RITE AND REASON: What is it like just now in the "little town" of 2002? Vera Baboun sent us this report from there last night.
"Then King Herod . . . killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem ... from two years and under. But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the lord ... saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead that sought the life of the child".
It is 2002 years since the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the heart of Christian faith and the mystery of the Incarnation. Bethlehem is the cradle of Christianity where the word of God became flesh and "dwelt among us." The Incarnation bestowed a sense of hope and faith on humanity, for God had sent his Son to save his creation spreading joy, hope, relief and contentment on humanity including the despairing, the grieving and the bereaved.
This is a season characterised by prayer, feasting, gift-giving and gatherings of families and friends promoting an idealised sense of the Christian spirit and communal good will. A season when the evergreen tree - symbol of rebirth and hope - is decorated with candles to remind us of God's creation. A season when Santa Claus, resounding bells of joy, city lights and Christmas carols fill the air with a sense of inner serenity and mystical delight.
Where is Bethlehem 2002 in all this? Since November 21st it has witnessed its third seizure imposed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Curfews were strictly imposed on the city and the movement of its inhabitants 24 hours daily. It was lifted five times in the past 28 days.
Shops were closed, business was stopped, education was suspended and life paralysed. For the past 28 days, and under the guise of Israeli national security, Bethlehemians have been forced to remain in their houses and to suffer a collective punishment because most Jews consider themselves victims in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and not the aggressors.
This deeply-rooted victim syndrome has been manipulated over the past year by the mainstream media to rally the public around the flag. For TV viewers Palestinian suffering is almost non-existent, while attacks on Jews are graphically replayed, rendering victimhood the existential condition of Israeli Jews.
In the weeks prior to Christmas every Christian nation prepares for celebration. However, in Bethlehem people witnessed the demolition of eight houses belonging to detainees, activists and prisoners, while the jeeps of the IDF bluntly roam inside and around the city arresting and assaulting its Christian and Muslim inhabitants.
Instead of the sound of Christmas bells, people here have listened to destruction. Instead of being lit with Christmas lights and bonfires, Bethlehem nights are all bleak darkness and a killing silence. The Christmas tree in Bethlehem is empty, without candles or glass balls. The children here did not have the opportunity to sing carols around the tree or to light its candles.
What is the crime of the children of Bethlehem? What was the crime of the children of Bethlehem when King Herod killed all the male children there? Herod's spirit is still alive, and his hatred and thirst for sovereignty have been resurrected to fuel the assaults of the IDF, the descendants of Herod's evil spirit.
On December 24th each year Bethlehem welcomes Patriarch Mitchel Sabah who leads the midnight Mass in the Nativity Church. Due to reoccupation of the city, his procession tomorrow will be free of any kind of celebration. He will enter the city accompanied only by dignitaries.
Mr Yasser Arafat is not attending the Mass this year. He is being prevented from doing so by the Israelis. He declared years ago that Christmas in Palestine was a national feast for Christians and Muslims alike. His presence at the celebrations is, symbolically, a powerful message of fraternity and hope, not only locally but internationally at a moment when a world in turmoil badly needs such gestures.
The prevention of Arafat from being in Bethlehem is also a blatant violation of the Status Quo Agreement observed here since the 19th century. The presence of the official authority at the Christmas Mass was respected during the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate and Jordanian rule.
Following the first seizure of Bethlehem last April-May, Palestinian Christian worshippers were prevented from celebrating Holy Week and Easter. People were forced to remain in their houses for 39 days until the crisis at the Nativity Church witnessed its end.
Since then Palestinians have still been going the way of the cross. They are carrying a cross of suffering, the ordeal of occupation, but mostly the cross of pain for feeling abandoned by the whole world. Will we ever witness a needed resurrection of a new dawn on our bleak horizon? Alone, we can never do that. One hand cannot clap.
As a Christian living in Bethlehem I was taught that from hope and faith a conspicuous and acknowledged affinity emerged. Both are confessed religious virtues that function against human vulnerability, sense of loss, schisms, bigotry and strife.
Crisis, in its severest sense of grievance and impairment, simultaneously and most ironically functions as a double-edged weapon. It melts differences, bringing to the surface our humane sympathy and compassionate understanding. In the last 53 years we as Palestinians have experienced the need for faith and hope amidst crisis and calamity.
This Christmas will be an additional experience in the long suffering that has been our lot to bear.
If the international community in general has tended to forsake Palestine in general, and the international Christian community to forsake Bethlehem and its suffocated joy in particular, we the Palestinian Christians of the Holy Land will never forsake the child of the Nativity and his message of peace and joy. Tomorrow will joyfully witness the celebration of Christmas midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity despite the seizure, bigotry and strife.
Vera Baboun is assistant dean of students and lecturer in English literature at Bethlehem University. She is a Roman Catholic Palestinian who was born and lives in Bethlehem