Belated post: Bethlehem on Christmas Eve

It has been a substantial amount of time since my last update, mostly because I spent a couple hours on the Christmas Eve/ Bethlehem trip, complete with pictures, links and some deep social and political commentary... only to have the spotty and overpriced internet service fail just as I was publishing the blog, and it was wiped clean.

Thant being said, here is a much less robust version of it:

We started the trip early and stopped at Rachel's Tomb. The photo to the left is the Separation Wall (also referred to as the Security Fence, the Apartheid Wall, and simply the Wall, depending on your political stripe) and the entrance to Rachel's Tomb. This area is a little difficult to get in and out of, as you cannot walk on foot, and must take a bus (that comes every hour) or hitch a ride back to the main road. We were offered a ride by a very nice woman who spoke no English...but we made it work!

Soon after Rachel's Tomb, we crossed the checkpoint into Bethlehem. Below is a photo of my friends walking through the corridor. There are always a gaggle of taxi drivers waiting to whisk you into town, but we wanted to stop at the Banksy store so we walked.

While Banksy does not have an official store, locals have attempted to make money off of visiting tourists by photographing and replicating his famous works on various portions of The Wall. There are also many political art pieces from local artists.

There are testimonies from Palestinians on the white signs, talking about how they have been cut off from their lands, or longing to return to places they are now forbidden to visit without permits.

One of my favorites

This one represents the three wise men attempting to enter Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus and being stopped by the Wall.

There are several works that highlight the difficulties and collective trauma Palestinians have gone through in losing access to their agricultural lands and difficulty in traveling due to the wall and the checkpoints. On a tour with the architect of the Wall, I was moved almost to tears when he started wistfully at its great height and said softly "but I made it so that when peace finally comes, we can take it down as fast as we put it up. Most people don't know that. But I made it like that." He then smiled and said that there would be no sledgehammers fir his wall, that the cranes would come and move each piece away by hooking into the holes at the tip and simply lifting them out.  His smile at the thought of his great work being dismantled because it was no longer needed was broad and full of hope.

On the far left, we are buying Palestinian craft beer and drinking homemade wine that the owner, Adam had made for Christmas. The reports of numbers vary but in 1995 before the PA took control of Bethlehem there were about 20,000 Christians living in the city, and that number has now been reduced to roughly 7,000.
The man running the Banksy store asked us to place a pin where we were from. I was the first for St Pete, FL.

The center photo is the huge Christmas tree in Manger Square, right next to the Church of the Holy Nativity. Behind it, wreathed in green light, is the mosque. While sitting at a cafe, the Christmas carols blasting across the square paused for the beautiful call to prayer. We were able to visit the Manger in the basement of the church, and while there a choral group visiting as part of the over 2,000 pilgrims that come every year broke into Silent Night.  

A panorama from the Peace Hostel's balcony

THE BEST FOOD... Afteem. I can't not eat there when in Bethlehem.

The parade route was packed with people, as was the square. That is the Church of the Nativity behind the tree. 

The Resistance tree was an uprooted olive tree that had come from an area the IDF was clearing to build more of the wall. It was decorated with tear gas canisters, a nativity scene, a bit of cardboard designed to look like the Wall...and pictures of the martyrs for the Palestinian cause. This is where it gets tricky. These martyrs are individuals that are stabbing innocent Israeli civilians in the streets. The young boy pictured is a 13 year old that tried to kill another 13 year old. People say "Israeli settlers should not be on Palestinian lands" and I can agree with that.

What I cannot agree with is stabbing innocent people to get your political point across. I can not understand the PA paying the families of these Martyrs. I cannot understand glorifying murderers. When I talk to people about nonviolent resistance, and in the same breath they refer to the martyrs for their cause, they lose legitimacy in my eyes. I disagree with Israeli policy, but murder is not the way to bring attention to your caurse. If anything, it delegitimizes the struggle, and allows people to say "see? this is why we built the wall."

Settlements are a huge problem, but this is not an acceptable way to stop them, in fact it just makes hardliners want to build more.

So I know this is a bit of a heavy post. Granted it's much less robust than the original, but at least I got it up! (In February...)

It was an amazing experience to be in this city on Christmas Eve, and such a wonderful experience to meet new friends. People often ask me if any of my opinions have changed since living here, and I must admit that the only things that have changed are my understanding of the layers of complications standing in the way of peace. That in itself is a whole other blog, so stand by.