Sunrise over
Bethlehem
We woke early, no
doubt in part because of jet lag. I could tell daylight was breaking and so
pulled open the drapes. I was delighted to see a most auspicious sunrise over the
Jordanian hills to the east, far beyond the nearer Jewish hilltop settlements;
it was 5:30 AM. We could now see that our small Eastern-facing balcony also had
nice-filled flowerpots along its perimeter. We noted that our Indian neighbors
whom we had met yesterday were drying clothes over the chairs on their balcony.
It does not take
long to learn how to identify the Jewish settlements. From a distance you can
see their two and three-story white stone row housing with red tiled roofs.
There will be other structures such as schools, recreation centers and synagogues
visible. When one comes closer, as we did on occasion, even driving through
Jewish areas, one is struck by the differences pointed out. The streets are
clean, there are sidewalks and there is greenery everywhere. On the other hand,
the Palestinian built up areas are a jumble of all kinds of buildings topped
off with mostly black water storage tanks, with poor streets, often absent
sidewalks, poor sewage, garbage strewn about and very little greenery.
Church of the Nativity
Our
local tour guide for today was Fahdi, whose name evidently means Redeemer in
Arabic.
He
told us that Bethlehem had a population of roughly 40,000, of whom 30% now were
Christian. Apparently the church we visited here had been a mosque as recently as
1955. An old part of the structure contained a sixth century gate adjacent to a
normal gate made by the Syrian Orthodox Church. Evidently this gate had been
made very small as a gesture on the part of the church to keep the Muslim sultan
at the time humble in the presence of our Lord. Otherwise, the Muslims had been
guilty of trying to show their power by doing such things as desecrating the
structure by keeping their horses and camels in it. The small gate had been
created with the vow on the part of its creator that "I will make the
Sultan bow." Individuals could enter through the short doorway, but not
their animals.
In
terms of the more modern structure, our guide pointed out how the King of
England had given 1500 planks of cedar from Lebanon to make the roof. However,
three years ago this had begun to leak, resulting in a massive costly
renovation which was now going on, funded by UNESCO, the US and Italy.
Therefore, much of the structure of the church was inaccessible to us,
including a good view walls and of the ceiling from inside. When we made made our way forward and off to the small chapel that supposedly marks the spot of Jesus' birth we had to wait while another tour group completed their visit. It was not unpleasant
Like
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, this church has served a number of
denominations. There were currently six masses a day held in it, two for the
Roman Catholics. These take place in their own sanctuary on the side, which was
built in 1881. The main sanctuary is shared by the Greek Orthodox and Syrian
Church, who evidently take part of half of it each. This multi-party system was
evidently established in 1854. This all results in three Christmas celebrations
every year as the Roman Catholics have theirs according to the Gregorian
calendar, the Greek Orthodox following the Justinian calendar with Christmas on
January 19, and the Armenian and Assyrian churches even later. The Syrians and
Coptic's are allowed to celebrate on January 6 in the Armenian wing of the
church. There is also an Armenian monastery to one side of the sanctuary. Originally,
these foreign churches had to pay the Sultan to maintain rights to worship here
and have buildings. Subsequently, this has been required by Jordan and now
Israel.
The
original church on this site was evidently built in AD 326 by Emperor
Constantine's mother. At the time, the floor had been covered in an elaborate
mosaic. This had been buried in the rubble when Samaritans had set fire to the
church centuries ago and had not been rediscovered until after an earthquake in
1937. Now certain stretches of it are visible through large protected openings
in the floor, showing still the original color. There are also mosaics on the
wall from the 12th century. The whole structure is evidently supported by 40
pillars. What remains of the original structure evidently represents the oldest
standing church building in the world.
Below
the church and to the side is the cavernous location where St. Jerome allegedly
spent 30 years, with three assistants, two, Paula & Estokum, being female,
translating the Bible for the first time from the Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew to
the then predominant language of Latin. The male was more honored eventually as
St. Eusebius. This version of the Bible came to be known as The Vulgate. Jerome
had done all of this without any state support.
He
had come here as a pilgrim in AD 384 after his birth in 347. He remained here
until his death in 420. His skeleton, the shroud in which it was wrapped, and
even apparently relics of the manger, were taken from his catacomb to Rome by
the crusaders.
He
had also spent over 30 years working on establishing many of the liturgical
rites and routines that the Roman Catholic Church still uses in their masses. The
liturgy of the Syrian Church, although in Aramaic, is not what Jesus spoke or what
the New Testament was written in. There is apparently only one small village in
northern Syria that still speaks what is thought to be a dialect close to that.
Even the current Hebrew has only been revived and formalized in the last 50
years, since the re-establishment of the state of Israel, of which it is the
official language.
There
is a new mural on the wall from 2008 depicting Jerome and his assistants at
work. Apparently it came from a good mosaic school in Jericho.
Much
of this structure, the caves and grotto and what is in them, dated from the
fourth century but had been built over in the 14th. This had been rediscovered
by the Roman Catholic Church in 1967.
There
is also here The Chapel of the Innocents, commemorating Herod's massacre of
children under the age of two when he attempted to kill Jesus. It seems that
children of this age had continued to be buried here at one time. To the side
at one place is a small peephole in the wall to which the poor who were not
able to pay a fee to the Ottomans were allowed to at least glimpse the front of
the church. There was also a secret tunnel used for access.
in
2002, Ariel Sharon had sent his troops into Palestine to besiege Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yassir Arafat in Ramallah. They had also
come to Bethlehem, most inopportunely, at Easter. 400 soldiers had placed
Bethlehem under a 40-day curfew. Homes were all locked up. Our guide remembered
it well as he was 15 at the time. His own life was only spared from sniper fire
by double-plated glass on one occasion. He mentioned that his family has been
in this area for 300 years. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had even camped in
the church and again we were shown bullet holes in the walls. It was well known
that the forces were using American weapons, F-16s. They had used the Bethlehem
Peace Center as their control center. Some of the monks were kept prisoner in
this quarter and ended up eating lemon tree leaves from the courtyard garden to
stave off their hunger. Nine people had been killed including the Greek
Orthodox church bellringer. Blimps with electronic controls hovered over the
area directing sniper fire to predetermined locations to keep the population
under control. Obviously, there had been little Easter celebration of that
year.
Eventually,
with pressure from the UN, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Palestinian
leaders, negotiations had returned peace after certain key Palestinian leaders
were deported to Europe where Israel still keeps them in exile. Some 30 or 40
had been exiled to Gaza. Gaza remains cut off since then.
Near
one of the entrances in an alcove in the wall was a large statue of St. George
on a horse in the typical pose of slaying a dragon. When I asked about this, I
was told about the importance of St. George to the Palestinians, which I had
never realized before. Whether factual or mythological, he was evidently born
in the second or third century to a Roman soldier and a Palestinian mother near
Lod. In Aramaic, his name is Al Khadr, which means peasant or farmer. By the
time of the Islamic Mammalukes, he had already become the patron saint of
resistance to Islam. The Muslims had said the Christians only deserved to ride
donkeys, perhaps a reference to Jesus, so they had made sure to always depict
St. George on a white horse like the Sultan would ride.
Apparently,
members of the Palestinian resistance, the Christians, still carry tattoos of
St. George on their skin. During the recent seeds of Gaza, even Muslim citizens
there saw visions of St. George. The thunder of storms or unseen Israeli
attacking jets was referred to as St. George riding in the clouds. Even in
1948, priests in Palestine claimed to have visions of St. George and then
stated that these villages needed to be protected and apparently did keep some
of them from being depopulated by the Israelis at the time.
All
of this explains why many churches and Christians in this area are given the
name George. It was not until the time of the Crusades that St. George was
adopted by Western Christians and taken to England where he became their patron
saint. Now even Muslims celebrate him on St. George's Day. They describe him as
a friend of Moses. Even the Druze regard him as one of their leaders.
Meeting Bethlehem Officials
From
the church we crossed the square to the municipal offices of the Governate of
Palestine of Bethlehem. The municipality here employs 192 individuals. We were
to have met the mayor, the first female in Palestine to hold the position, Vera
Baboun. However, we were informed that she had just returned from a promotional
trip to Australia, recently the US, and had come down with food poisoning. She
had earlier attended a summit meeting in Atlanta along with religious leaders
such as Patriarch Theophilus and her message and pleas for help and support had
been heard and well received. Her term is four years and there will soon be an
election.
We
therefore met her secretary. Apparently, the mayor of Bethlehem is always to be
a Christian, currently Roman Catholic, and currently her deputy is Orthodox.
This had been by decree of Yasser Arafat, who had ordered the same for
Ramallah. The secretary indicated that the neighboring village of Beit Jala was
also Christian.
The
population of Bethlehem is apparently now about 33,000, with another 200,000
living in the surrounding area, mostly Muslim. Bethlehem apparently means house
of meat in Aramaic, house of food in Arabic and house of bread in Hebrew.
We
were informed how poor their situation currently was. The unemployment rate is
25%. Students have many problems completing education with the ongoing
interference from the Israelis in terms of travel and checkpoints. Christians
and Muslims alike here depend on each other to keep down any influence from
radicalism such as might come from ISIS. They just feel like they are in a
prison with all of the walls around them. The economy is poor because of the
decrease in tourism because of all of this. Yet, within Bethlehem itself, we
were told that the situation is quite safe with no local murder.
The
secretary made reference to the importance of the Bethlehem Peace Center. She
also indicated that there is a large university here. It has about 5000
students and had been visited by Pope Paul the sixth. There is apparently one
University in every governate in Palestine. According to her, guests always
comment on Palestinians' warm welcome.
We
were actually supposedly treated to a first viewing of the promotional video
for celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem in 2016. Indeed, the secretary spoke of
how by the end of the fourth century, Palestine was quite solidly Christian.
Most churches that stand now had been begun then and completed by the seventh
century. Nazareth had also been quite Christian. Muslims had been tolerated
when they appeared and it was only in the 1800s that Christians again to become
a minority. This was only when non-Arab Muslims, i.e. the Ottomans from Turkey,
took power. She also told us that during the time of the Crusades, because of
the behavior of these invaders towards Christians there as well as Muslims,
many Palestinian Christians had become disgusted and converted to Islam. Most
villages apparently have names that refer to their Christian heritage, the
Muslim and now Jewish names. She told us that Deir, meaning monastery, had been
a prefix in front of many village names, indicating their Christian origin. As
we had learned earlier, and were reminded, one of these had been the site of
one of the most significant massacres by Jewish terrorist in 1948, Deir Yassin,
in what is now Jerusalem.
Palestinian
leaders would really like us to divest ourselves of investments in Israel and
boycott the purchase of products of Israel. They talked about how the financial
situation is so uncertain because Israel controls all financial transfers of
funds between different parts of Palestine, just as it controls their water. As
a result, many municipal and university employees are behind in receiving their
salary. They can't even get money transferred from their central authority in
Ramallah. We were encouraged to ask our government to recognize Palestine.
Israel
has divided Palestine, since the occupation, into three areas. Area A is under
Palestinian control, at least the major towns are. Area B refers to the areas
surrounding these towns. Area C is ostensibly under Palestinian civil control
but certainly under the control of the Israeli armed forces and security, and
makes up 60% of Palestine.
Tent of Nations and Lunch [http://www.tentofnations.org].
Leaving
the city of Bethlehem, our bus took us southwest into the countryside to a
Palestinian farm on a hilltop, from which you can see the Mediterranean on a
good day. This farm is located between two large settlements of Israelis and
uphill from a Palestinian village. The Israelis have since 2001 already blocked
the road nearest the one settlement with large cut rock and piles of debris.
For some reason, perhaps because the Israelis have placed the whole place in
question. Even the Palestinian villagers from below have taken to dumping their
garbage along the road, which we personally saw happening. When we left the bus
to walk the remaining distance to the farm, having to climb over the rock
barriers, we saw an occupied car off to our left which we were informed was
that of an Israeli observer. A sign in the field beside the road was also
pointed out to us as indicating that a private Hebrew school is to be built
here. It will apparently be a $25 million project and has and approved by the
IDF and already has its own website. Indeed, the plans for this would further
encroach upon this road and the adjacent land. The farm we were going to had
been under siege for a week on one occasion when it was alleged at a boy from
the village below had attacked a settler at the exit to the road.
The
Tent of Nations (TON) is an organization that grew up 15 years ago in support
of the beleaguered farm family that lives here. We were told how the last 25
years in particular have been an ongoing struggle with the court. The owners
have not been able to get any new building permits. In fact, over time there
have been 20 demolition orders. There is one current order that is on hold
until July 21. They have been cut off from the electricity grid and running
water. They have developed a system of collecting water in underground storage
compartments in which they can collect up to 20,000 leaders to last them
through the dry periods of the year. The need this not only for their own
drinking/food preparation and hygiene but also to water their crops at times.
Even this, the IDF destroys and has forbidden them from continuing to collect
rainwater or they will tax it. They have even had to resort to living in caves.
As much as possible, they try and camouflage of their constructive efforts
underground by planting trees over top. They also depend heavily on energy from
the sun obtained through solar panels. Just the same, Israeli authorities
regularly send helicopters overhead to assess what is going on. The policy is
obviously to isolate the family and hope they will leave. Indeed, the Israeli
government is already building a wall across Palestine in the neighborhood of
Bethlehem to divide the North and South sections of the West Bank. They live in
an area known as Area Six, which is now populated more by Jewish settlers than
Palestinians and therefore more liable to annexation.
The
Nassar family has been on this land for 100 years and has the deed to this
property which is registered in the archives of the Ottomans in Istanbul. This
is especially important because in 1991 Israel passed a law claiming all land
not legally registered. They own 40 ha or hundred acres. They live 3000 feet
above sea level and are surrounded by five settlements, one of whom is believed
to have a population of 45,000 on its own. Over time, they have planted four
thousand olive and other trees here. When Israel lost a challenge to the title
in 2002, settlers came and destroyed 250 trees. Two years ago they destroyed
trees that even Jews from the United Kingdom had donated. They turned it into a
football field but the farm changed it back to productive land. TON is
supported by European Jews for Justice. There is also "Jewish Center for
nonviolence" in the US that supports TON. There appears to be a constant stream of volunteers, visitor and supporters to the site. We even learned of a German mother who had sent her depressed and withdrawn son to one of the summer camps held here to see and learn something
Daish
/Daoud, the current owner of the
farm, talked to us about the three possible responses to violence:
1.
Respond in kind
2.
Become passive, victims
3.
Leave, as many more educated Palestinians do, especially the Christians.
They
have chosen a different route. The principles they follow are:
1.
We will not see ourselves as either victims but will empower ourselves
2.
We will refuse to hate. Indeed, this message is inscribed on a rock at the gate
to the property.
3.
Our faith will define our action
4.
We will continue to believe in justice and the confidence that it will prevail
someday
5.
We will refuse to be enemies.
After meeting in a cave to hear Daoud give his presentation we had some time to look around. We had already seen the olive and wine cellars. We also saw a resource centre and gift shop. Then we were treated to a sumptuous lunch with the family and current volunteers, some of whom were staying at the same hotel as we were and joining us at dinner at the send of the day. The buffet and tables were set out under an overhang on the west side of their home, with a view to the Mediterranean far in the distance.
Battir and Bethlehem Museum of Natural History with Professor Qumsiyeh
From the
Tent of Nations we made our way to the Village of Battir. Apparently some eight
Palestinian families have maintained this area over the centuries. It is in a
fertile Valley south of Jerusalem and to the west of Bethlehem, just inside the
so-called Green Line of division of 1948. Indeed, we could see the border from
the village. Part of the fruitfulness of the area stems from long-standing
local springs which these families have protected. In Roman times though, some
of the water had been diverted into structures for Roman baths which were still
standing. A smaller basin appeared to be next to the source at one level and
down a long flight of stairs was another large holding tank. It was currently
empty as it has to be drained and cleaned from time to time. Currently, the
local boys sometimes even swim in it when it is full. This area has been
declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We had
picked up for our guide of this leg of the journey, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, whose regular
email signature is as follows:
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Professor and (volunteer)
Director, Palestine Museum of Natural History,
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and
Sustainability, Bethlehem University, Occupied Palestine
His son and another young man
whom I also took to be a student of the University had joined us but at one
point we let them off. While driving back towards Bethlehem a group of cars
waving Palestinian flags and honking sped past us. Shortly, we caught up to
them parked at the side of the road with a number of individuals clustered
around them. We were told that this was the jubilant welcome for a prisoner who
had been released by the Israelis.
We then traveled on to the
faculty of Bethlehem University, which Dr. Qumsiyeh and his students teach and work in. We
watched a promotional video they had prepared. We also looked around their
Museum of Natural History with its stuffed animals, birds and other artifacts,
as well as different types of maps of the region.
We were told that of the 300,000
km² area originally designated for the Palestinians, including 60,000 refugees
in three camps and 20 C settlements, that only 13% is now available for
Palestinians. Israel has taken the rest. Overall, some 530 villages had been
depopulated between 1948 in 1950. Now the inhabitants are experiencing visual
apartheid with the building of the wall. One of the severe down sides of this
is that villagers are separated from their fields by both the wall and private
roads built to Jewish settlements, creating geographic apartheid. Overall,
Palestinians I currently only allowed to develop some 8.5% of their land.
On the way back to our hotel, we
passed Beit Sahour, known as The Shepherd's Fields. We also passed Beit Jala,
and were told that St. Nicholas had actually lived there for 12 years. One of
the Jewish settlements we passed was Har Gillo, Har meaning hill in Hebrew.
We had also been told about
another village we passed, Al Arja (?), whose men on one occasion had been
taken away by the Israelis, leaving only the women and children. They had drawn
on their resilient strengths and organize themselves and continue to function
quite well, to the surprise of themselves and those around. Indeed, when the
men were returned later, and resumed patriarchal control, the women had been
heard to say that things had gone better when the men were away!
Salah Ajarma visits
in 2010, I had attended a
one-week Canadian School of Peace Building course at Canadian Mennonite
University in Winnipeg. One of my classmates had been the Manager of children
and youth program at the Beit Jala Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. We had become
friends and I had even taken him on an evening visit in the warm summer of
Southern Manitoba to visit the place where I was born (Winkler); we even
visited my aunt. He marveled at being able to peacefully and uninterruptedly
travel through the lovely countryside without so much as seeing a soldier, let
alone encounter barricades and checkpoints.
When we decided to go to
Palestine, I had contacted him and we had arranged this meeting. He arrived
just as we were finishing dinner at the Bethlehem Hotel. He met my wife, Anne and
some of our other group members. We had a brief visit, comparing notes of where
we were at now and then made arrangements for him to pick us up in the morning
to go and visit the camp instead of joining the group for worship before
heading out for Galilee.
Meeting with Lutheran Pastor and wife re Women in Palestine
Speaker: Raeda Rishmawi
This woman, not unlike many
Palestinian women, was highly educated. She had an MBA in Economic Development,
a Certificate in Internal Auditing and another in Public Administration. Her
husband was the pastor of the Bait Jala Lutheran Church and she was the first
lay preacher in this Evangelical Lutheran Church Reform congregation to be a
female. Her other job was as head ever a quality control unit (ISO) for the
municipality of Bethlehem.
Reada's husband sat restlessly beside and frequently interjected, often humorously, or at least by attempt. Some wondered after if he felt somewhat upstaged by her being the speaker. Maybe he just had ADHD...
Raeda give us some statistics to
begin with. She stated that of the 4.8 million inhabitants of the West Bank (adding
that there were 1.8 million in Gaza), 2.9 were women. In spite of the fact that
still a third of women get married after the age of 15, the birth rate has
dropped from 6.1 to 5.2 from 2000 to 2014. The literacy rate is 98%. Outside
employment of females has increased from 10 to 19% in the last 16 years.
Overall unemployment has increased though, and women still get paid far less
than men. She stated that opportunities were there but that to increase the
involvement in the workforce, there is some political will to introduce a quota
system. She reported that the current governor in Ramallah was a female and
might in fact promote that direction.
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