T. S. Eliot once wrote:
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow”
~T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
Last weekend, Sue Gray wrote, “Bethlehem itself has been walled in by the Israeli ‘security fence’ to the point that it has strangled the once booming tourist industry as well as the local economy.”
The condition associated with the term “walled in” suggests enclosure. I looked for maps of the wall Israel has erected between itself and the West Bank. Bethlehem is just south and a bit west of Jerusalem. It is separated from Jerusalem by the wall. It is not enclosed, or surrounded by the wall.
Still, this is a semantic triviality. Sue’s central thrust is that Israel is choking off the Palestinians—Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.
Last Christmas Eve, I stumbled upon an article on washingtonpost.com titled Bethlehem Enjoys A Festive Christmas. It characterizes a different reality:
Christians celebrated Bethlehem’s merriest Christmas in eight years Wednesday, with hotels booked solid, Manger Square bustling with families and Israeli and Palestinian forces cooperating to make things run smoothly.
The festivities in the West Bank town contrasted sharply with Hamas-run Gaza. While revelers in Bethlehem launched pink fireworks from a rooftop, fighters fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns and villages, sending people scrambling for bomb shelters.
But 45 miles away, outside the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, good-natured crowds of pilgrims and townspeople gathered for the midnight Catholic Mass that is the holiday’s highlight.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said in an address during the late-night service that true security comes from God.
“War does not produce peace, prisons do not guarantee stability. The highest of walls do not assure security,” said Twal, the Catholic Church’s top cleric in the Holy Land. “Peace is a gift of God, and only God can give that peace.”
For any story, two sides there are…
Read the WaPo article here.
Cheers!
My apologies for the confusion. Instead of saying Bethlehem was “walled in,” I should’ve said it was “walled off.” Specifically walled off from Jerusalem, as you noted. It is the separation from Jerusalem that causes problems for religious pilgrims and tourists, as well as commerce.
You categorize the article you posted as presenting “a different reality” from the one in my post. This may be only temporarily accurate. Within that article itself are clues as to the more common experience of those living on the Palestinian side of the wall.
For instance, take the first sentence; “Christians celebrated Bethlehem’s merriest Christmas in eight years Wednesday, with hotels booked solid, Manger Square bustling with families…” This indicates that for the last eight years, Christmas has not been very merry due to restrictions on travel, causing the hotels and Manger Square to experience deficits in tourism. The reason this year is different is because of “…Israeli and Palestinian forces cooperating to make things run smoothly” indicating that things running smoothly is not the norm for Bethlehem.
I believe this change is due in part to pressure on the Israeli government created by conditions reported in previous years. Many Christian organizations have been lobbying the Israeli government to allow less restricted travel during the holidays, when not only international tourists, but Christians from all over Palestine come to celebrate the birth of their savior. Also, because Israel has the participation of Mahmood Abbas, Palestinian security forces are able to cooperate with Israeli forces. This is in contrast, as the article noted, to Gaza’s situation under Hamas control which is antagonistic to Israel, thus creating harsher restrictions on travel and living conditions than are experienced in the West bank.
The other tell is the quote by Fouad Twal. His reference to war, prisons, and “the highest of walls,” belies the everyday obstacles faced by Christian and Muslim Palestinians living in Bethlehem.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/23/news/ML-Christmas-The-Other-Bethlehem.php