Not many Signs of Peace on Earth in Bethlehem

"This reality has created a bizarre disconnect between the Bethlehem that exists today and the one that the rest of the world imagines pays homage to during the Christmas holidays .."

By Rania Awwad

WASHINGTON (PalestineChronicle.com) - In a matter of days, churches across the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus in the city of peace and joy. But for the third consecutive year the birthplace of Christ is not the place to celebrate His birth. Bethlehem, the biblical West Bank town in the hills just south of Jerusalem, celebrated in holiday carols and commemorated in Christmas cards and school-pageant crèches, has today come to epitomize all the hardships and sorrows of the nearly 27-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

In March of this year, the Church of the Nativity, the spot where tradition holds that Jesus was born, was the site of a tense 39-day-long standoff between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. During a barrage of bullets and artillery, an Israeli tank shell blasted an indentation the size of a bowling ball in the thick stone facade of the two-century-old Holy Family Church, a complex with an orphanage, hospital, and hostel. The blast sprayed shrapnel onto a statue of the Virgin Mary, slicing off her hand and nose. A 16-year-old altar boy named Johnny was killed by a sniper on Church grounds as he played with his 4-year-old nephew, while another sniper claimed the life of the Church‘s beloved 45-year-old bell-ringer as he walked to the Church to ring the bells at dawn, a routine he had performed every day since 1967.

Like every other West Bank city (with the exception of Jericho), Israeli troops, tanks, and armored vehicles surround Bethlehem and paralyze every aspect of daily life. Access roads have been cut off with bulldozers and huge dirt mounds, and a 24-hour curfew has been imposed on the population for much of the past year. Traveling out of and into the city is prohibited, as is stepping outside of one‘s home. The only relief to the town‘s 30,000 residents is provided every fourth day when the curfew is lifted for several hours to allow residents to scamper outside for desperately needed food and supplies.

This reality has created a bizarre disconnect between the Bethlehem that exists today and the one that the rest of the world imagines pays homage to during the Christmas holidays. Three years ago when I was in Bethlehem during the holiday season, Manger Square was alive with tourists, guides, and pilgrims; the streets were lit up with festive lights; and shops were adorned with cheerful banners. An international collection of choir groups sang the good tidings of the angels, and street performers entertained children with magical shows. On Christmas Eve, thousands of doves were released into the sky above Manger Square, the big stone plaza fronting the Church of the Nativity, in a symbolic gesture of the hope we all envisioned for this sacred land.

This Christmas the curfew leaves the town deadly quiet, with Palestinian families hiding behind shuttered doors and window grilles. A decision has been made that the 25-foot Christmas tree on the grounds of Manger Square will remain unadorned and the displays of streetlights unlit. Hanna Nasser, the mayor of Bethlehem, says that the decision had been simple to make: there is no mood for festivities in a town whose 30,000 inhabitants have nothing to spend, little to eat, and are forced to stay in their homes for days at a time. "Our main concern is not decorations," he says. "It is getting food for the people."

This Christmas also brings urgent appeals from the residents of Bethlehem to the rest of the world, such as the following one issued last week by a group of Franciscan missionaries who run the Caritas Baby Hospital: "Bethlehem is dying from the indifference of the whole world. The fate of this city is to pay, and to pay again for those who sow death. Condemned to a massive punishment, we live like prisoners, and we eat thanks to humanitarian organizations. We are not a city of terrorists to merit this continual and brutal repression. With only a few days left before Christmas, here in Bethlehem we no longer know what it means to celebrate. From the tanks, today too, like yesterday and the day before, the soldiers cry out the orders of the Israeli army: 'Curfew. It is prohibited to go out!' Today we are still prisoners."

Those who have the cause of peace at heart must call for restorative justice, calm, and reason. We must be bearers of this message in every sphere of our influence, be it at home, school, or work, with family or friends. We must also translate this message into community and political action by supporting an impartial, independent American foreign policy that will help move the parties toward a peaceful resolution and away from the destructive status quo in which America is strictly aligned with Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian people.

Palestinians look to America as the embodiment of the principles of self-determination, freedom, and independence -- the very same values that Palestinians are struggling for. The truest test of our own commitment to these values is whether or not we are prepared to help others attain them.

The author is a Palestinian American doctoral student at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She has worked in recent years as an EMT with the Palestine Red Cross Society in Bethlehem and other areas of the West Bank.
Not many Signs of Peace on Earth in Bethlehem

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It's Christmas time and the Israelis are busily destroying Palestinian homes and killing Palestinian kids. Even in this season of peace in the land of peace, the Israelis don't let the natives have a moment of peace but kill them, destroy their homes, and block access to Christianity's holiest site, the Church of the Nativity and Manger Square. The Israelis have cancelled all Christian celebrations in Bethlehem this year as they did last year without a peep out of the world's Christian community.


Palestinian Hala H. Issa cries as an Israeli occupation army bulldozer (BACKGROUND) destroys her house in the Palestinian West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 17, 2002, a week before Christmas!


Palestinian demonstrators destroy an Israeli army gate during a demonstration in the Palestinian West Bank City of Nablus, December 19, 2002. Angry Palestinians destroyed the gate that the Israeli occupation army built to separate the city of Nablus into two parts to prevent Palestinians from leaving the re-occupied city.


Lebanese boys hold lanterns during a pre-Christmas celebration in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002. About 150 Lebanese and Palestinian schoolchildren took part in the celebration calling for world peace.


Palestinian youths carry their stone-throwing friend Alaa Sghedi, 15-year-old, after he was shot by Israeli occupation army soldiers in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah near the border with Egypt Wednesday Dec. 18, 2002. Alaa, with several bulets to his body, including one in the head, died shortly after the shooting.


An Israeli soldier grabs a Palestinian from his neck as he prevents him of getting home into the Palestinian West bank city of Nablus at the Hawara checkpoint on the outskirts of the city Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002. Dozens of roadblocks, set up by the Israeli occupation army, have sealed Palestinian cities and prevent most people from traveling.


Relatives of Jawad Zeidan, 17-year-old, mourn over his body at the family house in the Palestinian Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday December 18, 2002. Zeidan was killed Tuesday night from an Israeli occupation army tank shell that hit his home.


Palestinian women collect their belongings from the remains of their destroyed houses in Rafah southern Gaza Strip Monday Dec. 16, 2002. Israeli soldiers demolished 16 Palestinian houses in the refugee camp near the Jewish settlement of Morag, leaving more than 100 people homeless. We send billions to Israel so that it can make Palestinians homeless rather than using that money for Universal Health Care in our own country.