Palestinian Christians to get at least 7 seats in legislative elections
President Mahmoud Abbas issues a decree to allocate at least seven seats in the next Palestinian Legislative Council to Christian citizens in a move that recognizes the importance of Palestine's dwindling Christian community.
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree Feb. 21 setting aside a minimum of seven legislative seats for Christians in the upcoming elections for the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council, he was following a tradition set by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He was also reflecting on the wide contribution of Palestinian Christians in the last century.
Issa el Issa, a Palestinian Christian poet and journalist, founded with his cousin Yousef El-Issa the biweekly newspaper Filastin in 1911 in his hometown of Jaffa.
Jerusalemite George Antonius wrote the Arab Awakening in 1938 and Khalil Sakhnini (1878-1953) was the preeminent Palestinian educator of his day, producing a curriculum that continues to be used.
In the 1960s, Amin Majaj's research in the basement of the Augusta Victoria hospital involving malnourished Palestinian refugees helped show some of the benefits that Vitamin E can bring.
