Christmas in Bethlehem 2003-A Gift?
December 15, 2003
By Frank Wright
BETHLEHEM-As the Christmas season approached, the congregation of about 50 worshippers at the Lutheran church rose to sing “Faith of our Fathers.”
As one of those 50, I could not help but think that Palestinians of all religious beliefs will need all the faith they can muster as they look ahead. The past year has been one of their most difficult, and the future is dim. As resilient as they are-and Palestinians remain very resilient despite 36 years of Israeli military occupation-it is easy to lose hope.
I also could not help but think that I, as a United States taxpayer, am at
least indirectly part of the Palestinians’ problem.
Their economy is shot. More than 60 percent of the people in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip live under the poverty line, surviving on less than $2 a day. Eighty
percent of households report needing assistance. Only half of those get it,
either food or small amounts of cash from friends, family, private humanitarian
organizations or, in a relatively few cases, their own government. Reliable
unemployment figures are hard to come by, but as much as 65 percent of the labor
force may be out of work.
While walking the streets of Bethlehem’s central commercial district, it is hard to tell whether the city of Christ’s birth-a symbol of hope and renewal to many around the world at this time of year--is half-alive or half dead. The city depends heavily on tourism, but the tourists are not here, scared away by the continuing violence of the occupation. Manger Square’s souvenir shops and restaurants, traditionally bustling in December, are vacant or closed. So are most of the hotels.
At the moment, the level of violence is down. The city was under enforced closure when my wife and I arrived as volunteers at the International Center of Bethlehem. Two Israeli soldiers had been shot and killed by a Palestinian. We took back roads to get into town. But since then we have seen no Israeli battle tanks in the streets, no US-made F16s and no US-made attack helicopters overhead. The city has been quiet.
Even so, the ever-present occupation continues to grind Palestinians every hour of every day. The people cannot go to Israel to work anymore, losing more than 100,000 jobs that were the spine of their economy. Because of the Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza, they cannot move about freely on their own land. A November United Nations study found 757 such barriers.
Early in our stay here, a Palestinian media workshop was delayed and eventually lightly-attended because several journalists from other cities gave up after being blocked by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. Just one example of how ordinary travel to reach fields, jobs, doctors, schools and markets is regularly stymied.
The mood in Bethlehem is one of festering resentment and anger, tempered by resignation. A recent editorial in The Jerusalem Times, a Palestinian weekly, said a new Israeli intelligence report warning that desperation among Palestinians was “very high” was no surprise. Why should it be, as the editorial said, given “the daily humiliation and insults people of all ages and sexes receive at these checkpoints, not considering the beating and sometimes cold blooded murder, (that) have contributed to the high level of frustration and desperation. Today Palestinians have nothing to look forward to….” And, as everyone knows and the editorial warned, violence can erupt at any time.
In addition to the “normal” weight of the occupation, the Palestinians now are confronted with Israel’s new Segregation Wall in the West Bank. It encircles them like a great snake, expropriating thousands of dunnums of Palestinian land and isolating thousands of Palestinians in a no-man’s sector between the Wall and Israel proper. The barrier and its impact will push peace even farther into the distance.
Another American, Br. Cyrill Litecky, who has been here almost 20 years, confirms that pessimistic assessment. During an afternoon conversation in his campus office, the assistant to the president of Bethlehem University said, “Things have changed for the worse” in the last year. The economic depression and the restrictions on movement are “choking the Palestinians.” The Israelis “have no respect for Palestinian rights.” He expressed no sympathy for Palestinian suicide bombers but said, ”If you oppress people like the Israelis do, you have to expect people to rise up on their own behalf. Is that terrorism?”
As for the Wall, he said, “It will not provide the security the Israelis want, and it will be devastating to the Palestinians.”
As I said, I contribute to this inhumanity as a US taxpayer; it is embarrassing and frustrating. My taxes help to finance the approximately $3 billion in foreign aid that my country routinely gives-not loans-to Israel every year. The amount was part of the peace deal reached at Camp David in 1979 by US President Jimmy Carter, Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. The money has flowed without interruption ever since. About $2 billion goes for advanced weaponry, the rest for economic development.
The US money relieves pressure on the Israelis’ national budget, allowing
them to spend more on controlling the Palestinians.
The $3 billion is the largest amount the United States provides to any nation.
It is a testament to the political effectiveness of the pro-Israel lobby, which
consists largely of elements of the US Jewish community and right-wing
fundamentalist Christians.
I belong to a small group of Christians, Jews and Palestinians who press the 10 members of the congressional delegation from our state, Minnesota, to change US policy toward the Middle East, including reducing or eliminating the aid to Israel. It is discouraging work. With little or no exception, as do most members of Congress, the 10 vote down the line for Israel. But we keep at it.
Like most Americans, Congress and US presidents have bought the Israeli line that the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East is Palestinian violence, especially the suicide bombers. The fact that the Israelis are doing most of the killing and the Palestinians most of the dying, by a margin of almost 3 to 1 despite the high-profile suicide attacks, gets little public or media attention in the States.
The Israelis and their US allies have effectively diverted attention from the real problem, namely the occupation; now in its 36th year, it is the longest military occupation of one people by another in the world today.
It is as if the Israelis have convinced themselves and their US supporters that they have the unchallengeable right to be in control here, that the Palestinians have no rights and that the Palestinians must earn their freedom through unbroken, docile subservience-if they are to win freedom at all.
Unfortunately, beyond the question of the occupation, there is more. Even a visitor does not have to scratch deeply to discover yet another issue that weighs heavily on many Palestinians--their widespread disenchantment with their own government, the Palestinian Authority.
President Yasser Arafat and his administration still are widely regarded as “outsiders” who stood safely on the sidelines in North Africa while the “insiders,” the residents of the Occupied Territories, sparked and led the first intifada in the late 1980s and suffered the Israeli retaliation. Arafat’s popularity among Palestinians seems to spike upward only when the Israelis threaten him with expulsion or assassination. Otherwise, he and his government are considered corrupt, abusive and incompetent, overloaded with cronies unable or unwilling to deliver necessary services, let alone deliver peace with justice.
All in all, a bad scene for the Palestinian people, who deserve better from their occupiers, the United States and their own leadership.
The theme of that Lutheran hymn, “Faith of Our Fathers,” is that if you
remain steadfast in your belief in God, all will be well.
May the Palestinians keep their faith, Christian, Islamic or other. On many days
faith seems to be all that is available to them.
And a Merry Christmas to you, too.