By Megan Goldin

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Apr 12 (Reuters) A 76-year-old Greek Orthodox monk is beaten up by villagers, his carefully tended olive trees are uprooted and his isolated West Bank monastery is defaced with graffiti depicting nuns being raped.

The land of Jesus's birth is not always an easy place for Christians to live in 2006.

The population of Christians in the Holy Land, particularly in the Palestinian territories, is dwindling as more and more leave for a better life abroad, turning the community into a tiny minority squeezed between Muslims and Jews.

The traditional merchant class, heavily dependent on tourist money, has suffered a recession since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000 and Israel walled off Bethlehem with a barrier.

The Israelis say it is designed to stop suicide bombers and Palestinians call it a land grab.

''(Christians) are suffering from both Islamic extremists and Israeli security concerns,'' said Canon Andrew White, a former Middle East envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Church.

While incidents as violent as the harassment of the Greek Orthodox monk are rare, life for Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has become more precarious in the past decade.

Caught in the midst of conflict, Churches have sought to help local Christians quietly by not rocking the boat and being careful over criticising the Palestinian Authority, which might be seen by some as tantamount to supporting Israel.

''The world has got to wake up to the reality of what is going on and not just view it as a political matter, taking one side or another, and realise that Christians are the people caught in between,'' White told Reuters.

At the time of the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Christians were a majority in the Holy Land. Until a century ago, they made up about 20 per cent of the population.

Migration by the educated, middle-class Christian population was precipitated by Arab-Israeli wars in the 20th century and intensified in the past few decades as violence grew.

Today, there are about 50,000 Christians in the Palestinian territories -- about 1.5 per cent of the population -- and about 100,000 Christians in Israel -- approximately two per cent.

Like all Palestinians, Christians have suffered from Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Some hold leadership positions in the Palestinian Authority, others in militant factions. Most are imbued with a strong sense of Palestinian nationalism.

LIST OF GRIEVANCES Corruption and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza in the past decade have hit Christians harder than others because, as a minority, they have not been able to defend themselves easily.

Exasperated at the failure of the Palestinian Authority to act and the reticence of churches to speak up, a group of Christians in Bethlehem drew up a list of grievances that included theft of their land by Muslims, attacks and desecration of Church property.

The Christians passed the list to Church leaders, saying local authorities had done little to help.

These days Christians face extra uncertainty from the rise of the militant Islamist Hamas group, whose charter calls for the establishment of an Islamic, rather than a secular, state -- a goal that causes many Christians to have misgivings about remaining.

Since the group's election victory in January, however, Hamas officials have vowed to address Christians' grievances, kindling the hope that life might actually improve under the fundamentalist Islamic movement.

There are no accurate figures on the rate of emigration but estimates suggest about 1,000 Christians a year are leaving.

''If the situation continues, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity will become cold, empty museums,'' said Samir Qumsieh, a Palestinian-Christian businessman, referring to two of the holiest Christian shrines.

MORE REUTERS AD BS0904