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KY0X2PTZ6js; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYgINPWOI4; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_VAoT3JR_0; https://youtu.be/wYX0IstPd9s?si=bD4VZ5e4vpK9urp5&t=857; https://jcpa.org/article/palestinian-crimes-against-christian-arabs-and-their-manipulation-against-israel/; http://youtube.com/watch?v=lyYgINPWOI4