Bethlehem Bound

“The wall that is surrounding us in Palestine is growing every day into a tighter concrete noose around our cities, towns, homes and churches. In the face of oppression and violence,
we are called to be prophets for justice, instruments of peace, voices of hope,
and hands of healing and reconciliation.”

Rev. Dr. Munib Younan, Lutheran Bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land

I am very excited to learn that I will serve in Bethlehem, the place Jesus was born, the place where the word became flesh. I am going to Bethlehem, house of bread. For most western people, this is the pre-eminent Christian city. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the fourth century AD, it replaced the temple of Adonis on the site of the cave where Jesus is said to have been born with a Christian church. Today the Church of the Nativity now marks the site. I am looking forward, like all Christian pilgrims, to visiting this holy site. The Armenian, Catholic Franciscan and Greek Orthodox churches care for the Church. Here is a photo of the exact place the miraculous birth is said to have taken place. Beit Lehem is also the city David was from and the place where he was crowned King of Israel.

I am Bethlehem bound but if I were the holy family or the three kings I probably wouldn’t be able to enter this city of bread. Only those who are not Arab or Palestinian can enter and move about freely.

This sacred city also hosts another sacred site holy to all three religions. It is Rachel’s tomb. Her tomb has been around since the Genesis 35 and many different groups have cared for her tomb. The people of Bethlehem have always regarded Mother Rachel as one of their ancestors. Many years ago the Muslim Palestinians covered the tomb with a mosque and brought their dead to be buried in a cemetery near her. In fact, inside the tomb itself is still a small room, a niche called a milrab where Muslims used to come and pray. Christians too used to come and pray to mother Rachel. The Jewish tradition has it that Rachel weeps for her children and that when the Jews were taken into exile, she wept as they passed by her grave on their way to Babylon (Jeremiah 31:11-16. Many believe that she answered their prayers by bringing them back home to Israel. However since 1967 both Christians and Muslims have been unwelcome and the tomb is now cut off by a large separation barrier.

I wonder who are Rachel’s children today? Who is she weeping for? Israeli citizens worried about their security about genocide happening again, about being forced into exile again? Marginalized Christian Palestinians fleeing the city of their Savior’s birth because they can’t live or work in their homeland? Or are they the Muslim Palestinians who have been exiled from their homes since 1948 and forced to live in refugee camps? Or are they people whose homes were destroyed to make room for more walls or new settlements? Or is she weeping for the trees cut down or rotting fruit from farmers unable to bring in their harvest? Can we still hear her cries or have we gone deaf to the multiply ways we exile ourselves from God and each other?

Bethlehem, city of bread, is a 3,400 year old Arab city and it is only 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem (47 miles from Amman, Jordan). Bethlehem is part of the West Bank (of the Jordan River)and thus, since 1995, is it is governed by the Palestinian Authority. it includes the town of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour and the refugee camps of Aida and Azza. It has a Muslim majority but home to one of the largest Palestinian Christian communities. In 2006 it’s district population was around 175,000; this included 14,000 Palestinians who live in the refugee camps established in 1948 when Palestine was divided up by the United Nations and when Israel was established.

In 1967, it was occupied by Israeli military forces along with the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The city has remained under occupation now for 44 years. Like other Palestinian towns it has a huge concrete wall surrounding it. It has been built on Palestinian land and thus has been condemned by the International Court of Justice and many other religious, political and human rights organizations. In addition to cutting the Palestinians off from their olive farms and forests, the wall cuts them off economically from being able to cultivate their crops, to travel freely to work or visit with their families. Outside the wall there are also three illegal Jewish settlements that have been built on Palestinian land. Like their Muslim sisters and brothers, many Palestinian Christians have also been affected by these oppressive forces. Since 2000 Bethlehem has lost 10% of its Christian population.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem how still we see you lie…yet in your dark streets shines forth the everlasting light” seems far removed from the reality I am about to enter. Yet I am reminded that after the season of Christmas is Epiphany, the manifestation of the light. I am keenly aware that though I am being sent, I am not the one bringing the light but rather joining mine with the lights of peace and justice already burning.

As I go forth, I invite you to link to the trailer to the film, Little Town of Bethlehem to discover the humanity and force of nonviolence also alive on these dark streets. Follow “Sami, Ahmad, Yonatan who come from radically different backgrounds in a land of unending war. Yet, against all odds, including some within their Israeli and Palestinian communities, are able to find common ground. They walk a path of nonviolence struggle in lockstep with Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. For them courage is found not in taking up arms, but setting them down once and for all and extending a hand in peace.”

Little Town of Bethlehem Film


Official Film Trailer.webloc