Israeli-only road leading to illegal
settlement in Bethlehem
 

“What you are doing here as nonviolent activists is fantastic. I cannot thank you enough for your sacrifice in giving up months of your life to come here to help Palestinians,” said the dark-haired, dark-eyed woman sitting behind the desk in the marble-floored Public Relations office at Bethlehem University. I had come here with Fr. David, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, and a fellow member of the Michigan Peace Team in the West Bank, to inquire whether there could be a connection between the two Catholic institutions of higher learning. “But I have to tell you,” she continued. “I am not optimistic. I think that the main significance of your work here is that you will be able to document the history of how our people disappeared. You will be our witnesses.”

Rana* went on to explain to us that, within a few days, she would be leaving this job that she loves, and her country that she loves even more, because she could not allow herself to bring up her six-year-old son in a land that is brutally occupied by the Israeli military. Rana wants her child to grow up without the fear of soldiers invading his town or bulldozing his home. She wants him to be able to travel without restriction within his own country. She wants to protect him from the severe trauma that is likely suffered by a majority of Bethlehem’s children, a trauma that that is a direct result of living under military occupation.

According to a recent poll, most Americans are not aware that Bethlehem, the city where Jesus Christ was born, is a Palestinian city located in the occupied Palestinian Territories, or that its inhabitants are a mixture of Christians and Muslims. When they were informed of this fact, most Americans believed that these Muslims and Christian neighbors must live in bitter dispute – although about 90% of Bethlehem residents would disagree. Finally, more than a third of Americans are unaware that Israel has built a towering 25-foot concrete wall in and around Bethlehem, completely cutting it off from Jerusalem (six miles away), and annexing large areas of Palestinian land to Israel. Also, because the city is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements that have been built on land stolen from Palestinian landowners (both Christian and Muslim), Bethlehem is also almost entirely choked off from the rest of the West Bank¹.

Like Rana, many Christians, generally well-educated members of the middle class, are leaving Bethlehem – and the West Bank in general – at alarming rates. In the first half of the twentieth century, Christians made up about 90% of Bethlehem's population, but after the war in 1948, and in subsequent decades, they began emigrating steadily. Since the second Palestinian uprising began in 2000, and the Israeli military cracked down with overwhelming force, over 3,000 Christians have left Bethlehem. In 2002, the entire city was under siege for 38 days while Israeli troops attacked the Church of the Nativity, where close to 200 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, took refuge. Today, Christians make up only about a third of the population of Bethlehem, and less than 2% of all Palestinians in the West Bank².
 

Palestinian home surrounded by apartheid wall

Rana asked us to imagine Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christianity, in the year 2020. “It will no longer be recognizable as a Christian city. We, the original Christians, the ones who have kept this religion alive, will all have been forced to leave.”

But she was careful when providing us a reason for their exodus. “The Christians are not leaving here because of Islamic fundamentalism. Muslims are a part of my heritage, a part of who I am. We are leaving because we can’t survive under Israel’s military occupation.”

In the five years before 2007, 400 Christian families left Bethlehem. 78% of them said they were leaving because of the Israeli occupation, and another 12.5% attributed their departure to a combination of both the occupation and the rise of Islamic movements. (Close to 50% of Americans polled attributed the evacuation to Islamic extremism.)

The idea that radical Islam is the primary cause of Christian emigration from Bethlehem is a myth perpetuated by Zionists who want the outside world to ignore the truth: that the root of the Christian exodus is Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian Territories. When David and I asked Rana what she thought of Christian Zionists – Christians who believe that that the creation of the State of Israel is in accordance with Biblical prophecy, and therefore offer Israel much political and financial support – Rana sadly shook her head. “I don’t understand them.”

Outside the checkpoint

Besides the substantial amount of land that has been confiscated from Bethlehem residents, one of the most horrifying functions of the wall Israel is building is to deny the majority of the population of Bethlehem access to their capital city of Jerusalem, located six miles away. Palestinians who once traveled regularly to the city to work or pray now have to apply for special permits to do so. Those who are lucky enough to get these permits arrive at the checkpoint sometimes as early as 2 AM, and sleep on cardboard boxes in order to make sure they are first through the line when the series of metal detectors and ID booths finally open, which is supposed to be at 5 AM. Our group has witnessed such mornings, usually dark and chilly, as hundreds of Palestinians wait in line until the young soldiers, who often harass the Palestinians, decide to open the gates, which is almost never earlier than 5:15, and sometimes later. Just before opening time, crowds of Palestinians in the caged corridor outside the checkpoint – nurses in hospitals, salespeople in the old city, maintenance and day laborers, and professors at universities – cram up against each other, trying to squeeze to the front. The indignity is appalling.

The wall, the checkpoints, and the occupation in general has affected the standard of living in Bethlehem dramatically. The empty streets reflect the city’s ever-increasing unemployment, which has now reached around 65%. Tourism, which used to be the city's main source of income, has fallen drastically: tourists are strongly discouraged by governmental warnings from spending time in the West Bank. If they do visit Bethlehem, they don’t stay long. Hotels generally have only 10% occupancy. An alarming number of hotels, shops, and restaurants have closed, either because of lack of business or to make way for the construction of the wall.

Although Rana has decided to move away from such a situation and raise her son in a healthier environment, she is afraid that he will lose his sense of identity as a Palestinian. Rana’s husband left before her to start work and establish a home for their family. “He told me he felt like he was leaving everything he ever knew. I was relieved to hear him say that, because I, too, feel defeated. Some of my friends tell me that lots of people move to new countries and start new careers. But that is their choice. I am not leaving by choice. I am leaving because I have too. My new task in life must be, then, to do what I can to bring up my son so he will always know he is Palestinian.”
 

[1] “Americans Back Bethlehem - But Are Not Sure Where It Is,” a poll by Zogby International, December 2006, http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1224.

[2] Joel Greenburg, “Bethlehem sees a Christian exodus,” Bethlehem Media Net, December 24, 2006, http://www.bethlehemmedia.net/featers/2007/feat339.htm.

 * Names have been changed to protect identity