"BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) — Israeli guards beat five demonstrators, including one dressed as Father Christmas, during a protest on Friday against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, organisers said.
About 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists attended the rally in the village of Um Salomona, near Bethlehem, the Biblical birthplace of Jesus that is preparing to celebrate Christmas.
Israeli border guards armed with truncheons briefly detained one activist and beat another five during the rally, the organisers told AFP, adding that one was wearing a Santa Claus costume.
An Israeli army spokesman said there had been disorder at the protest and that several demonstrators who were briefly detained were subsequently released.
Israel says the massive barrier of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls built across the West Bank is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating the country and attacking Jewish settlements on Arab land.
The Palestinians say the project is aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling that parts of the 650-kilometre (410-mile) barrier criss-crossing the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down. Israel has vowed to complete the project."
Jews beat Santa Claus with truncheons
Israeli guards beat five demonstrators, including one dressed as Santa Claus, during a protest yesterday against Israel's apartheid wall in the West Bank.
About 50 peace activists attended the rally in the village of Um Salomona, near Bethlehem, the Biblical birthplace of Jesus that is preparing to celebrate Christmas.
Israeli border guards armed with truncheons briefly detained one activist and savagely beat another five during the rally. One Christian Palestinian protester was wearing a Santa Claus costume.
Israel says the massive barrier of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls built across the West Bank is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating the country and attacking Jewish settlements on Arab land.*
Palestinians say the project is aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling that parts of the 650-kilometre (410-mile) barrier criss-crossing the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down.
Israel has vowed to complete the project anyway.
* Whoa! The AFP news network slipped up there!
IOF creatures were stirring, setting land mines.
No stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
Palestinian kids knew death was in the air.
The children were hiding under their beds,
While IOF storm troopers were about, spraying lead.
And mamma in her hijab, and I in my cap,
Were praying to Allah that the IOF would not snap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
IOF machine guns were making bodies splatter.
A window broke with the sound of a crash
As an IOF grenade, turned my brothers into mash.
The blood on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of death to objects below.
When, what to my frightened eyes should appear,
But an Israeli tank, and eight more IOF troopers and gear.
The IOF tank driver, so little and quick,
Obviously compensating for his small dick.
More rapid than eagles his shells they came,
And he laughed, and shouted, and called my family names.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard the roof cave in
And the IOF troopers, shouting with a grin.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney came a IOF mortar round.
It crashed to our floor, with a terrible noise
Killing my father with typical, Jewish joy.
An IOF trooper, with bombs in his backpack.
Kicked open our door and started to attack.
His eyes-how they gleamed! My, what a terrible look
His cheeks were like tombs, his nose had a hook.
His lips did sneer, his tongue did slurp
Then, his machine gun did start to burp.
The stump of a pipe bomb he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a ghostly face, a skull for a head
An Israeli Storm Trooper, one to dread.
He was severe and plump, a bastard with a leer
And I cried when I saw him, filled with fear.
The gleam in his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know that we would be dead.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Spraying bullets around, like a callous jerk.
And laying his knife aside of my throat
He slit it open, like one would a goat.
He sprang to his tank, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Death to all Palestinians and to all, a gory night!"
"
By SONJA KARKAR
As Christmas approaches this year, the thoughts of Christians all over the world will once again turn to Bethlehem, the holy town where Jesus was born over two millennia ago. Voices will be raised in joyful celebration and children everywhere will re-create the Christmas story to help us remember the circumstances in which the Christ child was born.
Such a momentous occasion in such humble surroundings heralded a new way of thinking about people's relationship with God and with each other. It shook the foundations of an unforgiving society presided over by an unforgiving God and proclaimed peace and goodwill on earth amongst all people. There was indeed much to hope for.
However, the tranquil pastoral scene so familiar to us is not at all evident in Bethlehem today. Bethlehem does not lie still, and peace on earth and goodwill towards all is as elusive as ever. The tyranny of Israel's occupation and its colonial expansionism is crippling the lives of both Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike. Yet, many Christians will again ignore the misery suffered by the Palestinians in the Holy Land and will celebrate Christmas without remembering that it was amongst this people and in their land that Jesus was born. Priests will chant, masses will be said, carols will be sung and nativity scenes will be created, but it is unlikely that many sermons will urge Christian congregations to speak out against the crimes being committed in Palestine.
Only recently, a delegation of eminent Australian Church leaders returned from visiting the Holy Land and reported their distress at "the suffering and fear experienced daily by large numbers of people." [1] The report criticizes Israel's military occupation for the "systematic harassment, physical and psychological oppression, widespread unemployment, poverty, and economic deprivation" [2] of both Palestinian Christians and Muslims. No doubt these church leaders will encourage their ministries to spread the word before the momentum is lost, but there are many forces working against justice for the Palestinians. Their statement has already been criticized by the Israeli ambassador and they are likely to face objections not only from Jews who support a Zionist state in Israel, but also from Christian quarters.
A dangerous Christian ideology which endorses the rhetoric of Zionism and the conquest of all Palestine for Israel is making its presence felt in Australia. This Christian fervour for Israel has found expression in a revitalised Christian Zionism that began back in the sixteenth century [3] and is directed today against Islam and Muslims. In America particularly, it has misconstrued the messianic and apocalyptic legacy of the Christian faith and has replaced the Jewish and communist Anti-Christ of Christian Zionism's earlier imaginings with an Islamic Anti-Christ. This Anti-Christ, it believes, will be defeated in Israel where all mankind will gather for the coming of the Messiah. That it should take place in Israel, given the numbers of the world's populations, is an absurd notion even amongst the most devout. That the dispossession, degradation and humiliation of the Palestinians who have lived in this land for millennia, can be condoned on such a pretext is even more abhorrent and preposterous.
Unfortunately, the influence of this Christian Zionism is growing rapidly and threatens the thinking of a whole generation of mainstream Christians regardless of their denominations, including Christians in the Holy Land. Father Rafiq Khoury of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, gives a very disturbing account of Christian Zionism's effect on religion and politics. [4] Where once Christians and Muslims shared common values and aspirations in Palestinian society, Christian Zionism has succeeded in fragmenting this already battered community as it struggles to withstand Israel's punishing occupation. Amongst certain sections of this society, Christians and Muslims are now viewing each other with suspicion, and Christians in Palestine, like those abroad, are beginning to see Islam as the enemy. Needless to say, this has been enormously detrimental to the Palestine liberation movement.
It would surprise many Christians in the West that Palestinian Christians and Muslims have prayed in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity for centuries. In fact, the Qur'an - the holy book of Islam - refers often, and with great reverence, to Jesus and Mary. Muhammad himself preserved an icon of Mary and the child Jesus after the conquest of Mecca and ordered that it remain within the Ka'ba to which Muslims make their obligatory pilgrimage from all over the world. [5]
Since 638 CE, Muslims have had the right to pray in the south aisle of the church when the Patriarch of Jerusalem handed over Palestine to Caliph Omar as he swept into Bethlehem with his Arab armies. [6] Muslims recognise Jesus as the Christ, the mightiest Messenger of God who was born miraculously of the Virgin Mary and who, through God, was able to perform miracles. However, Christians and Muslims part ways on Christ's divinity. Muslims believe that there has always been and continues to be one God only and that joining Christ and the Holy Spirit with God the Father in what is known as the Trinity a major tenet of Christianity compromises that singular divinity of God.
It has not though affected their recognition of, and reverence for, Jesus and Mary. The highly regarded theologian of the early Christian Church, St John of Damascus actually thought that Islam was merely another form of Christianity[7], and indeed today, St John would probably be more comfortable with the practices and beliefs of Muslims than he would with the form of Christianity that has developed in the West, particularly Christian Zionism.
So much of the fear and antagonism we see today against Muslims come from ignorance. In Palestine, Christian and Muslims have lived together in harmony for centuries, and particularly in Bethlehem, they have not only shared Christmas celebrations, but even the Muslim feasts Eid al-Fitr at the end of the Ramadan fast and Eid al-Adha. As one young Bethlehem tour guide commented in 2002:
"We know how to celebrate together, because we know how to weep together. We have suffered as one people under 35 years of occupation. The same week that Mary, a Muslim mother of seven was killed in Beit Jala, Johnny, a 17-year-old, died in Manger Square as he was coming out of the Church of the Nativity, both shot by Israeli snipers. We're all inmates together, Muslims and Christians, in the same miserable prison called Palestine. We have no freedom, no peace, no jobs, no money for winter heating, no travelling to Jerusalem or between towns and villages, no future."
And that is the sum of what is so often forgotten in the search for peace and justice: the escalating inhuman situation suffered by the Palestinians Christians and Muslims.
Sing as we might this Christmas, the hopes and dreams of all the years is unlikely to be met in Bethlehem for those who live there. Nor are they likely to be met for the Palestinians barely hanging on to their miserable existence in Gaza, or the Palestinians in the other cities, towns and villages in the Holy Land and even less for the stateless Palestinians long deprived of hope in the refugee camps. Every chorister's hallelujah will just be a death knell for another generation of Palestinians and every Christmas reflection will become meaningless words of Christian faith, unless we are prepared to look beyond the tinsel and the feasting and really do something to stop Israel's crimes against both Christians and Muslims in Palestine.
Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. See www.womenforpalestine.com
Footnotes:
[1] Statement by Australian Church Leaders, Bethlehem, 18 December 2007
[2] Ibid.
[3] Fr Rafiq Khoury, "Effects of Christian Zionism on religion, Christian local churches and peace research", Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Jerusalem, 2004 (a presentation given at the Al-Sabeel International Conference on 15 April 2004)
[4] Ibid.
[5] Uri Rubin, "The Ka'ba: Aspects of its Ritual Function and Position in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Times", Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986) 97-131
[6] Dr G S P Freeman-Grenville, The Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine Exploration Fund, January 1994
[7] William Dalrymple, "What Muslims and Christians share: A Christmas meditation", The New Statesman, 19 December 2005Source "
SLAUGHTERING OF CHILDREN ON THE EID
"Carrying babies to their graves in Beit Hanoun. They died
because western politicians are cowards and racists under
the heel of the zionists. (Source: Kawther Info)....site contains most disturbing photos
Palestinian medical sources on Wednesday morning announced the death of Dua Imran, 18 years, after suffering from a chronic disease and being barred from seeking medical treatment abroad because of the hermetic siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, 15-year-old Rawan Nassar, who suffered kidney failure, died on Wednesday evening, according to medical sources in the Gaza Strip.
The total closure since June 2007 and the economic siege that preceded it have left Gaza hospitals incapable of meeting the demands of the local population as the hospitals are running out of the necessary medication and spare parts for medical equipment, such as the much needed dialysis machines."
Israel wants to annihilate Palestinians, not reach...
| |
 |
| Comment from Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
I know I should be observing and enjoying the Eidul Adha, the most important holiday in the Islamic calendar. A few days ago, an Israeli cabinet minister threatened a genocide against Israel’s own non-Jewish citizens. |
"
On the first day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Another “peace treaty”
On the second day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Two targeted killings and another “peace treaty”
On the third day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Three new Checkpoints, Two targeted killings, and another “peace treaty”
On the fourth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the fifth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the sixth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the seventh day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the eighth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Eight new settlement “expansions”, seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the ninth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Nine more arrested, eight new settlement “expansions”, seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the tenth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Ten empty fuel trucks, nine more arrested, eight new settlement “expansions”, seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the eleventh day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Eleven patients “awaiting”, ten empty fuel trucks, nine more arrested, eight new settlement “expansions”, seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
On the Twelfth day of Christmas the Zionists gave to me
Twelve ghettos suffocating, eleven patients “awaiting”, ten empty fuel trucks, nine more arrested, eight new settlement “expansions”, seven children beaten, six demolished homes, five new “incursions”, four “illegal” outposts, three new checkpoints, two targeted killings, and another “Peace Treaty”
Mike Odetalla 12-2007
IDF scales back Bethlehem ops for Xmas"
The IDF began scaling back its operations in Bethlehem and the city's outlying areas on Sunday ahead of the expected arrival of more than 60,000 Christian pilgrims to the city in the next few days to participate in Christmas celebrations.
Thousands of pilgrims and tourists began crossing from Jerusalem into Bethlehem on Sunday and the IDF said that it would pull its forces out of the city and suspend operations there. Central Command sources said the IDF usually enters Bethlehem every night to search for wanted terror suspects.
"We do not want to ruin the tourism industry and want to allow the Palestinians the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the holiday season," said a top officer from the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division.
Instead of hunting down terror suspects, forces from the IDF's Etzion Brigade will guard the entranceway to Bethlehem and will coordinate security developments there with Palestinian Authority security forces.
Some 340,000 tourists have crossed from Israel into Bethlehem since the beginning of the year, in comparison to the 200,000 who visited the city in 2006.
Palestinians estimate that by the end of the year 400,000 tourists will have visited Bethlehem.
To get to Bethlehem, tourists must cross through a large army checkpoint - called Checkpoint 300 - at Israel's West Bank security barrier.
The area was the scene of violent gunfights during the peak of the second intifada.
The Tourism Ministry has spent thousands of dollars on decorations to make tourists feel more welcome, and workers at visitor centers will hand out candy and welcome letters to the pilgrims.
While the IDF will scale back its operations over the next few days, the officer said it was possible that a lone Palestinian terrorist would try to ruin the festive atmosphere by perpetrating an attack in the city.
"Nothing can ensure this won't happen," the officer said, adding that overall the PA's interest was to maintain peace and quiet in the city during this tourist season.
Israel is allowing 500 Christians from the Gaza Strip to enter Israel and the West Bank for up to one month during the Christmas season."
The Plight and Resistance of Christians in Palesti...
"
With Christmas approaching, ARA decided to post some stories of Christians in Palestine fighting against Israeli apartheid alongside their Muslim brothers and sisters. Their resistance takes the form of "steadfastness" or refusal to leave their homeland. These stories are important to popularize in the United States because many Christians are unaware that Palestinian Christians suffer from Israeli apartheid. Here, their stories will be given a chance to be heard. This particular story can be found on page 13 of the pdf pamphlet available here. [PDF]
Faith in the Holy Land
Taking faith beyond the church
Costa Dabbagh, a Palestinian Christian in his 60s, has never met some of his grandchildren. He cannot see his daughter, who lives just 90km away. He cannot visit the rest of his family, who are scattered across the globe. He has faced bombings, the strafings of Israeli fighter jets, fighting between rival Palestinian factions and the fear of being a refugee. But he has chosen to remain in Gaza , his home. “Just after the Israeli occupation, my parents, my brother and sister moved away. I was offered a job in Australia and even got my visa. But I stayed,” he recalls. “My family kept asking me to join them, and I often thought of leaving. But I think it was God's wish for me”.
This grey-haired man remembers leaving Haifa in Israel with his family at the age of eight – “in darkness and under fire” – and fleeing to Gaza in 1948. He stays, not because he serves the tiny Christian community here as executive secretary of the Near East Council of Churches (NECC), but because of his courageous commitment to a wider humanity.
Trapped
The Gaza Strip is a land which has been crushed. Rubble, chunks of concrete and half-destroyed buildings line the dusty streets of Gaza City . Behind a sign reading ‘funded by USAID’ is a multistory building seemingly flattened with one blow. Even the small signs of modern life – washing hanging brave little beach umbrellas on the coastline vainly hoping for tourists – are dwarfed by bleakness. The departure of Israel 's settlers has not changed anything fundamental: the soldiers are gone, but the borders are still closed and poverty is increasing. Intermittent factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas is taking a terrible toll, as people trapped within the borders turn on each other.
At the time we were speaking to Costa, people were queuing for bread outside the bakeries because flour was not being allowed in through the borders. “It reminds me of a joke about Marie Antoinette we learned in school,” says Costa, “when she said, ‘let them eat cake.’”
Unemployment is skyrocketing to unprecedented levels and 80 per cent of Gazans depend on UNRWA food aid to put even the most basic meal on the table.
A moment of normality
There are few places here where life can feel normal, even fleetingly. The NECC office is one of them. It is tranquil and serene, in contrast to the tumult outside. In a nearby building, young women learn tailoring and accounting in the hope that they can some day have a job. Young men learn woodworking. There is a sense of hope and purpose. In the NECC family clinic, the cool tile floors and pristine white walls are startling after the grimy, broken down feeling of everything around it. More than half the children here are anaemic. Medicine stocks are running out and some people can no longer afford even the tiny clinic fee – seven shekels, or 85 pence. But the doctors continue to work.
Regardless of faith
“Christians are part and parcel of this land. We have never felt like outsiders,” says Costa. “Yes, we are Christians, but we are Palestinian Arab Christians. We all suffer the same problems – we are traveling in the same boat. The NECC has been an example here. People see that we have no agenda other than our Christian witness – to help people regardless of faith. The young people who come to our centres are so vulnerable. We train them and integrate them into society. We make them feel they have a future, which is now more important than ever.”
“We should stay”
“I was born a Christian and continue to be one. But I always judge people according to their actions. If I see an Israeli soldier without a uniform, I will see him as a son of God. But if he directs his guns at my children and my grandchildren, I will not give in, I am not defending myself from ‘Jews’ but from someone who wants to eradicate me and uproot me from my land. I will never leave Gaza . Our faith says we should stay - to try to create hope. But ultimately, hope can only be achieved with community and implementation of UN resolutions.”
Pray for all Christians faithful to our Lord in their difficult circumstances and thank God for their faithful witness. And pray that more Christians may be able to stay in the Holy Land and maintain the witness of faith for the world to share in. Remember too Ghassan Makhalfeh tour guide, and his family. Georges Rishmawi Greek Orthodox Christian and leader of Siraj - working for peaceful solutions Bob and Maurine Tobin of Sabeel.
Michael Dykes
Labels: Palestinian Christians"
Churches in Holy Land Latest Victims of Israeli Au...
"Israel makes Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Church of Nativity off limits to Christian Clergy
(Bethlehem, Palestine - 24 Dec 2007) As the world celebrates this holiday season, Israel is blocking clergy from reaching their churches and Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the Holy Land. These Israeli actions are in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, block the right for religions to practice in the Holy Land, and defy every notion of basic common sense.
--MORE--PDF"
Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Dec 24 (IPS) - "Santa Claus is empty handed this year…insolvent," says Father Manuel Musallam, head of the Holy Family School in Gaza City.
"All forms of celebration are absent," he says, raising his empty palms skywards. "We Christians and Muslims all live in fear and instability. The Israeli tanks, bulldozers and warplanes have laid siege on us all."
His school, which has both Muslim and Christian students, likes to celebrate including all; this year few celebrations were planned, for fewer children.
The Sunday school headmaster of the Greek Orthodox Church, Jaber al-Jilda, echoes his Catholic colleague's sentiments. "This year's celebrations are mainly religious," he says. "We want to celebrate, but our hearts are full of pain and grief. We cannot celebrate and at the same time watch as the funeral of another killed by Israeli occupation passes in front of our church."
On Friday the building where he teaches is a mosque. On Sunday, it is a church.
"I don't feel like celebrating Christmas," says 16-year-old Merkiana Tarazi. "Without safety and peace, even if I wear new clothes, I won't be happy."
Like many in Gaza who have family members in Israel, Jordan or the West Bank, Merkiana is cut off from much of her family. Her elder sister attending Beir Ziet University in the West Bank cannot come home for Christmas "because of the Israeli siege."
In the past, even under occupation, Gaza's Christian community celebrated Christmas, though without the commercialism and grandeur of the West. Before the second Palestinian uprising, the Intifadah, began in 2000, Christians and Muslims would gather at Gaza's main square on Christmas Day. A giant Christmas tree was set up in the square, and a Santa Claus handed out gifts to people on the street. Today, the municipality cannot afford a tree.
"We used to offer chocolate to our children at the school," Father Musallam said. "But now because of the Israeli siege, no chocolate is available."
The Christmas decorations are gone, too. "Paper and drawing materials are scare. And if we happen to find supplies in the market, we cannot afford them. Even clothes or just the basic ingredients needed to make a Christmas cake are not available here."
But the conditions have still not killed spirits; in place of chocolate, Father Manuel's school arranged strawberries. Strawberries grown in Gaza were one of the products destined for Europe this year, but Israel stopped the export. That made them some hope at Christmas.
Jilda too has found his own substitutes. For Christmas gifts he is offering religious books instead of chocolates, dresses and more traditional gifts.
Christmas comes this year amidst stories that continue to surface in Western media accusing the Hamas government or Muslims in general of persecuting Christians in Gaza or Palestine. Not many Christians in Gaza say that.
"Hamas has never done that," Jilda says emphatically. "They send representatives from Hamas to our celebrations. Last year, as the year before, they came and offered Christmas greetings at our Church to the entire congregation."
In the absence of much else, the Christian leaders offer words of hope.
"Christmas is about forgiveness and peace," says Father Musallam. "It begins with a child. If we each plant a tree of happiness in our children's hearts, the fruit produced will be peace. I send my love and respect to the world at a time when our people live in hope, and in despair."
(END/2007)"
Christmas under Hamas rule
" By Katya Adler
BBC News, Gaza City
Manawel Musallam - priest, headmaster and Gazan - is a rotund, avuncular man, fond of wearing berets.
I have come to his office to ask how Christians in Gaza were faring on this, their first Christmas under the full internal control of Hamas.
"You media people!" Father Musallam boomed at me when I first poked my head around his door.
"Hamas this, Hamas that. You think we Christians are shaking in our ghettos in Gaza? That we're going to beg you British or the Americans or the Vatican to rescue us?" he asked.
"Rescue us from what? From where? This is our home."
Extended family
The pupils at the Holy Family School, Gaza City, all call Manawel Musallam "Abunah" - Our Father in Arabic.
His is a huge family of 1,200 children and, although the school is part-funded by the Vatican, here, as in all of Gaza, Christians are the minority.
| | Our identity is a multi-layered one Father Manawel Musallam |
Ninety-nine percent of the pupils here are Muslim. This is one of the reasons Fr Musallam says he does not fear the Islamists.
"They should be afraid. Not me," he chuckled.
"Their children are under my tutelage, in my school. Hamas mothers and fathers are here at parents' day along with everyone else."
But there is more that binds Christians and Muslims in Gaza than their children's shared playground.
After the bloody scenes of Palestinian infighting this year, it is easy to assume Gazan society is irreconcilably split - both politically and along religious lines.
There were those chilling incidents in June when men with beards were shot for looking like Islamists.
Men without beards were shot by Islamist extremists who thought they were non-believers, even traitors.
But actually the situation is far less clear cut.
Take the music room-cum-prayer hall at the Holy Family School.
Nativity play
On one of the walls hang huge photos of what the irreverent might be tempted to describe as the Gazan Catholic's Holy Trinity - the Pope, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the (Muslim) Palestinian president.
I found a group of 10-year-olds on stage, rehearsing their Nativity play, watched, with great enthusiasm, by a group of their Muslim friends.
| | Nobody can tell us Christians how to dress, how to live or how to pray Patriarch Michel Sabbah |
Mary and Joseph squatted on stage. The girl playing Mary, clasped a tube of scrunched-up brown paper wrapped in a scarf, which, for rehearsal purposes, was posing as baby Jesus.
"You see," Fr Musallam told me, as he gazed indulgently at the goings-on on stage. "Our identity is a multi-layered one."
"Of course, I am a Christian believer, but politically I am a Palestinian Muslim. I resist Israel's military occupation, obviously not with weapons.
"The Jihad can never be mine but with my words, my sermons, I am a Palestinian priest."
On stage, four wise men, instead of three (probably due to a casting struggle) were paying their respects to the paper bag.
"We have lived alongside Muslims here since Islam was born," said Fr Musallam, waving his arm at the stage.
"They have a special word for us, the Christians of Palestine. They call us Nasserine - the people of Nazareth. They recognise that we have always been here.
"Even the more extreme Muslims see a difference between us and other Christians they regard as enemies and call Crusaders."
There is no evidence to suggest the Hamas government here officially discriminates against Christians but its takeover in Gaza - its military wing's leading role in armed resistance against Israel, along with the Islamic Jihad faction - have all led to the increasing Islamisation of Gazan society.
And that has encouraged some extremist Muslims to take action.
A Christian bookshop owner was killed here a couple of months ago.
There was a kidnap attempt on another Christian recently.
And a number of Christian families we spoke to say they had received death threats.
They question Hamas' willingness to take action to protect them.
However, it was under Hamas armed escort that we met the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, on a special pre-Christmas visit to Gaza.
It was quite a spectacle.
The Patriarch, dressed in a purple cassock, stepped out of a black, shiny Mercedes at the Latin Church in Gaza City.
'God's creatures'
A crowd of police cars screeched to a halt all around him, lights flashing and sirens screaming. Bearded gunmen dressed in black jumped out to guard him.
In previous years, the Patriarch's Christmas sermon has concentrated on the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation but this year he preached steadfastness in the face of intimidation by Islamist fanatics.
"They forget we are all God's creatures," he told a concerned-looking congregation.
"But nobody can tell us Christians how to dress, how to live or how to pray".
The patriarch called on the Hamas government to take responsibility and to protect the Christian citizens of Gaza, along with everyone else.
As the crowded church was belting out hallelujahs, I stepped into the church courtyard for some fresh air.
The Muslim call to prayer was beginning to echo from the myriad of mosques all around.
I thought how this reflected the situation in Gaza in Christmas 2007 - that while the muezzin were on loudspeaker, the church bells here are played from a cassette tape.
A nervous young nun adjusted the volume - loud enough to peel through the church but not to penetrate its walls - it might risk offending Muslim Gazans passing by.
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 22 December, 2007 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.
Published: 2007/12/22 11:43:52 GMT
© BBC MMVII"
In Bethlehem, a bond is born
"Related
Palestinian Christians say they are invisible to visiting U.S. evangelicals
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"The lyrics about the little town of Bethlehem, so closely associated with the Christmas season, ring with irony for a group of Cambridge [Massachusetts, USA] citizens who recently visited the Middle East. Among their conclusions: The barrier has devastated the local economy and, as described in the familiar carol, Bethlehem does indeed lie still. For many in the delegation - which included six Jewish members as well as two of Palestinian descent - the events and scenes they witnessed during the visit late last month remain emotionally raw and often difficult to convey to friends and co-workers. As a Jewish member of the delegation and as someone who had escaped from the Nazis in Vienna, Eva Moseley, 76, said the trip left her with "complicated feelings about the Holocaust," because "on top of the usual outrage and horror at what it was, I feel another layer of outrage at the way it is used to punish the Palestinians, who had nothing to do with it."
Visiting group sees two sides of wall
Members of Cambridge- Bethlehem People-to-People visit children in Bethlehem's Aida refugee camp. (Phyllis Bretholz) The lyrics about the little town of Bethlehem, so closely associated with the Christmas season, ring with irony for a group of Cambridge citizens who recently visited the Middle East.
The 15-member delegation, called the Cambridge-Bethlehem People-to-People project, set out to gather stories of the city's residents, and investigate how the separation barrier that Israel has built around and through the city has affected life in the region.
Among their conclusions: The barrier has devastated the local economy and, as described in the familiar carol, Bethlehem does indeed lie still.
For many in the delegation - which included six Jewish members as well as two of Palestinian descent - the events and scenes they witnessed during the visit late last month remain emotionally raw and often difficult to convey to friends and co-workers.
--MORE--"Happy Eid!
If you're Muslim - Happy Eid!
If you're not - Happy Holidays!
May the Love of God and Peace forever unite us against injustice."
MSM version:
"In Bethlehem, hopes overcome fears; Crowds return despite tensions in the region" by Dalia Nammari, Associated Press | December 25, 2007
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Encouraged by renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Christian pilgrims from around the world converged on Jesus' traditional birthplace yesterday and this morning to celebrate Christmas - a palpable contrast to the sparse crowds of recent years.
The diverse mix of people included festive American tourists, clergymen in brown flowing robes, and Palestinian scouts wearing kilts and playing bagpipes.
The festive atmosphere, however, could not mask lingering tensions in the region. A heavy police deployment, the presence of Israel's massive separation barrier, and unease among Bethlehem's shrinking Christian population served as reminders of the tensions.
In his Christmas homily during midnight Mass, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah delivered a politically charged appeal for peace and love in the Holy Land - and independence for the Palestinian people.
Sabbah, the first Palestinian to hold the position of top Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land:
"This land of God cannot be for some a land of life and for others a land of death, exclusion, occupation, or political imprisonment."
Tourism workers handed out sweets and flowers to pilgrims, and smiling Israeli soldiers posed for pictures with travelers. Priests and monks, tourists, Palestinian families, and police mingled in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, the site where tradition holds Christ was born.
Vendors hawked beads, inflatable Santas, roasted peanuts, cotton candy, steamed corn, and Turkish coffee while residents watched the festivities from balconies and rooftops. A four-story cypress tree, strung with lights and red and gold ornaments and topped with a yellow star, towered outside the church.
After nightfall, the square was lit in a sea of red and yellow lights and Christmas stars.
Shopkeeper Jacques Aman, whose wooden handicrafts shop offered crosses, rosaries, and nativity scenes:
"This year is much better than the last seven years for tourism. The atmosphere is better in general. There is relative calm, from the security standpoint."
Throughout the evening, choirs and orchestras performed hymns and Christmas carols in a multitude of languages.
Sabbah began Christmas celebrations with his annual procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He could only enter Bethlehem after passing through a massive steel gate in Israel's separation barrier - a stretch of concrete slabs built to keep suicide bombers from reaching Israel. Mounted police officers escorted Sabbah, in his flowing magenta robe, to the gate, and border police clanged it shut behind him.
The barrier was just one of the reminders of the area's lingering troubles. Hundreds of police were deployed in Manger Square and on neighboring rooftops, and before celebrants started flowing in, bomb squads walked through the streets sweeping cars and buildings for explosives.
Years of violence with Israel, infighting among rival Palestinian factions, and economic hardship caused by the barrier have contributed to the departure of Christians from Bethlehem. Officials say from 35 percent to 50 percent of the town's 40,000 people are Christian, compared with 90 percent in the 1950s.
As if their is some sort of Anti-Christian thing going on since the annexation of Palestine!!
Johnny Giacaman, a Bethlehem native who now lives in the United Arab Emirates but returned this year to visit his family:
"There is nothing for young people here. Christians are leaving in high numbers. . . . If this continues, in five to 10 years the Church of the Nativity will be a museum."
Yeah, in a GREATER ISRAEL as planned!!!!
"At Christmas, Iraqi Christians Ask for Forgiveness, and for Peace" by DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD — Inside the beige church guarded by the men with the AK-47s, a choir sang Christmas songs in Arabic. An old woman in black closed her eyes while a girl in a cherry-red dress, with tights and shoes to match, craned her neck toward rows of empty pews near the back.
Yusef Hanna, a parishioner:
“Last year it was full. So many people have left — gone up north, or out of the country.”
Sacred Heart Church is not Iraq’s largest or most beleaguered Christian congregation. It is as ordinary as its steeple is squat, in one of Baghdad’s safest neighborhoods, with a small school next door.
But for those who came to Sacred Heart for Mass on Christmas Eve, there seemed to be as much sadness as joy. Despite the improved security across Iraq, which some parishioners cited as cause for hope, the day’s sermon focused on continuing struggles.
Iraq’s Christians have fared poorly since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with their houses or businesses frequently attacked. Some priests estimate that as much as two-thirds of the community, or about one million people, have fled, making Sacred Heart typical. Though a handful have recently returned from abroad, only 120 people attended Mass on Monday night, down from 400 two years ago.
Bush IS the Anti-Christ!!!!!!!
The service began with traditional hymns. Some songs were sung in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. It was a reminder of the 2,000-year-old history of Iraq’s largest Christian group, the Chaldeans, an Eastern Rite church affiliated with Roman Catholicism.
Initially the sermon seemed equally traditional, beginning as many do with phrases like “This day is not like other days.”
Yet the priest, the Rev. Thaer al-Sheik, soon turned to more local themes, talking about the psychological impact of violence, kidnapping and a lack of work, condemning hate and denouncing revenge:
“We must practice being humane to each other. Living as a Christian today is difficult. If the angel Gabriel comes today and says Jesus Christ is reborn, what do we do? Do we clap or sing?”
His parish, quiet and somber — with the drab faces of a funeral, not a Mass on Christmas Eve — took the question seriously. And responded.
Awoman, her head covered by a black scarf and voice was just loud enough for everyone to hear:
“We ask him for forgiveness."
Another woman raised her voice: “We ask for peace.”
Father Sheik looked disappointed:
“We are always like beggars, asking God for this or that. We shouldn’t be this way. First, we should thank God for giving us Jesus Christ. He would say, ‘I came to live among you. I want to teach you how to be compassionate. I want to teach you how to be more humane.’”
The people listened intently. No one smiled.
Communion followed. A stream of people — the choir’s keyboardist, a woman in black with eyes pink from crying through the service, an attractive young woman in thick makeup — came forward. They moved slowly down the center aisle, stepping onto what appeared to be Persian rugs, a few feet from an artificial Christmas tree in the corner with flashing red and green lights.
A woman ran wooden rosary beads through her fingers, which without the small cross on the end, looked exactly like Muslim prayer beads.
And among some, there was hope. Mary Hannawi, 50, said before the service that coming to church always made her happy, regardless of the circumstances outside its guarded walls.
But even Father Sheik could not resist asking God for a little help, ending his sermon with a request that all Iraqis would love to see fulfilled:
“We call on God for equality, freedom — an end to war and an end to hunger. We only demand from God peace for all of you.”
A Christian Christmas in Snowy Iran
"by William Wedin
by William Wedin
Yep. That’s Iran. Tehran, Iran. The Hub of Human Evil. According to American hate radio, anyway. Snowy Tehran on a peaceful winter day. Makes you think of Boulder, don’t it? Surrounded by snow-covered mountains? Those are the Alborz Mountains. And they are higher than the Rockies. They are the highest peaks in Asia west of the Himalayas, in fact – with skiing on the upper slopes all year round.
Shocked? I certainly was when I first started surfing the web for photos of Iran. I was shocked by the mountains. Shocked by the snow. Shocked by the busy ski shops. Shocked by the "cool dudes" throwing snowballs in their trendy clothes. Shocked by the American-looking yellow school bus in the upper right photo there. Shocked by something in every photo I saw.
But most of all I was shocked by my shock. I was shocked by the fact that a reasonably well-educated, well-informed man like me, who reads at least a dozen alternative news sites like this one daily, should have so many misconceptions in my head about Iran – without my even being aware they were there. Like the notion that Iran is one big, brain-baking desert. Or that Iran is hostile to Christians and women.
I say that I was unaware these misconceptions existed in my head. But now that I am aware of them, I know as a psychologist how they got there. They got there through the skillful use of the "dark arts" of psychology by the White House, on the one hand, and the American mass media, on the other – with the all too able assistance of some of my sleazy psychologist colleagues serving as high-paid "advisers."
One of those dark psychological arts that led to my brainwashing is that of classical conditioning – which is familiar to us all in the form of commercial advertising. The most notorious example is the Marlboro Man campaign: where a cancer-causing product was sold to millions of insecure American boys and men (including myself as a teenager in the ’50’s) by pairing the powerful stimulus image of a ruggedly handsome man on horseback with the originally neutral image of a white little thing in his mouth, identified in the ad as a Marlboro cigarette. With enough repeated pairings, smoking those white little things became "manly" in itself (even though Marlboros had "sissy" filters and Camels did not).
What makes classical conditioning so scary is that it works on everyone – regardless of how smart or knowledgeable we are. (Luckily) I’m the (still) living proof. Even as a youth back in the 1950’s, I knew that the Marlboro Man campaign was hokum. I was a Camel "man" through-and-through. (Like the guys who won World War II.) And nothing Madison Avenue could do could make me change my brand. Till one day I realized that for some "strange" reason (called classical conditioning), Marlboro was the only brand I had been buying for quite some time.
Flash forward 50 years to this past spring. And here I am again. Even though I "knew better" than to believe all the propaganda I was seeing and hearing on the tube about Iran, synaptic links were still being forged in the "feeling" center (or limbic system) of my brain between the neutral word, "Iran," on the one hand, and strong, fear-inducing words and images (like those around "9/11"), on the other.
To be sure, I knew enough about Iran, even before I came across that first "shocking" photo of Tehran nearly buried in snow, not to go completely off the deep end and buy the White House hype about Iran being an "evil" nation. But all those times I was hearing about "Iran" while seeing ghastly images of Iraq on TV did condition me to assume that the land and climate and people of Iraq and Iran were the same. And the worst part was I did not even know that that classically conditioned assumption had been put into my brain.
The same may be said with respect to my classically conditioned assumption about Iranian women’s "oppression." Only here the talk about "Iran" was paired with images of Afghan women in burqas – as in Bill Maher’s "burqa fashion show" skit (which you can watch here). To my "rational brain" (my neocortex), the humor seemed crude. And I thought I was unaffected by it. Till I came across the photo of the woman standing outside the ski shop, and was stunned. Simply stunned. And not just because she was a stunning woman either. What stunned me the most was that her stunning face was unveiled for me to see. And as I combed the web for other photos of Iranian women, I learned that most Iranian women, as well as the Iranian clergy, find wearing the burqa an Afghan extreme. The dark art of classical conditioning had brainwashed me again.
But then, as every fan of Harry Potter knows, there is also a whole set of "defenses" against the dark arts that can turn our "hearts" around. And antiwar activists need to master these if we are to stop a catastrophic war from happening. And counter-conditioning is a good place to begin.
Counter-conditioning is actually a form of classical conditioning in that it uses the same technique of pairing one stimulus word or image with another to build an association (or synaptic link) between the two. We only call it "counter" conditioning because it is used to reverse the effects of classical conditioning (or brainwashing) by pairing words and images of an opposite kind, such as the photos of Iran I am showing you here. They too touch our "hearts" (i.e. the limbic systems of our brains). Only, these words and images are of a positive kind. A peaceful kind. A pleasing kind. Glance at them again. It is not so much that we are "fighting fire with fire" here as we are fighting fire with snow. Mountains of snow. Friendly, familiar, fear-dousing snow. Snow wherever you turn. If you look closely, you can even see a whole snow scene with skiers reflected in the sunglasses of the woman standing outside the ski shop in the lower right photo. (Click here for a larger view.)
Of course, these photos do not appall us the way, say, photos from Abu Ghraib do. But that does not mean these gentle photos do not have their own kind of power. Quite the contrary. They may actually have a more powerful effect upon us in the long run precisely because they do not threaten us with collective guilt the way photos from Abu Ghraib do. Hence we are more likely to let these gentle images into our "hearts," and allow our hearts to be changed by them, rather than erecting psychological barriers against them the way people tend to do against photos from Abu Ghraib.
Certainly the photos offered in this article are easy on the eyes. At the same time they tell us an enormous amount about the climate and culture and people of a cosmopolitan city like Tehran and the ski resorts around it. Like the emphasis that men and women place on looking stylish and attractive. I was really taken aback. Especially by the boys. "Suicidal sand devils" they are not. Rush Limbaugh can say what he will. Boys don’t dress like that to turn on virgins in the sky. And you don’t need to be a psychologist to see that.
That is the wonderful thing about photos. That is the wonderful thing about human vision. We may not be that smart. But our eyes sure are. Over billions of years of life on this planet, our eyes (and the associated visual areas of our brains) have evolved the capacity to process millions of pixels of information – without our being consciously aware of what is happening, let alone being able to put what we visually "know" into words. Like which male is the "alpha male" in the snowball scene. Or what those boys have most on their hormone-challenged minds. We would instantly draw the same conclusions whether the photo was from Iran or Switzerland or Argentina.
Photos are egalitarian that way. They are the most libertarian mode of communication that we have in common. And as long as photos like these are out there on the web, we can mine them for the kind of information that the American mass media would deny us. Information that we as citizens must possess for us to assess the wisdom (or folly) of where our leaders are leading us.
Take this final set of photos, for instance. Instead of wringing our hands at the growing censorship in this country, let us see what our eyes can tell us from a bunch of innocent Christmas photos from Iran about the treatment of Iranian Christians in that demonized nation.
And what my eyes tell me is that it looks like there are lots of Christians now living in Iran (as they have for many centuries). And these Christians feel free to shop for Christmas trees on the street and for Christmas cards in the stores; and take photos of their kids with Santa; and attend Christmas services in posh new churches. And what my eyes tell me too is that all of these Christians are unafraid. And I am sure that your eyes tell you the exact same thing.
That’s not because we all think alike. It’s rather because we all see alike. By which I mean that all human eyes and optic nerves and visual centers in our brains process visual information in the exact same way. That is part of our common biology And an important component of our common visual-processing program is to be able to "read" each other’s feelings from thousands of visual clues that are far too subtle to verbalize if we were even aware of them and had the language skills of a Shakespeare. It’s the same for every species. Whether we are talking about humans or hummingbirds or hamsters, the ability to read the feelings of other members of one’s species is "programmed in." It has to be for the species to survive.
So here. From the way these people sit and stand and hold their heads and use their hands, our eyes and optic nerves and related brain areas all reach the same conclusion in a nanosecond. And that is that these Iranian Christians are able to pray and shop and get goodies from Santa and walk home through the streets of Tehran with gifts for their grandkids without any fear. Be it from saber-toothed tigers or "Muslim maniacs." And our visual processing programs are also able to determine that these Christians are not being brave in the face of danger. Their bodies are really relaxed and unguarded – just like those of Christians in Boulder.
Now a hamster or a hummingbird cannot take things any further than this seemingly simple (but actually extraordinary) task of recognizing what other members of their species are feeling through their body language and sounds. But humans also have a "new" brain (or neocortex) surrounding the "old" brain which allows us to think. And when we think about these photos – when we really stop and think – we discover that each and every one of these photos is a treasure trove of information about Iran if we would only take the time to apply our analytical skills to them. And America’s newly minted "thought police" and their psychologist "advisers" can never prevent us from finding the truth in these innocent photos. For the truth is everywhere to see. And as Bush’s favorite philosopher would say: the truth will set us free.
For example, we can tell from the abundance of Christmas cards and trees and wrappings and ornaments and Santa Claus suits that Iran has a capitalist, consumer-oriented economy, with a large enough Christian community to support a whole host of retailers, wholesalers, distributors, suppliers, importers, and tree farms. And if we glance back at that incredible first shot of Tehran at the foot of the snow-covered Alborz Mountains, we can even say with certitude that the area around Tehran has just the right terrain, soil, and climate for the new-cut Christmas trees you see.
We can also deduce from such things as Christmas trees being sold on Tehran sidewalks and big Merry Christmas signs hanging in Tehran stores that while American aggression in Iraq may have had the tragic "blowback" effect of driving out 90% of all Christians who once lived there, Muslim tolerance towards Christians is still alive and well in Iran. And this tolerance on the part of Iran’s supposedly "mad mullahs" starts at the top with Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and permeates all the way down – even when it comes to such things as the depiction of angels in paintings and sculptures: which is forbidden in Muslim mosques, yet allowed in Christian churches. Take a closer look at the church shown above and you’ll see.
So, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And right now he’s headed towards Tehran. Let the bells of Christian capitalism and Muslim tolerance chime!
December 20, 2007
William Wedin, Ph.D., is a New York psychologist and long-time activist, who is currently developing a new photo-sharing website to counter the current war propaganda on Iran. Readers of this article are invited to preview this new site.
Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com
"It appears that Iranians have considerably less difficulty tolerating symbols of Christian celebration at Christmas than do certain municipalities here in the US (under pressure from a certain other religious group here.)" -- Mike Rivero of What Really HappenedMerry Christmas, everyone!
