News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 185 - Saturday, 28 December 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
It was a very
busy week for everybody, but it went very well, thanks God. Here in Taybeh we
had very good celebrations: First of all, the Christmas mass for the children
which was on the 23rd after which we distributed the gifts to more
than 400 children. We didn’t forget also more than 45 old men and women who
live alone, and more than 55 families who received a direct material help in
order to be able to celebrate Christmas and have some joy at home.
The most
interesting story of this Christmas time was that of Alexandra, a six years old
girl from our school. We told all our parishioners to write their prayers on a
piece of paper on the shape of a dove, which was hanged around the inside of
the Church. Many reacted positively with this initiative, and wrote their
prayers which was full of invocation for peace, but, the prayers of Alexandra
was the most interesting, she wrote: “O Jesus let the Israeli soldiers leave
Bethlehem so that I will be able to come and visit you on the Grotto at the
Nativity Church; O Jesus, don’t let the soldiers stop Santa Claus at the
checkpoint so that he comes and give me a Christmas gift”. It is very simple
and childish, but expresses the deep desire of everyone of us, old and small. I
told this story at last Sunday mass, and the French Sisters were very touched
and as they wanted to go to Bethlehem at the Grotto, the decided to call
Alexandra from the Grotto and told here to say her prayer to Jesus by
telephone. As for Santa Claus, I told her that even if they will stop him at
the checkpoint, he will come down from heaven and bring you a gift. Indeed,
during the Children party, not only one Santa Claus, but six appeared from our
bell tower can came down with gifts for 400 children. We did this in order to
tell Alexandra and all the kids that we love them and that they deserve to
enjoy a gift and be happy also in this sad time.
The Israeli
soldiers, left Bethlehem only for two days but they didn’t withdraw from the
town because soon after Christmas day, they returned back and imposed the
curfew another time, therefore, Bethlehem area is under curfew until now…
Maybe, because they want to forbid the Holy Family from fleeing the town with
the Baby Jesus!?
You will find in
today’s Olive Branch the following documents:
1)
An article By Maria C. Khoury about “Taybeh Glorifies
Christ's Birth”.
2)
The Letter from Bethlehem (43) by Toine van Teeffelen, detailing
the Christmas events during these days.
3)
The press release announcing the 31/12 Justice and Peace
March which will again be held in Bethlehem.
4)
Christmas Message 2002 by Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan from The
Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCJ).
5) A
SUBDUED CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM By Ben Lynfield publish in The Christian Science
Monitor.
6)
Christmas Plea for 2003? By Dr Harry Hagopian.
7)
A Star of Bethlehem on 22.000 Christmas Trees in Austria!
We renew our
Christmas wishes to all of you and thank all those who showed solidarity to our
Christians community in the Holy Land during this Christmas time. We also extend
to all of you our best greetings of a happy new year 2003.
We will keep
in touch next year Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Taybeh Glorifies Christ's Birth
By Maria C. Khoury, Ed.
D.
"For unto you is born this day in
the city of
The Angelic voices of the
twenty-five member choir filled the Latin Church on Christmas Eve in the small
village of Taybeh where songs giving glory to Christ's birth were sang for
several hours during an evening service in Arabic led by our beloved Fr. Raed
Abusahlia spending his first Christmas with us as the parish priest. Much
credit should be given to Mr. Suhail Nazal who generously works with the
student choir on a weekly basis to train and challenge the students to give
their outmost to the church. Our
volunteer Seminarian from France, Stefan, was also very active in directing the
choir. We have such amazing talent existing all in one little village.
Listening to this beautiful Christmas service was my proof that it is the soul
that prays to God regardless of what language we use for communication.
The Latin Church
was packed as standing room only especially with some extra people like me who
have to wait another thirteen days until it becomes December 25th on
the Julian Calendar so that the Orthodox Church can hold the Christmas liturgy.
To promote Christian unity on a social level following the Oslo Agreement all
of the West Bank towns and village agreed among the people to celebrate
Christmas together on the Western Calendar and to celebrate Easter on the
Orthodox Calendar. However, the Orthodox Church services technically have not
changed, this agreement was only to facilitate the social occasion of wishing
each other a blessed Christmas on the same day. However, the last two years we
have not had Christmas lights in the streets, nor Christmas carols, nor
Christmas murals painted everywhere depicting Christ's birth as was customary
in the village in the past. The boy scouts have not marched for any holiday
since September 2000. The festive part of Christmas in the
This spiritual
joy in our hearts can not be expressed in a cultural or social level because
violence and death continue to swallow us up. Daily destruction and oppression
overwhelm our lives. For about a month now, the two main entrances to our
village have been sealed off. Begging the American Consul and the local Israeli
District coordinating office to help us open the road has been in vain. We are
basically locked up in an open prison. The way the security walls and the tall
cement blocks are going up all over the
As Christians we
will promote peaceful resolutions and seek non violent ways to this terrible
oppression. During this holy
season we thank you for praying for the people of the
Letter from Bethlehem (43)
Toine van Teeffelen
December 28, 2002
As
expected, the curfew is lifted on Tuesday 24 December, the day when the Latin
(Roman Catholic) Patriarch traditionally enters Bethlehem for the Christmas
celebrations. The day and night before, however, various Bethlehem buildings
were occupied by the army including the house of the director of Holy Land
Trust, Sami Awad, and an apartment building in which Elias' son in law has a
beauty shop. At one of the busiest days of the year, he had to open the doors
for the soldiers who left it only early in the morning of December 24. There is
a subdued mood in town. Several organizations in Bethlehem – Holy Land Trust,
Arab Educational Institute, Wi'am, Bethlehem Bible College and the Arab Orthodox
Society – decided to have a demonstration in front of the Church of Nativity
along the route of the Patriarch. During the Patriarch's entry we are standing
in our best clothes holding signs stating "end the occupation,"
"curfews equal detention camps," and "Silent Night, Holy
Night?" - a reference to the silence imposed by the curfews. Mary and her
sisters from France who have come over for Christmas, join us, as well as some
of Mary's colleagues from the university. Jara wants to carry a wooden
demonstration sign all by herself. The Nativity Square is full of people
although less than during a normal Christmas. We are filmed by many TV and
photo cameras in the background to the Patriarch's entry. Minutes later,
hundreds of Israelis from the organization Ta'ayush (living together) march
into the square in the footsteps of the Patriarch, so to speak. Surprisingly,
they were able to cross the main Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint. Bishara Awad,
director of the Bethlehem Bible College, gives them a demonstration sign that
is first met with surprise and then accepted. Mary is happy to see the
Israelis: "It gives a feeling that it is possible to live together and to
have peace once in the future." I am struck by the many youths among the
marchers. Usually members of the Israeli peace movement are older. I join some
of those who participated in the Palestinian demonstration and visit a nearby
restaurant. During lunch, some youths read texts from the Bible and Koran.
*
* *
During
the evening before Christmas, we prepare a very good meal with special food
from Paris. The house is
full of Christmas decorations and Santa Claus sculptures, to the point that I
feel as if we somehow try to compensate indoors for what we lack outdoors.
Also, reality looks perhaps less gloomy on a full stomach. We enjoy talking
until deep in the night. Never did Jara receive so many presents as during
these days. The family suggests her to give a present to other children in
Bethlehem and she agrees. In the afternoon of Christmas day, the family visits
the tomb of my deceased father-in-law. Mary, her mother and sisters cry. Jara
embraces the tomb slab and lovingly puts her head against it. She still very
much misses her grandfather who died two years ago.
Later
in the afternoon, I join the traditional Christmas candle procession in Beit
Sahour which over the years has turned into a political march. This time the
protest is not only directed at the occupation but also at the separation wall
which is in the process of being erected between Palestinians from the West
Bank and Israelis. Many people - several hundreds - warm themselves with
red-white Santa Claus' hats and lighted candles, and listen to tapes of
Christmas songs of the Lebanese singer Fairouz who sings them in an appropriately
solemn, almost somber timbre. It starts raining heavily, too heavily. After
walking for two kilometers, we enter the courtyard of a Beit Sahouri church to
finish the demonstration which was originally planned to go to the
Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint. Ghassan Andoni of Rapprochement, the main
organizer, announces new marches to come.
During
the morning of the second Christmas day we turn out to have a serious heating
problem. Tamer has a cold and a cough, and we are unable to heat the house
sufficiently because of a shortage of gas. Most houses or shops here do not
have central heating and are not well isolated. The car which normally brings
gas cylinders does not come. It seems that a (not politically related)
explosion at a chemical plant in Haifa last week is responsible for the
shortage. In Al-Khader, to the south of Bethlehem, some people even fight for
the spare gas. Mary's cousins tell her that at present many families face a
heating problem. Fortunately, the weather slowly takes a turn to the better. We
don't have much time to enjoy the second Christmas day, though. At two in the
afternoon we suddenly hear of a newly imposed and unannounced curfew. The
soldiers start 'cleaning the streets' from Nativity Square, shooting teargas
and live bullets. 'Isam, a cousin of Mary, happens to be outside near the
shooting and inhales so much teargas that for five minutes he can't breathe
well and almost chokes. Many people taking a Christmas meal in a restaurant are
rushing home. Although I am calm by nature, rebellious feelings come up: Who on
earth has the right in such a way to drive people like animals into their
homes? The curfew remains in force for the rest of the day and night. To
everybody's surprise, and again unannounced, the curfew is lifted in the course
of Friday morning, "until further notice." Bethlehem University
remains closed, apparently because the opening announcement came too late to
inform faculty and students in time. On the street I meet a university
professor who tells me that during opening times she prefers to walk, in order
to get some movement and feel free. She regrets that the university did not
open its doors, even though it would have been only for part of the day.
Continuing our daily life and work is a form of resistance, she once told me.
My
institute is linking up with other community organizations. The scheduled march
on Saturday commemorating the massacre of the innocent children in Jesus' times
as well as the fallen among the present-day Palestinian children is cancelled. Under
these circumstances it is not advisable to have children walking on the street
in a semi-political march. Instead, a children's entertainment hour will be
held at the Peace Center Saturday afternoon. Mary and I are making plans for
the coming days. With our family from Paris present it is a most suitable
period to finally arrange the baptism for Tamer. January 1 seems a good target
day because we may expect that on that day the army will not curfew the town. A
friend of Mary says that anything that helps to cheer up the people, like a
baptism reception, is good news. With the restaurant we make the arrangement
that the reception can be cancelled without charge in case a last-minute curfew
is imposed.
Right
now, Bethlehem organizations and religious and civil authorities are heading
for the Justice and Peace march on Tuesday December 31. Demonstrators are asked
to go to the checkpoint and "turn it into a place of prayer," a
suggestion in fact made by the Latin Patriarch in his latest Christmas message.
PRESS RELEASE
On Tuesday
December 31, the Justice and Peace march will again be held in Bethlehem.
This
non-violent march is an annual event in which the Palestinian community,
supported by internationals and led by religious and civil authorities, demand
for an end to occupation and an opening of Jerusalem for all Palestinians.
The
demonstrators will head for the main Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint and,
carrying torches, will turn the checkpoint into a place of prayer for peace and
justice.
During
the march, they will lift balloons into the air to which many hundreds of
prayers are attached that have been collected for the occasion by Pax Christi
International, International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and Church and
Peace.
The
march will start at 15:00 near the Ministry of Education (Tarbiyeh)/Nissan
restaurant.
Everybody
is welcome to join.
For
more information:
052-873695
- 050-359518 - 052-803784
052-789156
(for information regarding Pax Christi)
Christmas Message 2002
Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan
The
Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCJ)
Jerusalem, December 23, 2002
“But the angel said to the shepherds, ‘DO NOT BE AFRAID;
for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord.’ ”
(Luke 2:10-11)
Dear
Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Christmas and fear do
not go together but the beautiful Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke shows
us three kinds of human fear. The angel told the shepherds, “Do not be afraid.”
This message of hope and courage was given to everyone in the Christmas story
and is given to us
today, wherever we are.
First, there was the fear which expected the Savior.
Mary certainly
experienced fear in hearing the astounding message of the Angel Gabriel – in
her pregnancy – in her concerns about where her child would be born – in the
reality of no room for the Savior in the inn at Bethlehem.
Joseph, too,
undoubtedly experienced fear when he learned of Mary’s pregnancy – as he
determined to divorce her quietly – in the message of the angel which told him
the truth about Mary’s pregnancy and asked him to love and care for her and the
babe.
And the shepherds in
the fields near Beit Sahour were in the darkness when they saw strange signs in
the heavens and became extremely afraid, falling to the ground. The angel’s message
began with words of
comfort and hope: “Do not be
afraid.”
Secondly, there was the fear which expected a rival to one’s
power.
King Herod was fearful
because he heard that a rival king had been born. In his fear he was determined to destroy that rival,
eventually using a collective punishment of death against the small children in
Bethlehem.
In our modern,
globalized world we live in the “King Herod” kind of fear. We see firsthand the struggles for
power that make nations afraid of each other, driving them to fight each other
and legitimize war. This kind of
fear does not give a glimmer of hope.
Today I am asking, Why should the Palestinian people in the Holy Land
live in such fear of the Israeli military occupation, of violence, of
bloodshed, of curfews, of checkpoints, of siege, of walls of separation? Why do we need to fear whether
Palestinian schools and universities will be open, whether it is possible to go
to work to earn a basic living, or even whether it is safe to leave one’s
home? Why should an Israeli live
in fear even though Israel holds the power in our country? I know that fear is
the common denominator for both Israelis and Palestinians because they are all
afraid of what the future holds for them and their children. Is the Christmas message that we should
be afraid like Herod, taking measures that are destructive and create more fear
and more insecurity? Fear can
drive people to frustration. This
frustration can create religious and political extremism. We are fed up in this country with any
kind of extremism or fanaticism.
There is no conflict
on this earth where world leaders know the root cause and the solution as well
as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Why, then, are there no charismatic world leaders who will relieve the
peoples of this land from ongoing suffering and injustice? Why are there no world leaders ready to
pluck out the fear of the peoples by implementing the international legitimacy,
allowing the two-state solution to be realized and practiced, recognizing that
security for the Israelis is dependent on freedom and justice for the
Palestinians? Only when this
happens will the angel’s message be clearly heard by all the peoples in this
land: “Do not be afraid.”
The third fear in the Christmas story was the natural fear
of destructive political realities.
Mary, Joseph, the
shepherds and even the Magi had natural, legitimate reasons to fear King Herod
and the Roman military occupation.
They were struggling with problems of daily living -- with coercion to
register with the Roman authorities – with heavy taxation by Rome – with the
ever-present Roman soldiers – with the well-known destructiveness of King Herod
– with the inability to see a hopeful future. In the Christmas story we hear that the Magi took another
way home, fearing the anger of King Herod against themselves and the Christ
Child. We also hear that the Holy
Family escaped from King Herod’s murderous anger by taking refuge in another
country, seeking life, safety and a future.
As we celebrate
Christmas in the midst of military occupation, Palestinians live in daily fear.
It certainly is this fear that is driving some Palestinian Christians to
emigrate out of the Holy Land, leaving a small community of Christians
remaining here. It is painful to
see the proliferation of emigration just when we want and need to have the
people stay in the land. What is the Holy Land without the baptized people of
the land?
Sisters and brothers,
the Christmas story helps us to remember that fear did not stop Mary from
proceeding in faith to give birth to the Savior of the world. Fear did not stop Joseph, in great
faith, from loving and caring for Mary and the Child. Fear did not quench the hope and joy of the shepherds, nor
did it stop them from seeking the Messiah, born in Bethlehem. We may have times when we feel that God
is remote from us; perhaps we even feel abandoned by our Savior. Our spirituality may falter. But God is with us -- Emmanuel. We can count on the presence of our
Savior, the Christ. We will refuse
to let our fears drive us to escapism, racism, xenophobia, revenge or
extremism. What is more, our fears
will never stop us from being God’s instruments for a just peace, apostles of
love and ministers of reconciliation. I call on people of good conscience and
good will from both nations, Palestine and Israel, and the three religions –
Judaism, Christianity and Islam – to intensify their efforts to end the
occupation, violence, destruction, bloodshed and death. I call on them to incarnate just peace
and reconciliation in this land which so desperately needs and deserves it.
The fears of Mary,
Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi teach us to remain faithful and to seek the
Savior, clinging to God’s promises of good news and great joy in Christ.
Political solutions are certainly necessary and welcome but as Palestinian
Christians we must recognize the power of God to change the world through the
gift and birth of the Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Our Savior is more
powerful than kings, presidents, governments, soldiers and military power.
Christ rejuvenates in
us the motivation and the strength to work for justice, peace and
reconciliation against all odds.
The Babe reminds us that whatever military or punitive actions may
be
taken – whatever harassments we may experience – one thing is sure:
justice, a different kind of reconciliation -- not the peace, justice or
reconciliation of the world.
As dark and bleak as everything may seem,
our hope only lies in the birth of our Savior. Let us offer our hearts as a
manger for the Christ Child, receiving God’s holy gifts in Word and Sacrament.
Let us join together to pray to our Loving God, asking that our fears be taken
away and our faith be strengthened. Prayer can do so much more than we think or
imagine. Jesus, when cleansing a boy from a devastating illness, said that it
was only by prayer and fasting that the child would be healed and released
(Mark 9:29), and this also corresponds to Palestine and Israel. “Do not be
afraid.” We thank God for his healing and wholeness in Christ.
Come,
Lord Jesus, and take away our paralysis of fear. Use us as your instruments of love
and
peace, justice and reconciliation, now sat Christmas and always. Amen.
We wish you
A Peaceful Christmas
&
A Blessed New Year 2003
Full of Just Peace, Forgiveness and Reconciliation
The Evangelical Lutheran Church
P.O.Box 14076
Muristan Road
JERUSALEM 91140
Tel: +972 – 2 – 6276111
Fax:+972 – 2 – 6285764
E-mail: ga_elcj@netvision.net.il
Website: www.holyland-lutherans.org
A SUBDUED CHRISTMAS IN
BETHLEHEM
By Ben Lynfield
The Christian Science Monitor
December 24, 2002
After a month of harsh living under an Israeli army curfew, English teacher
Susan Atallah assigned her 11th-graders an essay question: "Is there
Christmas this year in the town where Christmas began?" Christians today
are a minority in Bethlehem. But the hand-scrawled
compositions by mostly Christian pupils at the Saint Joseph School for Girls in
Bethlehem offer an unusual window on Palestinian perceptions of life during the
two-year-old conflict.
"Christmas
with a curfew, military jeeps, and fear? I find it illogical and unacceptable,
especially right here in Bethlehem," writes Dalia Qumsieh. "It is our
right to claim at least a peaceful Christmas, which is mainly about peace and
love, but unfortunately in Bethlehem it is about occupation."
Another teen,
Amira Lama, wonders why the international community did not intervene:
"What is happening in the world? What is going on? ... "I feel so bad
for little boys and girls who wake up screaming each day," she writes,
then adds: "Every day I dream about soldiers." The curfew was
instituted after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying Israeli
schoolchildren and commuters in Jerusalem. Bethlehemites say the bomber came
from outside the town, but Israeli officials say he was from here.
Nonetheless,
yesterday the Israeli army announced it was lifting the curfew in advance of
Christmas "because we want to make it as easy as possible for people to
celebrate." Jamal Salman, the Bethlehem town manager, says that is "a
good step." But, he stresses, "we need it to be permanent, and not
only for Christmas." He said the move would be insufficient to lift the
gloom in
the city from two years of fighting and growing poverty. And the effects of the
curfew linger for the children. For the first time in its 100-year history,
there are no decorations this year at the Saint Joseph school. The reason: the
curfew has kept the girls at home so much that there's been no time to put them
up, says Ms. Atallah. Until now, the curfew has confined everyone to their
homes except during occasional breaks that are given with no advance notice. As
soon as the breaks start, pupils rush to St. Joseph's to hastily meet teachers
or take exams before they are again confined. It was during one of those
windows, last Friday, that the girls at St. Joseph's handed in their
compositions.
The assignment
was part of a two-year-old practice by Atallah, a former Fulbright scholar who
herself graduated from St. Joseph's, of assigning journals and personal essays
to her pupils. She hopes these assignments can, if not heal, at least help
students become aware of their emotions about having an adolescence disrupted
by war and, more recently, Israeli military reoccupation. "You cannot
change the outside situation, but I work with them on their own feelings,"
she says.
The essays, made
available by permission of Atallah and the pupils, are replete with anger at
loss of the holiday and a sense of abandonment. But among some of the pages,
there's also a determination to have a spiritually meaningful Christmas despite
what the world throws at them.
"Christmas is knocking at the doors and the situation is getting worse and
worse. But we must not be snobs, we must be humble as Jesus," writes
Hadeel Fash'ho. "Christmas is great if we know its real meaning. It means
helping each other, being optimistic and spreading happiness in children's
hearts. This Christmas, we are sad because maybe we can't celebrate together
with our relatives. But we must pray as much as we can from our heart so that
God gives us the power to be strong to face all the problems. "A
classmate, Roula Muslih, vows defiance. She said she would be "happier
than ever" on Christmas because "it's Jesus Christ who is going to be
born, the Lord, the Savior! Shooting, bombing, and curfew can change nothing of
that. And I really don't want anybody from abroad to feel sorry for us because
we ARE going to have Christmas and Jesus IS going to be born whether the Israelis
accept it or not." Shatha Ta'amreh, a Muslim pupil, expressed similar
feelings about the recent Id al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of Ramadan, for
which there was no lifting of the curfew.
"My mother
made coffee as usual and cookies for visitors, but no one came. My small
brother, who is 3-years old, was waiting for my uncles to visit and give him
money as usual, but they did not come. I felt that everything around me was
upside down. No one in the street, no children were playing. That day made a big
empty hole in my heart and emotions, because I did not know if I have to cry or
I have to [pretend] to be happy because it is a happy occasion for all Muslims
in the world." When asked about the essays, Israeli Defense Forces Captain
Jacob Dallal says that the army would prefer not to be in Bethlehem at all, but
was forced to take it over last month after the Palestinian Authority failed to
prevent attacks against Israel.
"We would
like to be completely out of there, but if we are not there, then the buses
will explode in Jerusalem. The inconvenience that these girls go through is
less bad than what happens when there is a terrorist attack in Jerusalem."
Christmas Plea for 2003?
Dr Harry
Hagopian, LL.D, KOG - KSL
What has come into
being in him was life, life that was the light! (Jn
1:4)
25
December 2002! The majority of the Christian world celebrated this week the
birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. Mind
you, Christmas is meant primarily to rejoice over the Mystery of the
Incarnation of His Eternal Word, but it has become in many parts of the world a
much more popular season for mulled wine and mince pies, turkeys and gifts. In
the midst of an inflation of worldly joys, there is also a noticeable recession
in spiritual values.
As I attended mass this year at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, my own mind also drifted away to Bethlehem some seven kilometres south of Jerusalem. It drifted away to the little town that did not welcome Mary and Joseph as they sought an inn so that Mary could deliver a child - Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Sad really! This is the town that proclaimed a message of justice, love and peace to the whole world over two millennia ago. Yet, it is the same town that now experiences hatred, bloodshed and humiliation! Is this the message of Christmas, and do most of us celebrating the event in our own homes even realise the extent of the pain that the local Christians of this town are experiencing today?
Just over a week ago, a delegation of leaders of the Religious Conferences of the United States visited Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories. This delegation consisted of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership of Women Religious. Those two movements comprise around 1500 men and women religious leaders who are responsible for more than 700 Catholic institutes in the USA and whose membership represents well over 100,000 Catholic sisters, brothers and priests. Joining them on the trip was a delegation of the Conference of the Religious of England and Wales.
The delegation released its Message on 17 December 2002. It was both poignant and painful! It spoke of the despair and frustration that have taken root in the Holy Land. It articulated the fears of many Palestinian Christians who are being challenged day in day out by the systemic violence of curfews, settlements, incarceration, water deprivation and land confiscation. It spoke about the checkpoints that goal Palestinians in their disjointed territories and forbid them any freedom of movement on their own land. Witnessing the pain of the ordinary people, the delegation drew a biblical parallel. ‘Like Jesus, who experienced humiliation at his crucifixion, the Palestinian people experience humiliation daily during the closures and curfews. [] In the Palestinian people, Jesus still suffers at the checkpoints.’
By the same token, the leaders of this joint delegation also spoke out about the gruesome instances of fear, death, destruction and mourning faced by Israeli Jews who are targeted by suicidal attacks. In the midst of all this violent mayhem, cruelty and intransigence, the delegation asked itself, ‘Where is the hope? Surrounded by death and destruction, how do we as women and men Religious find new life and resurrection?’ However, the Catholic leaders affirmed their belief that ‘peace will come only when the injustice occupation ends and the Palestinian people can live securely in their own nation.’ They added ‘that Israel will not know peace and security until a Palestinian homeland is realized.’
Whilst commending the difficult and oft-unnoticed work of many Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who labour in the midst of pain and hopelessness, the delegation also voiced the profound and bitter disappointment of the Palestinian Christian community that ‘the international voice is virtually silent in the face of occupation, oppression and violence.’ The local Christians spoke stridently of ‘the roaring silence’ from the West in relation to their plight in the Holy Land.
HB Michel Sabbah, Latin-rite Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, echoed with equal force the observations of the international Catholic delegation. He appealed in his own Christmas Message 2002 to ‘all persons of good will, to the international community, and to all our Churches over the world, to wake up and to come and help both peoples of this land to make peace, based on justice, equality and dignity.’ He also threw down the gauntlet to the Palestinian as well as Israeli leaders of this vengeful and unjust land of ancient prophets. Expressing understandable impatience with the current political leadership on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides, he appealed to the parties to make peace by stopping injustice. He also asked for an end to Israeli occupation, which he described as the source of all evils and all obstacles.
The prophecy of Isaiah (Is 9:6) was fulfilled this week with the birth of the Prince of Peace in Bethlehem. Will his birth introduce peace into the hearts and minds of the men and women of the Holy Land? Will it stop some of the injustices and indignities, or will his human birth be another divine plea that goes unnoticed by the arrogance of the mighty and powerful?
Blessed and Happy Christmas! And Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of good will!!
© harry-bvH @ 27 December 2002
A
Star of Bethlehem on 22.000 Christmas Trees in Austria!
Dear
Christians of Bethlehem,
Season's
greetings from the organization "Initiative Christian Orient". Last
November we published a little newspaper called "Light for Bethlehem"
and invited our Christians to hang a star of Bethlehem on their Christmas
trees. The amazing result: We had to order 22.000 stars made of olive trees
from Bethlehem - and we could have done with even more!
Our
Christians are delighted with the "Stars of Bethlehem" and feel with you.
They would like to say to you: You are not forgotten, in the Holy Night you
will be in our hearts!
We
are saying this to you to bring some light into your present darkness and to
show our solidarity.
We
pray for you and trust that you will not become discouraged.
The
grace of Our Lord, who was born in your town, may be with you!
In
the name of the "Initiative Christian Orient"
Hans
Hollerweger
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useful. If you need further information, please feel free to contact us at: nonviolence@writeme.com
Thank you for your understanding & with best wishes from Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |