Christians in Beer Sheba

The HaAretz newspaper published an interesting report on Christians in Beer Sheba. According to the article: “The Zicharon Association is trying to set up a Christian cemetery in the city since 2001’ however the municipality objects, arguing that there are enough alternative burial options already. The debate between the municipality and the association begins with the question regarding how many Christians live in Beer Sheba. The association claims that there are at least 20 000 Christians at least, while the municipality argues that their number is much smaller. According to the population census which was done in 2008, the number of Christians is only 1300. The Ministry of the Interior throws no light on the subject. According to its statistics, there are 60 000 new immigrants from the countries of the ex-Soviet Union in the city, many of them without a registration of religion. The association, which was officially set up in 2001 when it was accorded a parcel of land, argues that thousands of these people are in fact Christian and that if a Christian cemetery would be opened, more than half of them would want to be buried there. In addition, there are about 300 Christian Arabs living in the city”.

To read the article here