O Little Town of Bethlehem

At this time of year when faithful Christians remember a town in the Holy Land where the Gospel writers place the birth of Jesus and celebrate God's presence with humanity, it might be well to also remember the real Palestinian city that exists today on the occupied West Bank. A recent two country survey revealed large gaps between the perceptions of most Americans and the reality on the ground. Almost sixty percent of Americans believe that Bethlehem is in Israel and that its population is Israeli rather than the reality that Bethlehem is on the occupied West Bank and is populated by Arabs, a mix of Christians and Muslims. (to see the entire poll results, click here) As I struggled to write something appropriate at this time of year about the situation in Bethlehem, I was saved by a friend in Colorado who wrote the following column for the local paper:

Rich Mayfield wrote:

Although I’m no longer in the business, I still find myself planning the Christmas Eve worship service for an imaginary congregation. Christmas Eve is particularly vexing for pastors, priests and other worship planners as they seek to somehow extrapolate the church’s ancient message from its current commercialized morass. Trying to tell the tale of a displaced couple living in an occupied territory, temporarily homeless, decidedly pregnant and totally dependent on the kindness of strangers is a challenge on the best of days. Any preacher prepared to proclaim the social injustices inherent in this story, mythological or not, should also be ready for the antipathetic aftershocks from their tradition-demanding congregation. Sentimentality is synonymous with this time and woe to the man or woman who points to the corollaries between the unjust then and the unjust now.

Several years ago, during a December Sunday worship service, a young man, nicely dressed and of a swarthy complexion, asked if he could address the congregation. Control freak that I am, I found myself caught between the poles of self-proclaimed hospitality and self-protecting jurisdiction. Acquiescing toward the former, I pretended to be at ease and invited the gentleman forward.

He quietly introduced himself as a Palestinian from the town of Bethlehem traveling through the United States and then he said, “I bring you sad tidings of great sorrow…” He went on to describe the current conditions in his hometown; the lack of jobs and its accompanying poverty, the despair in the hearts of many and the growing violence among the young. He portrayed a less than “little town” that was anything but a place for “deep and dreamless” sleeping. Random rocket fire, illegal search and seizures, the destruction of ancient family homes, made Bethlehem a place with little hope and lots of fears.

That was three years ago. Life in Bethlehem has only grown worse, unimaginably, much worse. In a news release this week, the mayor of Bethlehem, Dr. Victor Batarseh, described the current situation: “(There is) a rise in the rate of unemployment, reaching 65 percent and all are living under the poverty line as a result. Thousands of students can no longer reach their schools as the Wall and settlement roads prohibit them, and more still cannot reach Bethlehem University in the heart of Bethlehem. Hospitals are now unreachable for many in the District as they are trapped in the ghettos that checkpoints, the Wall and its gate system have created. The Mayor joked bitterly that "Santa Claus will not make it to Bethlehem this year." The 50,000 dollars approved by the Palestinian government for Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, for decorations and beautification, has not yet reached the city, despite being told that the funds had been deposited into the municipality's bank account.”

Anyone remotely familiar with the current condition of Bethlehem will find the singing of sentimentalized accounts of Jesus’ birth amidst a setting of angelic harmony and goodwill for all difficult if not impossible to intone. This year especially, Christians should hearken back to the warning of an ancient prophet, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, “Peace, peace, when there is not peace.”

I once hosted, for just a day, a Lutheran pastor from Bethlehem. He was a Palestinian who had beaten the odds against his countrymen by earning a Ph.D. from a prestigious university. He was a brilliant scholar who could be teaching in any number of academic settings. Instead he chose to return to the place of his birth, the traditional place of Jesus’ birth, where he has fought the overwhelming odds and managed not only to ply his pastoral trade in a vibrant congregation but has built a school for Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, formed an institute for cultural understanding, a college for higher education, a wellness center and more. (www.mitriraheb.org)

We spent our time discussing the deep theological issues as well as our own personal ones. We commiserated over the similar problems we shared as parish pastors, laughing over some and soberly nodding over others. I was deeply impressed by his commitment both to providing opportunities for his people and seeking peace for the world. When the day was over, he got on a plane to Palestine and I drove back up to my home in the tranquil and beautiful mountains. On occasion, I hear of his activities back in his hometown. He’s been harassed and hassled by the authorities. His office and home have been occupied and vandalized. His work has been interrupted by official sanctions and unofficial threats. This is life in Bethlehem these days.

I wonder what hymns he will choose for his congregation to sing tomorrow night?

As we pray for "peace on earth good will toward men" (and women), it might be appropriate to also pray for the real Bethlehem as well as the Bethlehem of legend.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Proxy War II or how to create a civil war

For the past several months there has been an ongoing debate in Washington as to whether or not there is a civil war in Iraq. The violent struggle for power between various factions in Iraq probably meets the dictionary definition of “war between geographic or political factions of the same country”. Since we were so successful in creating a civil war in Iraq, it seems that we have turned our attentions elsewhere. This summer in our proxy war with Iran in Lebanon we succeeded in creating conditions for a civil war there. Two for two; lets try for a hat trick in the Palestinian territories. We can have another proxy war with Iran and in the process create a civil war between Hamas and Fatah. Since Hamas won the parliamentary elections earlier this year, US policy has been to isolate the elected government of Hamas and support President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party. Political support for Fatah from the west did not succeed in driving Hamas from the government so we are upping the ante. The Bush administration has recently asked Congress for tens of millions of dollars to provide arms to the Fatah security forces/militias in the growing conflict with Hamas security forces. (This seems a little odd since it has been the armed wings of Fatah who have carried out the attacks on Israel in the past year) At the same time Iran has committed to support the Hamas militias. (Proxy War II – In this case only Palestinians get to die.) We are also working with Jordan to bring the Badr Brigade from Jordan to the Palestinian territories. The Badr Brigade is a Jordanian trained army affiliated with Fatah and its return would shift the balance of power in favor of Fatah. The conditions are certainly right in Gaza for a Palestinian civil war. Amira Haas, a Haaretz correspondent who is a daughter of Holocaust survivors and the only Jewish Israeli journalist to live in the Palestinian Territories, recently wrote these troubling words. “The experiment was a success: The Palestinians are killing each other. They are behaving as expected at the end of the extended experiment called ‘what happens when you imprison 1.3 million human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens.’” (To see then entire article click here)

Ignoring advice

Three years ago after a trip to Jordan to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity International, I was touring the sights of Jordan with a guide who had attended college in Baghdad during the regime of Sadaam Hussein. Sami and I were discussing the Iraq war and its impact. This was a time when almost everybody, including myself, felt that we were making progress toward a democratic Iraqi state that would be a positive force for a more peaceful Middle East. Sami’s reaction was that Sadaam Hussein was a really bad guy and the Middle East was better off without him, but the Iraqis should have done it themselves. He said “you guys have no idea what you are getting into. There are 1300 different ethnic, sectarian, tribal and political groups in Iraq. Without a really strong leader there isn’t a country there.” How prescient he was. The concept of a “nation state” is very much a western concept. In the Middle East people relate much more to the umma (the Muslim community) and to their tribe. When Gertrude Bell drew the lines in the Middle East after WW I, she not only brought the western idea of a nation state and the political and imperialist expectations of the victors to the process, but also a very British penchant for straight lines. Although she understood the area better than almost anybody else, she ended up with Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Sunni, Shia, Christians, Druze etc. scattered among the countries of the region. It makes the Balkans look like a unified society. The Iraq Study Group seemed to implicitly recognize this reality by inserting this caveat after they opposed devolution of Iraq into three regions – “…if events were to move irreversibly in this direction (i.e. devolution), the United States should manage the situation to ameliorate humanitarian consequences, contain the spread of violence and minimize regional instability.” In the recent election the American people expressed strongly that they weren’t satisfied with our policy in Iraq. Since satisfaction is the difference between expectations and reality, George Bush seems to have decided that it is better to improve satisfaction by lowering expectations than by changing the reality. We have come down from defining success as a “free and democratic Iraq that is an ally in the ‘war on terror’ and model for the ‘new Middle East’” to an Iraq that “can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself”. The Iraq Study Group has made a number of suggestions about how to improve the reality on the ground, but George Bush appears to be about to ignore most of them. He would not be the first recent President to ignore the recommendations of bi-partisan study group designed to give him political cover for difficult decisions. In 1998 President Clinton appointed a bi-partisan commission headed by moderate Louisiana Senator John Breaux to recommend changes necessary to prevent the bankruptcy of the Medicare program. When the commission issued its report, he proceeded to ignore the whole thing. I’ll grant that Bill Clinton was a little preoccupied with Monica at the time, but he might have done something with it. Even though George Bush doesn’t appear to have an intern problem, he is probably going cherry pick a few recommendations and call it good and end up “staying course”. Since he doesn’t have to check this out with the American people at the ballot box, he is likely to show his usual stubbornness. His Republican supporters who do have to run again may start heading for the exits. Meanwhile, while the politicians dither, America’s sons and daughters are still dying to try and create a reality that may not exist.

Crossing over

A year ago Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice announced with much fanfare the negotiation of an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the Israel government regarding the operation of border crossings between Gaza, Israel and Egypt. The agreement was designed to allow commerce between Gaza and its neighbors while addressing Israeli security concerns. Surprisingly the UN has gone back and looked to see what has actually happened in the past year. Here are their conclusions:
AMA Provisions/Progress

1. Rafah will operate as soon as it is ready to operate at an international standard with a target date of 25 November 2005. - The crossing opened on 25 November and operated almost daily in the presence of international observers until 25 June. Since this time it has been closed by the Israeli authorities on 86% of days due to security reasons.

2. Rafah will also be used for the export of goods. - Rafah has not opened for the export of goods.

3 The passages will operate continuously and … the number of export trucks per day processed though Karni will reach … 400 by the end of 2006. - Karni crossing operations improved during the first two months of the AMA but since 15 January Karni has opened erratically, negatively impacting the import of humanitarian aid and commercial trade. The number of exported trucks have averaged 12 per day in 2006.

4 Israel will permit the export of all agricultural products from Gaza during the 2005 harvest season… Israel will ensure the continued opportunity to export - Less than 4% of the harvest was exported. In relation to the operation of other crossing points: (1) No progress has been made towards opening Kerem Shalom crossing for commercial traffic as the PA object to its use as it is wholly located in Israel; and (2) Work on the Erez commercial crossing is due to be completed at the end of 2006 although operating procedures have not been discussed.

5. Israel will allow the passage of convoys to facilitate the movements of goods and persons between Gaza and the West Bank. - These have not been permitted by Israeli authorities and no talks have been initiated on this subject between the GoI and PA as required under the AMA.

6. Consistent with security needs Israel will facilitate the movement of people and goods within the West Bank and minimize disruption to Palestinian lives. - The number of physical obstacles to movement has increased by 44%; in the West Bank. Further restrictions to movement have been imposed on individuals through the extension of the permit system.

7. Gaza seaport construction can start. The GoI will undertake to assure donors that it will not interfere with the operation of the port.- The GoI has not given assurances to donors and no work has started on the construction of the seaport.

8. Discussions will continue on the issues of security arrangements, construction and operation of an airport in the Gaza Strip.- Discussions ceased

(To see the entire report click here)
It is easy to sit in the comfort of your office in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Washington DC or Hailey, Idaho and say “this is terrible” or “this is a result of security concerns”. It is harder to have a detached viewpoint when you are sitting at the Rafah crossing waiting with your 2 year old to enter Gaza. Laila al Haddad, a Harvard educated, Palestinian from Gaza, who currently lives in North Carolina, writes this in her blog about her time at the Rafah checkpoint. (Her Al Jazeera article on this is here)

what do I tell a two-year-old?

He keeps asking me about the border. Yousuf, I mean. He overhears things, ma3bar this and ma3bar that…and so naturally inquisitive, he asks what we are doing and why are we still here and each question if followed by another and another..
“Mama can I ask you something?”
“Anything, my love”
“Why are we still here, in Arish?”
“Because we are waiting to enter Gaza, dear”
“But then why don’t we go to Gaza?
Because the ma3bar is closed, my love.
“Why is it still closed??”
[silence]
“Mommy why is still closed?”
“I don’t know.” I know my, dear, but do you really want to know? Do you really need to know?
“Well who’s closing it mommy?”
What do I tell him? “Some bad people.”
“You mean like in the stories, like Sheer Khan in the Jungle Book?”
“Yes, sure, like Sheer Khan.”
“But who are they? Who are these bad people? Is it the yahood?” He asks, mimicking what he’s heard on the border.
What do I say? I hesitate. “Look, there are some people; some are good, some are bad. And the bad ones are closing the border.
"But why? What did we do?
I wish I knew, my dear. I wish I had all the answers, my love, so I could answer all your questions. I wish I didn’t have to answer such questions to start with. But now I do, and what can I say to you?
“Mommy, please tell them to open it.”
“I tried, my dear.”
“Try harder. Try again. Tell them again. Please, tell them ‘Yousuf wants to enter Gaza’.”And so it goes:

Dear Mr. Peretz: My son Yousuf, 2 years and 9 months, would like me to inform you that he wants
to enter Gaza. He has asked me to tell whoever it is who is keeping it closed to open the border for him immediately. In fact, he asks me everyday. And now, asking is no long sufficient: he wants answers, too. Why is the border still closed? And who is keeping it closed and why? So, in addition to asking you to open the border, I am also writing to ask you what I can tell a 2 year old to satisfy his insatiable curiosity. What can I tell him of borders and occupation and oppression and collective punishment? What would YOU tell him? Lying doesn’t work-2 year olds are like natural born lie detectors. And so he figures it’s the bad guy-like in the stories that we all read growing up. And now, he demands to know who the bad guy is. What do I tell a 2 year old, Mr. Peretz, about the bad guy who won’t let him return home?

A Palestinian mother

(To see her blog site click here)
Maybe George Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Omert, and PA Prime Minister Ishmail Haniya and all of us should go to Rafah and explain it Yousef.

Israel
Palestine
Gaza