O GO, ALL YE FAITHFUL, FROM BETHLEHEM
Matthew Fisher
The Halifax Daily News
CanWest News Service
Dec 23 2007
Nova Scotia, Canada
The pilgrims are returning, but Palestinian Christians are abandoning
the birthplace of Christ
The Holy Land is preparing to celebrate Christmas by hosting the
greatest number of Christian pilgrims since the Second Intifada broke
out seven years ago.
As many as 60,000 pilgrims are on their way to celebrate Christ’s
birth, according to Israel’s tourism ministry.
However, with relations between Israel and Palestinians always
strained, it was difficult to find much evidence of holiday cheer
in Bethlehem this week, except for the religious souvenirs and Santa
Claus knick knacks crowding shop windows near Manger Square, where a
pine tree festooned with red and gold balls looked down on the Church
of Nativity, built in the ninth century atop the spot where it was
said that Jesus was born.
To ease the travellers’ passage and, in the words of a senior
bureaucrat, "to make it as profound an experience as possible," the
Israeli government had made special arrangements with its security
forces and the Palestinian Authority to speed them through a checkpoint
at an opening in the tall concrete barrier that now surrounds much
of Bethlehem, separating it from nearby Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and from Jerusalem, which is about 10 kilometres away.
Special exit permits have also been granted that will allow about 8,000
of the 30,000 Palestinian Christians in the Bethlehem area to travel
to Jerusalem to worship or visit relatives during the Christmas season.
"We believe that the pilgrims are a bridge of peace between us and
the Palestinians," said Rafael Ben-Hur, deputy director general of
Israel’s tourism ministry. "We can say that we’re getting back to
the number of Christians that came here before 2000 and we can say
that there is an atmosphere of peace."
Miserable lives
"Aside from a few nice lights around the Church of the Nativity, it
doesn’t feel like Christmas at all," complained 20-year-old Khoulad
Awad, a Roman Catholic who studies hotel management at Bethlehem
University. "Our lives are so miserable. There is no reason for us
to be happy now."
Awad and her classmate and best friend, Abir Mukkaker, said that
the moment they could find a Western country willing to accept them
as immigrants, they would leave Bethlehem forever, joining a long
and accelerating exodus from the Holy Land that made Mukkaker think
"that in a few years, the Christians will all be gone."
Arab Christians, who belong to a dozen or more different churches
that often quarrel among themselves, have been leaving the Middle
East in large numbers since the 19th century, but the numbers have
accelerated in recent years.
About 20 years ago, there were still about 50,000 Christians in
Jerusalem and the West Bank; today, there are about 40,000, with most
of them in and near Bethlehem, according to Uwe Grabe, a Lutheran
pastor who leads the German-speaking congregation at the Christ the
Redeemer Church in Jerusalem.
Christ’s birthplace, which still had a Christian majority a few
decades ago, but where Christians now represent about 20 per cent
of the population, had lost 5,000 to Europe and North America in the
past few years.
The explanation often cited by the Israeli media and officials for
the flight of Palestinian Christians has been that they lived in fear
of their Muslim cousins. As so often is the case in the Middle East,
many Palestinians had a different view.
"Our relations with the Muslims is not really the problem," said
George Abdo, a social worker with the Shepherd Society. "It is the
occupation and all that it produces – the economic, social, medical
and educational hardships."
The main reasons for the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem
mentioned by those Christians who have remained was closures, curfews,
checkpoints and the barrier that Israel has erected around most of
the city and across much of the West Bank to prevent terrorists from
entering any of the largest Jewish settlements there or reaching
Israel.
"I don’t think the wall was designed to harm Christians, but it has
cut the Christians of Bethlehem off from Jerusalem, which they were
very connected to through their schools and their patriarchates,"
said Salim Menayer, a Palestinian Christian of Israeli nationality who
is dean of academics at the Bethlehem Bible College. "This has been
part of an Israeli drive to achieve a Jewish majority in Jerusalem
and maintain Jewish control there.
"When Israelis say that Christians leave because of Muslim pressure,
it is not the major factor; however there is some truth to that, too.
There is a lack of order and a weak central government in the
territories, while at the same time there has been a rise of Islamic
parties across the Arab world who have the perception that Christians
elsewhere have taken Israel’s side in the conflict. Islamic parties say
that Islam is the solution, and this has marginalized Christian Arabs."
Uwe Grabe, the Lutheran minister, agreed that there were competing
ideological answers for the departure of Christians from the Holy
Land. One held that it was entirely the fault of the "pressure cooker"
created by the Israeli occupation.
The other held that this was a part of a clash of civilizations
between Muslims and the Christian West and that Muslim violence
towards Christians that has occurred from time to time in the West
Bank, and Gaza was proof of that.
Broken economy
A huge contributing factor was that the Palestinian economy was feeble
and some people "will always emigrate when living conditions are
better somewhere else," Grabe said. "Palestinian Christian private
schools are a recipe for emigration. It can empower them to build
their society here, but others use it to emigrate."
One of those hoping to leave is Ruben Kahvedjian. The 29-year-old
accountant applied for a green card earlier this month at the
U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.
"It is a Tom and Jerry situation where each side blames the other
for Christians leaving," said Kahvedjian, who grew up in the Armenian
Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.
"Christians are squeezed from both sides. As much as we are part
of Palestinian culture, and while they will back always back us in
a dispute with someone who is Jewish, if the dispute is between a
Muslim and Christian, they will support the Muslim."
The return of Christian pilgrims for Christmas this year has given
George Abdo a slight hope that the Palestinian Christian community
in Bethlehem might still have a chance to survive.
"Tourism is our main source of income and even in the past two months,
we have really seen the economic situation improve," he said.
"Having a lot of Christians here for Christmas means that they think
that Bethlehem is once again safe for them. Everything for Christians
who still remain here depends on peace. The only way to guarantee a
Christian future in the Holy Land is if peace can somehow take hold
in the next five years."