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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/12/25/I-had-a-vivid-experience-of-what-Israel-s-occupation-feels-like">https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/12/25/I-had-a-vivid-experience-of-what-Israel-s-occupation-feels-like</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">I had a vivid experience of what
Israel's occupation feels like</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Ghada Karmi - December
25, 2018<br>
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<article id="ltrFullPageDiv"> "O little town of
Bethlehem/How still we see thee lie/Above thy deep and
dreamless sleep/The silent stars go by," runs the famous
Christmas carol sung all over the English-speaking world
as it celebrates Christmas. On Christmas Eve midnight mass
will sound out from Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity,
the legendary birthplace of Jesus Christ, proclaiming he
will bring "peace to men on earth".
<p>
<strong>The real Bethlehem<br>
</strong>Nothing could be further from the truth than
the image of a sweet, untroubled Bethlehem as depicted
in a carol originally created by the pious imagination
of a Victorian Western-Christian. Generations of
Christian children have been brought up on it, and its
mythical power is such that few of them realize what or
even where Bethlehem is.</p>
<p>
A well-educated English friend I had known for years was
recently surprised to learn that Bethlehem was located
in Palestine. In her mind the town was more a legend
than an actual place, and connected to Jews, if to
anyone.</p>
<p>
That idea is still widespread and has been instrumental
in keeping Western-Christians disengaged from the real
Bethlehem and unsupportive of its struggle for survival.
The city I saw on a visit earlier this year was a
travesty of the place the Christmas carol depicts and an
indictment of Western Christianity's abject failure to
sustain one of its holiest shrines. </p>
<p>
In today's Bethlehem "dreamless sleep" is more like a
nightmare, and the town can only "lie still" when
Israel's occupation ends.</p>
<p>
<strong>Israel's brutal vandalism<br>
</strong>Bethlehem and its outlying villages of Beit
Jala and Beit Sahour have been traditionally the most
Christian of Palestine's places, even though Bethlehem
has a Muslim majority now. Until Israel's occupation in
1967 the city had been an important social, cultural and
economic hub, and one of Palestine's most ancient
localities. Its name "Beit Lahem" goes back to Canaanite
times, when it was a shrine to the Canaanite god, Lahm
or Lahem.</p>
<p>
Its architecture is testament to its rich history: Roman
and Byzantine, when the Empress Helena had the Church of
the Nativity built over the supposed cave of Jesus'
birthplace in 327; followed by the Muslim conquests of
637, and then the crusader occupation from 1099 until
ended by Saladin in 1187; the succeeding Ottomans built
the city's walls in the early 16th century, their rule
terminated by the British Mandate from 1922 to 1948.</p>
<p>
In 1995 Bethlehem was transferred to Palestinian
Authority control, although it remains under Israel's
overall rule.</p>
<p>
Despite their variation, none of these preceding
historical periods was ever associated with the brutal
vandalism and destructiveness of Israel's current
occupation</p>
<p>
Despite their variation, none of these preceding
historical periods was ever associated with the brutal
vandalism and destructiveness of Israel's current
occupation. Leaving Jerusalem southwards to travel the
nine kilometer distance to Bethlehem, I took a wrong
turn and found myself on a fast, modern highway without
another Palestinian driver in sight.</p>
<p>
I had stumbled by accident onto a Jews-only settler
bypass road, one of two that skirt Bethlehem and connect
with its encircling settlements. I soon realized the
purpose of the operation: To pretend that no one else
exists in the area but Jews.</p>
<p>
<strong>A sad place<br>
</strong>There are 22 Israeli settlements encircling
Bethlehem, cutting off its exits and confiscating its
agricultural land. They glower down from the surrounding
hills and house more settlers than all of Bethlehem and
its neighborhoods. To the north is Har Homa, a
settlement that until 2000 was an ancient, densely
wooded hill called Jabal Abu Ghneim.</p>
<p>
Israel uprooted the trees and replaced them with a
colony of dreary, box-like houses, which it threatened
to turn into a Bethlehem look-alike for tourists.
Nokidim, to the east, is the current residence of
Israel's hard-line former defense minister, Avigdor
Lieberman.</p>
<p>
Since 2015 Israel has closed off Bethlehem's fertile
Cremisan Valley to its Palestinian owners, and announced
in June of this year a massive settlement expansion
along the route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.</p>
<p>
Rachel’s tomb, Bethlehem’s historic landmark on the main
Jerusalem-Bethlehem road and an area traditionally
buzzing with shops and restaurants, is now blocked off
by the wall and reserved exclusively for Jews. Muslim
worshippers who venerated the tomb (and built it) cannot
go there. It is a sad place, deserted and lifeless. In
the shadow of the wall most businesses have closed and
as the noose tightens around Bethlehem, none will be
left.</p>
<p>
Israel's relentless penetration to the heart of
Bethlehem is unmistakable. Bethlehem is deliberately
isolated behind the formidable separation barrier,
surrounded by checkpoints, and its economy strangulated.
Its main source of prosperity had been tourism with two
million annual visitors and a thriving souvenir market
of classic olive wood and mother-of-pearl carvings.</p>
<p>
It was also a rich agricultural area with a successful
wine industry. But most of its land has been
confiscated, and draconian restrictions on movement to
and from Bethlehem have reduced tourism and pilgrim
numbers drastically. Today its population of 220,00,
including 20,000 refugees, have the highest unemployment
rate in the occupied territories, second only to that of
Gaza.</p>
<p>
<strong>Saving Bethlehem<br>
</strong>Sitting in the "cafe" outside the Walled Off
Hotel at the entrance to Bethlehem, I had a vivid
experience of what Israel's occupation feels like. The
hotel is in effect a piece of installation art, created
by the British artist, Banksy, to highlight the plight
of Bethlehem.</p>
<p>
The only view from the hotel windows is of Israel's
hideous eight-meter wall, whose huge grey slabs are a
mere car's width away.</p>
<p>
Stretching forward, you can almost touch it. I remember
how its sinister watchtowers and surveillance cameras
bore down on me oppressively. It was a scene out of a
horror film.</p>
<p>
To date, and despite church delegations, papal visits,
and public expressions of concern, nothing Christians
have done has halted or reversed Israel's destruction of
a city so uniquely holy to Christendom. If they can do
nothing to save Bethlehem, they can at least stop
singing a carol that mocks its sad reality.</p>
<p>
<em>- Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian doctor, academic and
author. Her article appeared in Middle East Eye.<br>
</em></p>
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