ZGram - 12/25/2002 - "Saddest Christmas Ever in Bethlehem"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

December 25, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

We were snowed in for two days as we spent a very quiet, happy 
Christmas in a special hideaway.  Therefore, I did not have access to 
my computer.  I must admit that I felt some apprehension 
intermittently - since, knowing how the enemy hates anything 
connected to Christ and Christianity, I feared that something ugly 
would occur to mar the most important holiday celebration in the 
Western world.

Luckily, it did not happen.  Upon returning to my desk, I found two 
articles I'll send to  you for your reflection while we are still in 
the "holiday spirit" - one for the missed ZGram yesterday, and the 
usual ZGram for today.

[START]

'Saddest Christmas Ever' in Bethlehem
Wed December 25, 2002 05:04 PM ET
  By Mark Heinrich

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians marked what some called 
the saddest Christmas ever in the biblical city of Bethlehem, walking 
to Mass through cold rainy streets bereft of holiday cheer after 
weeks of Israeli military occupation.

Hundreds of Palestinians and a few hardy tourists and pilgrims 
attended Christmas Day services in the ancient Church of the 
Nativity, the reputed site of Jesus's birth but found little joy from 
an Israeli army pullback for the occasion.

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli troops killed two 
Palestinians, including a senior militant.

Manger Square was a brightly lit hub of religious pageantry with a 
towering Christmas tree in happier days. But the only color this time 
came from trinkets in the arms of roving vendors and in the windows 
of empty souvenir shops.

Two years of Israeli-Palestinian violence have scared off most of the 
thousands of pilgrims that once flocked to the rose-hued West Bank 
city, and Palestinian residents have been largely stuck in their 
homes under military curfew for a month.

"It is the saddest Christmas ever for us here," Estella Mubarak, a 
60-year-old grandmother, said in the 1,700-year-old shrine built 
where Christians believe Jesus was born. "The worst thing is we 
cannot afford to buy any presents for our children."

There were no Yuletide lights or ornaments to usher in the season, 
but some Palestinians said such gloom was appropriate because to 
dress up Bethlehem now would have glossed over the harsh effect of 
Israeli occupation in the eyes of the world.

Israeli tanks and troops reoccupied Bethlehem on November 22 after a 
Palestinian suicide bomber from the city killed 11 Israelis on a bus 
in nearby Jerusalem.

Other West Bank cities have been under the Israeli army's thumb for 
months in response to a Palestinian militant campaign for statehood 
in territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and now 
fragmented by Jewish settlement.

ATMOSPHERE OF DECAY

Most of Bethlehem's souvenir shops have gone out of business and 
hotels have closed for lack of guests. Uncollected garbage litters 
the winding, narrow streets. Unkempt children beg foreign visitors 
for money around Manger Square.

"We have no choice but to come here to pray for peace and freedom but 
I see no hope for the near future," said retired academic Elias Maria 
as he emerged from the Nativity church's grotto where Mary is said to 
have given birth to Jesus.

"We're all very sad. We prayed to God simply to help us. We still 
hope peace with justice will come some day, since without hope there 
is no life," said Linda Liddawi, 42, a widowed mother of two who said 
her house was smashed by Israeli rocket fire. Palestinian President 
Yasser Arafat was but a ghost of Christmas past at Midnight Mass in 
the Nativity church, his empty chair draped with a checkered 
Palestinian headdress symbolizing his struggle for an independent 
homeland.

Israel for the second straight year barred him from making the short 
trip from his half-demolished West Bank headquarters in Ramallah. It 
accuses Arafat of fomenting violence in the Palestinian bid for 
independence, an allegation he denies.

After Vatican pleas, Israel said troops would stay out of Bethlehem 
during the Christmas holiday but whether this meant two days or the 
traditional 12 days of Christmas was unknown.

Many of the thousands who crammed into St Catherine's Catholic church 
within the Nativity compound for midnight mass were foreigners but 
the Christmas morning rite was a mainly local affair.

The compound still bears perforations from Israeli gunfire in a 
40-day siege of armed militants who slipped inside last spring during 
an Israeli offensive that followed suicide bombings.

RELIGIOUS APPEAL TO ISRAELIS

The Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land made strong appeals in sermons 
at both masses for an end to strife and freedom for Palestinians from 
Israeli domination.

"We say no to violence, no to terrorism and no to oppression, but we 
ask you (Israelis) to understand the reason for the violence and this 
is occupation," Michel Sabbah said.

"Blood has been flowing in your cities and streets, but the key to 
solving this conflict is in your hands. By your actions so far, you 
have crushed the Palestinian people but you still have not achieved 
peace."

Violence did not let up elsewhere on Christmas Day. Israeli soldiers 
killed a senior militant from the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas in 
the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to Palestinian and 
Israeli sources.

In the Gaza Strip, military sources said soldiers killed an armed 
Palestinian as he approached an army outpost near the Jewish 
settlement of Nezarim. Palestinian officials could not immediately 
confirm the death.

At least 1,738 Palestinians and 671 Israelis have been killed since 
Palestinians launched an uprising in September 2000 after 
negotiations on Palestinian statehood hit an impasse.

[END]

===

( Source: 
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=1960641 )