The divisions within this country do not only stem from Muslims and Jews. Christians are plagued with similar problems, albeit on a smaller and less intense scale.

I’m not sure of the social and political status of native Christians in Israel and Palestine, and that is an issue I will be exploring more in my upcoming classes.

But I know foreign Christians can at times act insensitively toward the local populations. Many of the Christian tourists who visit Jerusalem are only interested in visiting the holy sites, and they show little desire to learn about the ongoing conflict.

For instance, during my tour of the West Bank with Tamer, a bus of Russian tourists coming from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem drove past us as we were taking pictures of the activist graffiti on the security fence. Most of the tourists did not even so much as glance at the wall as they drove past the security check point, and Tamer in desperation called out, “Turn around! Look at the wall. See what’s going on here.”

But apathy is perhaps the least of anybody’s worries here. At the Palestinian Heritage Center located right across the street from the Bethlehem security fence checkpoint, the curator of the museum expressed concern to Tamer that perhaps I was a Born-Again Christian. What she meant by that was that maybe I was a Zionist Christian, who had come to stir up trouble. Apparently the Palestinians have had problems with American-Christian organizations that have tried to persuade local Christian leaders that their Muslim neighbors are the bane of their existence and that they should abandon the cause of Palestinian statehood. So far it hasn’t worked.

And that is what irritates me most about Christian Zionists. There is nothing wrong with being pro-Israel.

But the fact remains that most of the Christians who come over here have no idea what the situation is like on the ground. They have no understanding of how their aggressive policies affect both sides of the conflict or how detrimental they can be for Israelis and Palestinians.

Or perhaps they just don’t care. Many Christian Zionists are motivated by the belief that once Israel is secure and the Temple is rebuilt, then Jesus will descend from heaven and bring about an Armageddon. Jews who don’t convert will burn in hell.

I guess one can argue that Israelis should take all the help it can get. But really, I don’t understand why they put up with these people – they’re just insulting themselves!

Foreign Zionists aside, Christians who live here also seem to suffer from occasional bouts of madness. Take the recent brawl that broke out between Greek and Armenian monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Six different Christian factions have been warring for sections of land within the Church since the time of the Crusades. It got so bad that in 1178 the Muslim ruler Saladin had to entrust two Muslim families as the guardians of the key to the church. One family is in charge of unlocking and locking the door each day while the other safeguards the key at all times, according to BBC News.

The Armenian-Greek fight concerned a monk who had entered Jesus’ alleged tomb during the other group’s procession. Apparently nobody bothered to tell them that Jesus rose from the dead.