english transcript

So you were a nun in a majority Muslim town, a Christian nun, in your habit, I assume.

Which also was to an advantage because pious Muslims are not jihadists, the ones that I know.

I'm not saying in other parts of the world that may be the case, but in Palestine it's simply not the case,

or Syria or Lebanon or Iraq.

The Muslims, for the most part, they've all grown up together, the Christians and the Muslims,

and there's a certain amount of commonality and respect.

And so me wearing, being dressed like this, was just like many of the women there, right?

So they kind of respected that.

There's the same sort of conservative culture, there's the same sort of idea that we're both,

have some same basic values of compassion for our neighbor, of taking care of our families,

and trying to live, they have their form of fasting and almsgiving, and it's actually very important to them.

And I think the best parts of Islam come from its development from Christian ideas that Muhammad came to know.

I'm sure of that.

You can sense it.

This is a very different story from the one that we're told in the American media,

that Christians are imperiled by Muslims in the Middle East.

They are not imperiled by Muslims in Palestine.

That is an absolute fact.

Yeah, that's just simply not the case.

And again, going back to my school, in our school, we had icons, which are part of the Orthodox tradition,

pictures of saints, and crosses in every classroom.

No problem with that.

I could show you a photograph, I can't now, but of the graduates of the latest high school graduation,

and they're embracing the nuns, they're dressed actually in a more secular way.

And yeah, it all works together.

So a lot of your students were Muslim?

98 percent.

Of your students were Muslim?

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And about half the teachers during the time I was there saw Muslim, some Christian.

In a Christian school?

Yes, and actually that's all throughout Palestine.

The Orthodox is relatively small.

We do have schools in many of the Palestinian towns, but also Catholic schools, Lutheran schools,

and most of the students are Muslims.

Huh.

And the beautiful thing about where the great danger is,

if the Christians continue to diminish a key part of Palestinian society, and within Israel as well,

you go to Nazareth, you'll see many Catholic-run hospitals, schools, and so it's a fabric,

it's a part of the whole character.

But I'm just still confused by the idea that the Christian population is declining under Israeli rule.

You would think just the opposite.

What I observed from my time in Israel, and going back every year,

is that they do not want any Palestinians there.

So the majority of Christians in Israel and Palestine are Palestinian.

So they have to leave too.