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Dear Friends of the International
Center of Bethlehem,
Greetings from Bethlehem. The staff, volunteers and myself are sending you
a message from Bethlehem, thanking you for writing, telephoning and keeping us in your
thoughts and prayers during these difficult times. The events of the last two weeks with
the increasing use of violence, is causing us a great deal of worry for our community. On
October 12 th, the situation took a sharp turn of events, when Israel
bombarded the main centers of the Palestinian National Authority in Gaza City, Ramallah
and Jericho. For the past two weeks, the Palestinian Autonomous areas, which makes up 3%
of the land area of the West Bank is totally closed off. Our freedom of movement in
Bethlehem is limited to a two-kilometer radius. Our guiding course has been interrupted
due to the siege, where students have not been able to come to class. Yesterday, Mitri and
Rana (The General Director and the Deputy Director of the Center) were prohibited from
traveling to Austria, where they were supposed to take part in an international
conference. For the past two weeks many forms of communication has been cut off, such as
the post and some telephone lines. Last week the electrical generator in Bethlehem was
bombed, causing Bethlehem to be in darkness for several hours. In this situation, more and
more people are thinking of emigration especially among Christian Palestinians. We are
very concerned that if the situation is to continue for a while Palestine will lose it's
living stones.
As the International Center of Bethlehem, whose work revolves around the
local community, we are mainly worried about the young children, who constitute up to 60%
of our population. They are traumatized by the experience and are constantly worried for
their safety and that of their parents. The image of Muhammad, the 12 year-old boy who was
killed execution style by the Israeli soldiers, is haunting both Palestinian children and
parents, who watched the helplessness of Muhammad's father and his inability to protect
his son from Israeli bullets, that killed the son and left the father permanently
paralyzed. A few nights ago Israeli settlers attacked the home of our Dar al-Kalima
Project contractor. He told us of the 100 bullets that were shot into his home and of the
scene that he will never forget in his whole life, when his children knelt on the floor
asking God to spare their lives. These traumatized children, for whom this terrible
experience will be hard to forget, need healing of the soul to become carefree. Therefore,
our Dar al-Kalima School has decided to start a counseling program for both students and
parents in order to help them better deal with these traumas. Under these circumstances we
are more and more convinced that Music and Art are important healing mediums for our
society.
If it was not for you, it would be easy in the midst of all our sorrow and
pain to feel that we are being forgotten by the world community, especially when we listen
to the CNN coverage of the events in Palestine or when we hear Madeline Albright stressing
only the issue of the Israeli soldiers and forgetting the case of the more than 100
Palestinians dead and over 3750 injured.
At a time when everybody in losing hope in this region, we at the
International Center of Bethlehem believe that now is the time for healing and
constructive actions. It is our deep belief that in a time when all are losing hope we
need to hold on to the hope of resurrection especially in these dark days of death.
We thank God for all the friends who have been continuously calling us and
sending us messages of support. It gives us hope to know that while we are silenced, there
are those who are articulating our voice. We would like to take this opportunity to ask
you to continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers and to continue your struggle for
a just peace for all God's children in this region.
Thank you for your concern.
Director and staff of the International Center of Bethlehem
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