ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com


Sunday, November 11, 2007

Christian pastor flees Palestinian town amid threats

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) -- A Palestinian-American Evangelical Christian pastor has fled the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah for the safety of nearby Jerusalem following increasingly hostile threats by officials within Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

This news was revealed in a story carried on www.israeltoday.co.il.

Born in the US, Isa Bajalia returned to his parents' hometown of

Isa Bajalia (Photo from www.israeltoday.co.il)

Ramallah more than 16 years ago to bring humanitarian aid and comfort to the Palestinian Arabs, as well as spread the Gospel.

“But his increasingly bold missionary activity and his refusal to allow Muslim elements to encroach on his family's property - a common abuse suffered by Palestinian Christians - resulted in a Ramallah municipal official who moonlights as a member of the Tanzim terrorist wing of Abbas' Fatah movement threatening to cripple and murder Bajalia,” said the story.

“Bajalia told Cybercast News Service that following last month's brutal murder of a fellow Christian in the Gaza Strip for his sharing of the Gospel, he is taking the threats very seriously.”

The story continued, “The worried pastor first turned to the Palestinian Authority for protection, but was told by Palestinian security officials that they would only help him if he first paid $30,000.

“Bajalia then relocated to Jerusalem, where he filed a complaint with the American consulate in an effort to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to do its job and provide security to all its citizens. After a week of waiting, Bajalia had received no response from the Americans."

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Send this story to a friend.
ASSIST News Service is brought to you in part by Gospel for Asia. GFA’s Bridge of Hope program is designed to rescue thousands of children in Asia from a life of poverty and hopelessness by giving them an education and introducing them to the love of Christ. For only $28 a month, you can cover the cost of one child’s tuition, books, uniforms, one or two meals a day and a yearly medical checkup—and your child, his family and community will hear the Gospel as a result. To learn more about Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope program, visit our website at www.gfa.org/child or call 1-800-WIN-ASIA (United States) or 1-888-WIN-ASIA (Canada).