Town of Bethlehem rests more peacefully this Christmas

Posted On : December 19, 2008

ACNS: http://aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2008/12/19/ACNS4550

The peaceful images evoked by the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” have not always reflected the current reality in the birthplace of Jesus but this year there are reasons for hope.

Palestinians and Israelis are hopeful this season will sustain an increase in tourists to the region, according to an Ecumenical News International report. This year has also seen a decrease in violence for the first time since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising known as the second intifada, which began in September 2000.

An Arabic version of “Silent Night” playing in the background on Manger Square heralded in the beginning of the Christmas season in the Holy Land at the eighth annual Bethlehem Christmas market on the weekend of November 30-December 1, ENI reported.

On December 1, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, officially started the liturgical celebrations that lead up to Christmas with his solemn entry into the city. Pizzaballa, who is the major superior of the Friars Minor in the Middle East, used the light at the crib in the grotto of the Nativity to light the first candle of the Advent wreath.

While Bethlehem historically was a largely Christian town, over the past century it has become a Muslim-majority city. At midday, ENI noted, the Muslim call to prayer from the mosque on Manger Square drowns out the recorded Christmas carols and the tape is turned off until the end of the chant.

People who cannot be in Bethlehem this Advent and Christmas season can participate in a simulcast prayer service that will take place at 10 a.m. EST December 20. Worshippers will gather in the Bethlehem Chapel of Washington National Cathedral and in the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem.

Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem Bishop Suheil Dawani, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land Bishop Munib Younan, and the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church will participate in the service from Bethlehem.

In Washington D.C. the congregants will include Cathedral Dean Samuel Lloyd, Diocese of Washington Bishop John Chane and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod Bishop Richard H. Graham. Another participant, the Rev. Canon John Peterson, the cathedral’s canon for global justice and reconciliation, helped to foster the service, according to Grace Said, an Episcopalian who is one of the service’s organizers. Other sponsors are the Ad Hoc Committee for Bethlehem, Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, Sharing Jerusalem, and Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace of which Said is a member.

The connection between the Episcopal cathedral in Washington D.C. and Bethlehem began at the church’s founding. The cathedral’s cornerstone, laid in the Bethlehem Chapel in 1907, came from a field near Bethlehem and was set into larger piece of American granite. Bethlehem Chapel was the location for the first services in the cathedral while it was under construction.

The December 20 simulcast will be available here.

In Bethlehem, giant inflatable Santa Claus figures have been placed in front of restaurants and stores along the main road leading up to Manger Square, in front of the spot where the birth of Jesus is said to have taken place. Agence France Presse reported December 16 that Bethlehem’s mayor, Victor Batarseh, said at a news conference that there has been a “clear improvement in the situation of tourism since the beginning of the year.” He predicted that 1 million tourists would visit the town 5.5 miles south of Jerusalem in the coming weeks. Some 5,000 hotel rooms in the town are fully booked for Christmas week, Batarseh said.

Still, Bataresh, a Palestinian, criticized the Israeli blockade of the town that includes the controversial West Bank barrier that encircles Bethlehem on three sides and which Israel says is meant to keep out Palestinian militants. Tourists entering Bethlehem go through a military checkpoint with barbed wire and watchtowers. Said told ENS that the wall is choking Bethlehem. “Many families are actively seeking to emigrate to provide a better future for their children,” she wrote in an email.

The Associated Press reported that during a late November meeting of Palestinian military chiefs to discuss Christmas preparations, the Palestinians asked Israel to speed tourists through its army checkpoints and not carry out arrest raids in Bethlehem during the holidays. “We are afraid it would terrify the visitors,” Suleiman Emran, a security official, said.

Meanwhile, Bethlehem community groups are organizing exhibits of Palestinian art, music, folkloric dances and theater on Christmas Eve. And on Christmas Day tourists and locals will visit homes in impoverished areas, followed by Christmas caroling and a candlelight procession.

Waad Alam, 18, from Beit Jalla, a town neighboring Bethlehem with a strong Christian presence, told ENI that she always comes to the Bethlehem market “to see what is for sale and to feel the start of Christmas, and maybe to buy a small gift.”

This year is special, she said, because her two cousins from Honduras are visiting. In a situation that exists for many Christian families in the Holy Land, Alam said all her cousins live either in the United States or in Central America. This is the first time she has met any of them.

“We are happy to see Christmas here for the first time. It makes us happy to feel Christmas coming,” said her cousin Jorge Sansour, 20. “This is a nice quiet place; it is like a village. Everyone knows everybody else. In Honduras you have to be more careful.”

On the day they spoke, busloads of visitors from Nazareth in the Galilee poured into Manger Square, and vendors were selling local sweets, gourmet chocolates and cheeses, books, handmade crafts and a variety of toys and gifts geared up for what they hoped would be a profitable day.

“It is nice to try to bring new handicrafts to people’s attention and for people to see something new in their society,” said Raeda Eichberg, 43, who with her brother Elias Awad, 41, makes handmade bamboo furniture and hand-painted glassware in their Beit Jalla workshop.

Organized by the Bethlehem Peace Center and the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, the first day of the market highlighted merchandise from international sellers while the second day was reserved for local products.

“This is intended to be an international meeting between locals and internationals. To remind the world of the role of Jesus,” Peace Center director Jihan Anastas told ENI. “We are trying to bring some happiness here. If we can’t penetrate the [Israeli separation] wall then at least we can try to get people inside to us.”

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