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CounterPunch
December
27, 2002
Christmas Eve in Bethlehem
by NEVE GORDON
Jerusalem. At around 9:00 am, the first fifty Israelis
passed the military checkpoint and climbed over the dirt barricade.
They were entering Bethlehem, which is considered "Area
A" of the Palestinian territories and therefore out of bounds
for Israeli citizens.
Determined to meet their Palestinian
partners, these Israelis, members of Ta'ayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership,
had decided to defy the law. Christmas Eve, they thought, was
a suitable day for an act of civil disobedience.
In August, Ta'ayush members had attempted
to walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, but, when they reached the
checkpoint, they were brutally beaten by the Israeli police who
used water cannons and clubs to disperse the crowd. On December
24, the activists entered in a roundabout way in  order to ensure that this time around
a solidarity meeting would indeed take place.
Bethlehem's month-long curfew had been
lifted the day before, but the city was in no mood to celebrate.
Children had been locked up in their homes for weeks, parents
had not gone to work, and access to medical facilities had been
obstructed. Scores of residents had been imprisoned, houses had
been demolished, and many streets and sidewalks had been turned
to rubble due to tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers.
As they made their way from the barricade
to the Church of Nativity Square, the activists were shocked
to see that Bethlehem, which had had a complete makeover just
three years earlier, was in ruins.
The Square boasted no Christmas tree;
there were no lights and no banners marking the sacred day. It
was clear that this was not to be a joyous holiday.
At around noon, a second group of approximately
200 Israelis and fifty French citizens met at checkpoint 300,
the major entrance to Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
Immediately after the Latin patriarch's
convoy passed through the checkpoint, at around 12:30 p.m., the
Israelis marched forward and demanded that the Israeli military
make way so that they could enter Bethlehem. They brought toys
for the Palestinian children with them, a symbolic gesture meant
to brighten just a tiny little bit the days of those who have
lost their childhood. They also had a truckload of basic foodstuffs
for the needy, knowing that over 60 percent of Palestinian families
live on $2 a day.
Probably because the eyes of world were
watching (scores of TV crews were covering the patriarch's convoy),
the police decided not to interfere and allowed the Ta'ayush
members to cross the checkpoint. The protesters took out signs
-- "Happy Christmas? Without Oppression!"; "Peace,
Security and Liberty For the two Peoples"; "Dismantle
the Settlements and Make Peace" -- and began marching the
two kilometers to the Church of Nativity Square, chanting: "Down
with the Occupation! Down with the Occupation!" in Arabic
and Hebrew.
Residents of Bethlehem joined the marching
crowd, and together they entered the square where they were met
by hundreds of Palestinians as well as by the activists who had
arrived earlier.
It was an electrifying moment.
In the midst of the bloody conflict and
merely a day after the harsh curfew had been lifted, hundreds
of Moslems, Jews, and Christians, Israelis, Palestinians and
Internationals stood side-by-side demanding an end to the occupation.
The very existence of such a protest
undermines the Israeli government's claim that there is no partner
with whom to negotiate, and demonstrated once again that the
two peoples have a common cause.
All of the TV crews witnessed the event,
and many of them even filmed it. Yet, while the Arab Al-Jazeera
and Abu-Dabi stations broadcasted the demonstration throughout
the day, CNN, BBC, Skynews and the like decided not to report
about this precious moment of Jewish-Arab solidarity.
Most astonishing was the Israeli press,
which made nothing of the protest, begging the question of why
two hundred and fifty Israelis standing together with hundreds
of Palestinians in the middle of Bethlehem -- in an act of civil
disobedience -- was not considered newsworthy.
The answer is straightforward: the demonstration
disrupts the picture the Israeli government and media have been
attempting to paint over the past two years. If the protest had
been covered, the Israeli viewer would have had to confront the
fact that the occupied Palestinians are not the bloodthirsty
terrorists they are frequently portrayed to be, that all they
are demanding is an end to the occupation, and that Palestinians
and Israelis can work together towards achieving this goal.
To be sure, such a picture would have
probably created a dissonance among many Israelis who have been
subjected to incessant propaganda and incitement against Palestinians.
Nonetheless, it is precisely this type of dissonance that is
most needed in Israel if we are to break the current bloody impasse:
to show the public that a different, more humane and peaceful
route is possible.
When the religious ceremonies ended,
the Israeli government re-implemented the curfew, knowing that
the TV crews had left the city and no one would document the
return of the oppressive regime. In this cynical world, two days
of freedom are apparently enough.
Neve Gordon
teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and is a contributor
to The
Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent. (New Press
2002). He can be reached at ngordon@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
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