DESPITE UGLY AND DEMEANING 8 METER HIGH WALL, MANY FROM AROUND THE GLOBE MAKE IT TO BETHLEHEM THIS CHRISTMAS
DESPITE UGLY AND DEMEANING 8 METER HIGH WALL, MANY FROM AROUND THE GLOBE MAKE IT TO BETHLEHEM THIS CHRISTMAS
By William B. Walker
I celebrated Jesus’ birthday by going to Bethlehem’s Manger Square and singing Christmas carols with visitors from Italy, the USA, Canada, and Palestine—We did this just after the finishing of the midnight mass in the Nativity Church, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had also been in attendance for the first time.
According to Al-Jazeera News, “A recent lull in violence and renewed Middle East peace talks have bolstered tourist and pilgrim numbers, with the Palestinian town in the West Bank enjoying its busiest Christmas since the second intifada began seven years ago . Despite the festive atmosphere, however, a heavy police deployment, the presence of Israel's massive separation wall and unease among Bethlehem's ever-shrinking Christian population served as reminders of the lingering tensions in the region.”
Al-Jazeera also noted that this recent seven-year period contrasts starkly with the 7 years just after the Oslo Peace Accords, which were signed in 1993. At that time many 1000s came each Christmas tide to Bethlehem for the first time.
This fairly disturbing trend in the lack of peace and security in Bethlehem and in other Israeli controlled Holy Land cities over these past 7 years has also coincided in a fairly great decline in the number of Jewish settlers arriving in Israel.
In short, on the face of it, the combined effects of the failed intifada of 2000 and the increase in the number of Israeli settlements (plus the somewhat obscene wall-building by Israel) over the last decade have made a mess out of what was once a blossoming peace process here in the Middle East.
NOTE: A pastor I know in Jerusalem has pointed out, too, that Israeli policies of the last two decades have also continued to sink the percentage of Christians living in either the West Bank or in Israel proper. That is, Christians in Israel are being forced by circumstances to migrate to safer climates or places where work and rights can be had more readily.
COMPARING TWO HOLY LANDS: ISRAEL vs. JORDAN
The disgraceful increase in violence in Israel over the past decade poses a sad contrast to its much poorer Holy Land neighbour, Jordan—another country which has also been active in the peace process since the 1990s.
THE JORDAN TIMES editorial, entitled “A Thought for Humanity”, in the 25th of December edition of the THE JORDAN TIMES indicates the degree of impatience Jordan and other neighbouring Holy Land states are having with both Israel’s and Hamas’ belligerent (i.e. round-the-wagons) approach to governance and failed peacemaking in this new Millennium.
The JT editorialist writes, “Here in Jordan, Christians live side by side with Muslims in complete harmony, proving that the two faiths are not, and need not, be in conflict with each other. There is no clash of civilisations, indeed of religions, in the Kingdom. Muslim and Christian Jordanians have always coexisted in peace, harmony and love, a model of tolerance and goodwill.”
The author continues, “True Islam, those who know it, like Christianity, preaches peace, love and compassion for fellow human beings, irrespective of their faith.”
Next, this editor laments, “Despite the message of love and peace spread by the monotheistic religions, it is sad to see that the birthplace of Jesus Christ is the farthest away from peace. The Holy Land, even Bethlehem where Jesus was born, is denied peace, living under occupation and enslavement. As long as the Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, are denied freedom, there can be no peace in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world.”
Besides asking that Christians, Muslims, and Jews work together more in this coming year to build peace, the editor also calls readers to take this Christmas period to pray for the Middle East.
Concluding his article, this unknown editor states, “We should also strive to live by the injunctions of the prophets, showing compassion and goodwill towards those in need, now and throughout the year. Merry Christmas!”
CROSSING OVER FROM JERUSALEM TO BETHLEHEM 2007
I, myself, observed the façade being placed around the Monster Walls built recently by the Israelis separating Palestinians who live on the “wrong side of the wall” to go through sometimes lengthy and humiliating checkpoints on a daily basis.
Amazingly, one of those check points is at a very famous pilgrimage destination. This checkpoint is not often open for use. The checkpoint is known in both Israel and in Palestine as the Tomb of Rachel, Abraham’s wife. (Abraham is the father of oth the Jewish and Muslim faiths.)
This location of Rachel’s Tomb is noted several times in the New Testament as the place where it had been prophesied already in Old Testament times that Rachel, the ancestor of King David and Jesus, would weep for the children of Bethlehem.
This weeping refers to the thousands of children slaughtered under King Herod’s orders near the time of Jesus’ birth in the town of Bethlehem. Some Catholic sources say that at least 14,000 boys under the age of two were killed in Bethlehem at that time.
By the way, every year on December 28th, the Catholic church recalls and commemorates the tragic slaughter of these children of Bethlehem two millennia ago. (Frustratingly, this December 28 event has the peculiarly sweet-sounding name of “Feast of the Holy Innocents”.)
In short, for any pilgrim going to Bethlehem a visit to Rachel’s tomb is historically a must-see! However, due to the fact that there is a behemoth wall and often-closed checkpoint at that location now under Israeli orders, few pilgrims in recent years have been able to pass by Rachel’s Tomb.
I was therefore happy to learn that this Christmas 2007 the crossing at Rachel’s Tomb would be open to both Palestinians and to Pilgrims crossing in either direction. However, when I arrived at the Israeli side of the 25 foot high double-wall, I was taken aback by the audacity of the Israeli government.
Painted on the Israeli side were large 18-inch high letters claiming that Israel wished humanity and the country “Peace”.
Everyone whom I have talked to in either Palestine or Israel about the writing about “peace” at the Wall entering Bethlehem find the statements almost obscene in the context with which Israel has proceeded with the building of walls and checkpoints over the past years and months.
Despite the checkpoint being open only a few Jews are allowed each year to visit the tombs and pray. This is the case even though both Muslims and Christians see it as a pilgrimage site for their faith.
BEYOND ISRAEL’S POTEMKIN FACADES
A “Potemkin Village” or “Potmekin Façade” is an old Russian term used to describe an illusion created by a government in order to portray life in a town or village as much-better-than-it-really is.
During my short tour of Israel, its checkpoints and barrier walls, I had the feeling that a lot of what was easily accessible was, in fact, a façade for short-term visitors to fall prey to. It is therefore of little wonder that perhaps after the construction of miles of barrier walls that the facades are finally having a positive effect on the tourist industry’s approach to Israel.
For example, although Jordan has experienced few bombings of any sort in recent years--in contrast to Israel--, travel agents and travel industry leaders have continued to spend more money advertising and promoting vacations to Israeli locations (including to Israel’s seaside resort of Eilat on the Read Sea) than has the industry been willing to spend on trips to Jordan.
In short, image is very important to Israel’s tourist industry success, and the barrier walls (and bantuization of life for Palestinians in the Occupied territories) are part of painting a seductive image for the Western tourist and for capturing the potential Jewish émigré.
It could well be that the recent rapprochement of Fatah, led by Palestinian President Abbas and the leaders of Israel are just a Potemkin Village for the TV cameras—not only this Christmas but for the U.S. elections in 2008.
One only has to look at the bizarre-looking maps of the Israeli-curled-Wall-fingers reaching deep into occupied Palestinian territory on the West Bank to see that no military planner would want to defend such atrociously ill-devised attempts to create a sense of peace and security via (1) simple propaganda, (2) image and neglect, and (3) cement wall construction.
The Israeli military is being asked to defend what is not really defendable for any length of time—that is, the military of Israel is being expected to simultaneously protect several hundred enclaves, any of which could cut off an illegal settlement on a moment’s notice if one of Israeli’s neighbors had a mind to support the destruction of entranceway.
This sort of Israeli security plan is not unlike Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program which went bust in the 1980s. In that expensive military boondoggle, the USA government sought to build a costly weapons system to defend the indefensible. It was a security dream of being able to intercept any attack on the USA before it could happen. The Reagan Star Wars project cost 35 billion dollars before it was shot down by the 1990s. (Otherwise, it would have likely busted the U.S. economy soon thereafter.)
In short, finding Permanent Peace through wall buildings is an expensive mirage for Israelis (its military) and Israel visitors alike.
GOOD NEWS
The good news is that every single weekend every week of the year at least one Israeli barrier wall or checkpoint in Israel or Palestine, both Israeli and Palestinian Peace activists are at work, letting the Press and media of Israel and the World know that Israel’s Wall technology is not putting the Holy Land on a road to peace—NO MATTER how many times the Israeli government writes the word PEACE on the Wall.
There have even been a number of Orthodox Jewish coalitions joining hand-in-hand with their Muslim Arab brothers to lead protests in recent weeks.
If you don’t believe me . . . , check out some of these links
http://www.nkusa.org/
http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/wall_articles.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1154221,00.html
http://religionandterror.com/category/israeli-palestinian-conflict/israels-separation-wall/
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article8940.shtml
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/19/human-rights-activists-protest-against-apartheid-wall-in-um-salamona/
In the meantime, December 28th is coming soon and we need to recall the murders and deaths of innocent children at Bethlehem as we seek to stop unnecessary deaths in the coming years and really work to build peace across faiths and nationalities in the Middle East—Israel first.
NOTES
“ . . . and then they fight you, then you win . . . “ , http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/%E2%80%A6then-they-fight-you-then-you-win%E2%80%A6/
“CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: ‘Holy Innocents’”, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07419a.htm
“Christmas Celebrated in Bethlehem”, http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/05A2C75F-6171-4D2B-B890-41AFA9D80D27.htm
“Easing Tensions Helps Tourism in Bethlehem”, http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071224/bethlehem_071224/20071224?hub=CTVNewsAt11
“Israel’s New Border Plans, North of Bethlehem”, http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=340
Netur Ei Karta, http://www.nkusa.org/
“Palestine-Israel, Joint Struggle against the Fence Expanded”, http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
“Rachel’s Tomb: Back in Business”, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43326
“A Thought for Humanity”, http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=4568
Traer, Bob “At Rachel’s Tomb”, http://www.eappi.org/eappi.nsf/index/rep-bt-05041108.html
By William B. Walker
I celebrated Jesus’ birthday by going to Bethlehem’s Manger Square and singing Christmas carols with visitors from Italy, the USA, Canada, and Palestine—We did this just after the finishing of the midnight mass in the Nativity Church, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had also been in attendance for the first time.
According to Al-Jazeera News, “A recent lull in violence and renewed Middle East peace talks have bolstered tourist and pilgrim numbers, with the Palestinian town in the West Bank enjoying its busiest Christmas since the second intifada began seven years ago . Despite the festive atmosphere, however, a heavy police deployment, the presence of Israel's massive separation wall and unease among Bethlehem's ever-shrinking Christian population served as reminders of the lingering tensions in the region.”
Al-Jazeera also noted that this recent seven-year period contrasts starkly with the 7 years just after the Oslo Peace Accords, which were signed in 1993. At that time many 1000s came each Christmas tide to Bethlehem for the first time.
This fairly disturbing trend in the lack of peace and security in Bethlehem and in other Israeli controlled Holy Land cities over these past 7 years has also coincided in a fairly great decline in the number of Jewish settlers arriving in Israel.
In short, on the face of it, the combined effects of the failed intifada of 2000 and the increase in the number of Israeli settlements (plus the somewhat obscene wall-building by Israel) over the last decade have made a mess out of what was once a blossoming peace process here in the Middle East.
NOTE: A pastor I know in Jerusalem has pointed out, too, that Israeli policies of the last two decades have also continued to sink the percentage of Christians living in either the West Bank or in Israel proper. That is, Christians in Israel are being forced by circumstances to migrate to safer climates or places where work and rights can be had more readily.
COMPARING TWO HOLY LANDS: ISRAEL vs. JORDAN
The disgraceful increase in violence in Israel over the past decade poses a sad contrast to its much poorer Holy Land neighbour, Jordan—another country which has also been active in the peace process since the 1990s.
THE JORDAN TIMES editorial, entitled “A Thought for Humanity”, in the 25th of December edition of the THE JORDAN TIMES indicates the degree of impatience Jordan and other neighbouring Holy Land states are having with both Israel’s and Hamas’ belligerent (i.e. round-the-wagons) approach to governance and failed peacemaking in this new Millennium.
The JT editorialist writes, “Here in Jordan, Christians live side by side with Muslims in complete harmony, proving that the two faiths are not, and need not, be in conflict with each other. There is no clash of civilisations, indeed of religions, in the Kingdom. Muslim and Christian Jordanians have always coexisted in peace, harmony and love, a model of tolerance and goodwill.”
The author continues, “True Islam, those who know it, like Christianity, preaches peace, love and compassion for fellow human beings, irrespective of their faith.”
Next, this editor laments, “Despite the message of love and peace spread by the monotheistic religions, it is sad to see that the birthplace of Jesus Christ is the farthest away from peace. The Holy Land, even Bethlehem where Jesus was born, is denied peace, living under occupation and enslavement. As long as the Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, are denied freedom, there can be no peace in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world.”
Besides asking that Christians, Muslims, and Jews work together more in this coming year to build peace, the editor also calls readers to take this Christmas period to pray for the Middle East.
Concluding his article, this unknown editor states, “We should also strive to live by the injunctions of the prophets, showing compassion and goodwill towards those in need, now and throughout the year. Merry Christmas!”
CROSSING OVER FROM JERUSALEM TO BETHLEHEM 2007
I, myself, observed the façade being placed around the Monster Walls built recently by the Israelis separating Palestinians who live on the “wrong side of the wall” to go through sometimes lengthy and humiliating checkpoints on a daily basis.
Amazingly, one of those check points is at a very famous pilgrimage destination. This checkpoint is not often open for use. The checkpoint is known in both Israel and in Palestine as the Tomb of Rachel, Abraham’s wife. (Abraham is the father of oth the Jewish and Muslim faiths.)
This location of Rachel’s Tomb is noted several times in the New Testament as the place where it had been prophesied already in Old Testament times that Rachel, the ancestor of King David and Jesus, would weep for the children of Bethlehem.
This weeping refers to the thousands of children slaughtered under King Herod’s orders near the time of Jesus’ birth in the town of Bethlehem. Some Catholic sources say that at least 14,000 boys under the age of two were killed in Bethlehem at that time.
By the way, every year on December 28th, the Catholic church recalls and commemorates the tragic slaughter of these children of Bethlehem two millennia ago. (Frustratingly, this December 28 event has the peculiarly sweet-sounding name of “Feast of the Holy Innocents”.)
In short, for any pilgrim going to Bethlehem a visit to Rachel’s tomb is historically a must-see! However, due to the fact that there is a behemoth wall and often-closed checkpoint at that location now under Israeli orders, few pilgrims in recent years have been able to pass by Rachel’s Tomb.
I was therefore happy to learn that this Christmas 2007 the crossing at Rachel’s Tomb would be open to both Palestinians and to Pilgrims crossing in either direction. However, when I arrived at the Israeli side of the 25 foot high double-wall, I was taken aback by the audacity of the Israeli government.
Painted on the Israeli side were large 18-inch high letters claiming that Israel wished humanity and the country “Peace”.
Everyone whom I have talked to in either Palestine or Israel about the writing about “peace” at the Wall entering Bethlehem find the statements almost obscene in the context with which Israel has proceeded with the building of walls and checkpoints over the past years and months.
Despite the checkpoint being open only a few Jews are allowed each year to visit the tombs and pray. This is the case even though both Muslims and Christians see it as a pilgrimage site for their faith.
BEYOND ISRAEL’S POTEMKIN FACADES
A “Potemkin Village” or “Potmekin Façade” is an old Russian term used to describe an illusion created by a government in order to portray life in a town or village as much-better-than-it-really is.
During my short tour of Israel, its checkpoints and barrier walls, I had the feeling that a lot of what was easily accessible was, in fact, a façade for short-term visitors to fall prey to. It is therefore of little wonder that perhaps after the construction of miles of barrier walls that the facades are finally having a positive effect on the tourist industry’s approach to Israel.
For example, although Jordan has experienced few bombings of any sort in recent years--in contrast to Israel--, travel agents and travel industry leaders have continued to spend more money advertising and promoting vacations to Israeli locations (including to Israel’s seaside resort of Eilat on the Read Sea) than has the industry been willing to spend on trips to Jordan.
In short, image is very important to Israel’s tourist industry success, and the barrier walls (and bantuization of life for Palestinians in the Occupied territories) are part of painting a seductive image for the Western tourist and for capturing the potential Jewish émigré.
It could well be that the recent rapprochement of Fatah, led by Palestinian President Abbas and the leaders of Israel are just a Potemkin Village for the TV cameras—not only this Christmas but for the U.S. elections in 2008.
One only has to look at the bizarre-looking maps of the Israeli-curled-Wall-fingers reaching deep into occupied Palestinian territory on the West Bank to see that no military planner would want to defend such atrociously ill-devised attempts to create a sense of peace and security via (1) simple propaganda, (2) image and neglect, and (3) cement wall construction.
The Israeli military is being asked to defend what is not really defendable for any length of time—that is, the military of Israel is being expected to simultaneously protect several hundred enclaves, any of which could cut off an illegal settlement on a moment’s notice if one of Israeli’s neighbors had a mind to support the destruction of entranceway.
This sort of Israeli security plan is not unlike Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program which went bust in the 1980s. In that expensive military boondoggle, the USA government sought to build a costly weapons system to defend the indefensible. It was a security dream of being able to intercept any attack on the USA before it could happen. The Reagan Star Wars project cost 35 billion dollars before it was shot down by the 1990s. (Otherwise, it would have likely busted the U.S. economy soon thereafter.)
In short, finding Permanent Peace through wall buildings is an expensive mirage for Israelis (its military) and Israel visitors alike.
GOOD NEWS
The good news is that every single weekend every week of the year at least one Israeli barrier wall or checkpoint in Israel or Palestine, both Israeli and Palestinian Peace activists are at work, letting the Press and media of Israel and the World know that Israel’s Wall technology is not putting the Holy Land on a road to peace—NO MATTER how many times the Israeli government writes the word PEACE on the Wall.
There have even been a number of Orthodox Jewish coalitions joining hand-in-hand with their Muslim Arab brothers to lead protests in recent weeks.
If you don’t believe me . . . , check out some of these links
http://www.nkusa.org/
http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/wall_articles.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1154221,00.html
http://religionandterror.com/category/israeli-palestinian-conflict/israels-separation-wall/
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article8940.shtml
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/19/human-rights-activists-protest-against-apartheid-wall-in-um-salamona/
In the meantime, December 28th is coming soon and we need to recall the murders and deaths of innocent children at Bethlehem as we seek to stop unnecessary deaths in the coming years and really work to build peace across faiths and nationalities in the Middle East—Israel first.
NOTES
“ . . . and then they fight you, then you win . . . “ , http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/%E2%80%A6then-they-fight-you-then-you-win%E2%80%A6/
“CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: ‘Holy Innocents’”, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07419a.htm
“Christmas Celebrated in Bethlehem”, http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/05A2C75F-6171-4D2B-B890-41AFA9D80D27.htm
“Easing Tensions Helps Tourism in Bethlehem”, http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071224/bethlehem_071224/20071224?hub=CTVNewsAt11
“Israel’s New Border Plans, North of Bethlehem”, http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=340
Netur Ei Karta, http://www.nkusa.org/
“Palestine-Israel, Joint Struggle against the Fence Expanded”, http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
“Rachel’s Tomb: Back in Business”, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43326
“A Thought for Humanity”, http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=4568
Traer, Bob “At Rachel’s Tomb”, http://www.eappi.org/eappi.nsf/index/rep-bt-05041108.html
Labels: bethlehem "barrier wall" protest Israel Palestine Jordan peace justice
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 10:33 PM
1 Comments:
It’s good to see that inspite of all the turbulence Israel is still a favorite holiday destination for many. Hope the violence come to an end with peace.
Post a Comment
<< Home