Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - If Western governments do not address the Muslim persecution and economic plight of Palestinian Arab Christians, there won't be many Christians left in the Holy Land within 15 years, an Israeli scholar said here.

Loss of employment, land seizures, attacks on churches, intimidation, torture, beatings, kidnappings, forced marriage and sexual harassment of Christian women are clear human rights violations that have contributed to the exodus of Christians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said Justus Reid Weiner, who spoke at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Monday.

"Since the empowerment of the Palestinian Authority in 1995, the systematic persecution [of Arab Christians] has been met with nearly total silence," said Weiner, an international human rights lawyer and scholar at the JCPA. "This silence has included the international community, relevant NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and other human rights activists and the media."

Christian Arabs are concentrated in and around Jerusalem and the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah. There also is a tiny Christian community in the Gaza Strip -- about 3,000 Christians among 1.4 million Palestinians. Most are Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and other traditional denominations.

In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, the Christian exodus has been most acute. In 1990, 60 percent of the population there was Christian. Today, some estimates say 20 percent or less of the city's population is Christian.

Tens of thousands of Arab Christians have fled the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years. An estimated one thousand Christians have left Bethlehem each year for the last seven years -- a period covering the Palestinian uprising. There are between 10,000 and 13,000 Christians remaining in the city.

Today, only 1.5 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is Christian.

Church leaders blame the steady flow of emigration on Israeli occupation and the security barrier. But, he said, church leaders, who should be protecting their followers instead are being forced to abandon them to "the forces of radical Islam."

Weiner said that Christians are often terrified to tell their stories. He mentioned several prominent cases of persecution but noted that these were only the tip of the iceberg.

In October, Rami Ayyad, who ran the Palestinian Bible Society in the Gaza Strip, was kidnapped and murdered, reportedly because he would not convert to Islam. (See earlier story)

Several weeks later, American-born Pastor Isa Bajali, who had been doing humanitarian work in Ramallah for years, was threatened by a P.A. official and others who allegedly tried to extort $30,000 from him. (See earlier story)

In another earlier case, a 16-year-old Arab Christian, who held American citizenship and was living with her family in Bethlehem was kidnapped by a 23-year-old Muslim man, who claimed they would marry. Her family was only able to secure her release with the intervention of the U.S. diplomats. The incident received virtually no media coverage, Weiner said.

According to Weiner, if Christian leaders and Western governments do not work to change the situation, within 15 years there won't be a Christian community here with schools, Bible study centers and shops. Only a few clergymen and Western Christians will remain, he warned. He suggested that providing professional employment for educated Palestinian Christians could help.

David Parsons, spokesman for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, said that Christians from around the world are "largely unaware" of the emigration of Christians from the Holy Land because local clerics observe a "code of silence," refusing to speak out against Muslim persecution.

"We have to understand that this is an ancient survival mechanism -- not to say anything bad about your Muslim neighbor, or it could cost you," Parsons told Cybercast News Service.

When Western governments look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they do not see the Christian element as a real factor, said Parsons, but it certainly should be, he added.