Beit Sahour is a mostly Christian village, with Catholic and Greek Orthodox faiths, directly east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The town played a key role in the First and Second Intifadas, with local activists pioneering nonviolent resistance techniques. On December 23rd through 25th, 2010, Beit Sahour hosted its third annual Shepherds' Nights Festival to mark the Christmas holiday. The Festival is a family-friendly event with musical performers, dancers, local artisan and food vendors, and a Santa Claus with gifts for children. The three-day event is organized jointly by the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People (PCR) and the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI), a program of the East Jerusalem and Shepherds' Field YMCA/YWCAs.

On the Latin Christmas Day (Greek Orthodox Christmas is January 7th), the final day of the Festival begins with a Candlelight Procession through Beit Sahour with the theme "Light a Candle for the Establishment of a Palestinian State."

Copy the following to embed the movie into another web page: <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="360" data="http://www.indybay.org/js/flowplayer/FlowPlayer.swf"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.indybay.org/js/flowplayer/FlowPlayer.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="flashvars" value="config={videoFile:'http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/01/06/beitsahour-candlelightprocession_122510.mp4_preview_.flv',splashImageFile:'http://www.indybay.org/im/play-button-328x240.jpg',loop:false,autoPlay:false,autoBuffering:false,bufferLength:5,initialScale:'fit'}" /> <p>Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content.</p></object>

download video: beitsahour-candlelightprocession_122510.mp4 (65.7MB)