At the same time you discovered what distinguishes the Palestinian minority in Israel from the Palestinians under occupation: the status of being a citizen.

"The court has failed in its basic responsibility as a defender of the Palestinian national minority," they said in a statement.

Gaza is home to a small Palestinian Christian minority of about 3,500 people.

We would have been spread out among the Arabs and be part of a Palestinian minority here and there and everywhere.

The leaking of the report by the Israeli newspaper Al-Hamishmar is frequently referred to as "a major turning point in the relationship between the Israeli State and the Palestinian minority."

The town was mostly Muslim but had a large Palestinian Christian minority.

Mr. Arafat has made sure that the Palestinian Christian minority will be in the Council, making them the only minority aside from the Samaritans to have guaranteed seats.

What is less soluble is the underlying moral question: how does a majority which itself has been historically unloved now deal fairly with an unloved Palestinian minority in their own midst?

That applies equally to the European attitude towards a well-nigh forgotten group of Christians in the Middle East, the Palestinian Christian minority in Gaza and the West Bank.

Some critics consider the analogy defamatory and say it reflects a double standard when applied to Israel and not to neighboring Arab countries, whose policies towards their own Palestinian minorities have been described as discriminatory.