Convoy to Bethlehem
In P G Woodhouse hilarious novel, A Damsel in Distress,
there is a line fully applicable to the President Bush:
‘Your argument seems to be without a flaw. But what
then? We applaud the Man of Logic, but what of the Man
of Action? What are you going to do about it?’
A new Audi car, squashed like empty cigarette box in the
ashtray of a nervous chain smoker, greeted us at the
entrance of Bethlehem. Other cars were flattened into a
thin sheet of glass and steel. Israeli tank crews love
to smash cars and dustbins as any vicious punks. Little
kids crouched on the corner and intensely played with
spent cartridges, making most of sudden lull in
fighting. Bethlehem was quiet, for the first time since
Saturday, October 20, when Israeli Merkaba tanks rolled
into the City of Christ, realising Sharon’s pet project,
reoccupation of Palestine.
It was quiet, as a new force entered the area:
Christians of Jerusalem came to relieve the besieged
neighbour. It was a wondrous sight, reminiscent of
Crusades, when the Solidarity Convoy led by bishops and
clergy of all denominations, Catholics, Orthodox and
Muslim, carrying crosses and banners broke the
strangling ring of Israeli blockade and moved by the
heavily damaged streets towards the Church of Nativity.
As opposed to Bush ‘Crusade’ in Afghanistan, this
Crusade was felicitously met by Christians and Muslims
alike, as there is no dispute between these intertwined
communities. We went by the burned out Paradise Hotel
(it received direct hit), by double-bent electric
pillars, by pictures of young boys and girls killed by
Israeli sharpshooters, and local people went out of
their shelters to join the procession.
Israeli tanks left the main streets and crawled away
into their lairs, like dragons disturbed at prey. On the
way, I met so many old friends, local shopkeepers and
guides. They were quite despondent: ‘As things are, with
this war going on, they said, there are no tourists, no
income, and no hope. Jerusalem and Bethlehem stand
together or fell together’. Bethlehem is but a suburb of
Jerusalem and I used to come so often with my tourists
and pilgrims to this bourgeois city of spacious villas,
king-size souvenir shops, grand Greco-Palestinian
families, neat nuns, tourist crowds and many
expatriates, flourishing thanks to the Church of
Nativity, the great Justinian edifice and the oldest
extant building of Palestine.
The plaza in front of the church, the Manger square, was
full of local people who used the chance to see some
sunlight after days behind the shutters. Last Sunday at
the church doorstep, an Israeli sharpshooter killed a
local 16 year old boy, Johnny Thaljieh, and his soft
face looks from a hastily printed poster. This square
was rebuilt by PA in Italianate style just two years
ago, before the Millennium festivities, as in the days
of Israeli direct rule it was an incongruous parking lot
for the Border Police jeeps and tourist buses.
In the church, among the priests and laity, I saw a tall
American with a proud upper lip, long curly hair and
exotic head gear. It was Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, of Rabbis
for Human Rights. ‘I thought I was the only Jew here’,
he said. ‘I am sure thousands of Israelis would come if
they would be aware of situation’. It is true, Israeli
TV, docile as Stalin’s media, downplayed the invasion
and broadcasted peaceful pictures of friendly tanks on
quiet streets. Still, the previous night, Jerusalem
hosted a big Jewish rally calling for expulsion of all
non-Jews from the Holy Land. Israeli TV reported on
Friday night just before the invasion, that two thirds
of Israeli Jews support this lethal solution. However,
every one of us has his freedom of choice, and Rabbi
Milgrom chose Judaism one can live with. I was mighty
pleased to see him: God knows, this Sodom needs a few
just men.
In the church there were pockmarks of bullets: Israeli
tank crews trained their heavy turret machine guns on
the cradle of Christ. It reminded me of William
Dalrymple’s “splendid, effective and impressive
(Financial Times)” book, From the Holy Mountain [i], on
‘a wave of attacks on Church property in Israel. A
Jerusalem church, a Baptist chapel and a Christian
bookshop had been burned to the ground, there were
attempts to arson the Anglican churches in West
Jerusalem and Ramleh and two churches in Acre. The
Protestant cemetery on Mt Zion was desecrated no fewer
than eight times’.
He could add the story of Daniel Koren, an Israeli
soldier who pulverised with bullets the images of Christ
and the Virgin in the church of St Anthony in Jaffa.
Dalrymple mentions the deeds of the Likud Mayor of
Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, who destroyed the newly
discovered Christian monasteries and churches in
Jerusalem in order to obliterate the very memory of
Christian presence in the Holy Land, the same Mayor
Olmert who demolished three more Palestinian homes this
morning while we walked the streets of Bethlehem.
In the Grotto of Nativity, few candles burned and a
Palestinian family quietly prayed by the Star, as did
their ancestors since the cruel predecessor of Sharon,
King Herod the Great. I thought of a strange
coincidence, why this invasion began while the US Air
Force lays low Afghani cities. Apparently Sharon’s
government decided to utilise the US Afghani operation
as a diversion for the conquest of Palestine. A thief
sees in a calamity, but an opportunity to steal. While
our eyes are attracted to the deserts beyond Oxus River,
while America is scared silly by the white powder in an
envelope, while humanitarian agencies groan under the
masses of starving Afghanis, while Anglo-American fleet
blocks a possible Iraqi or Syrian relief, the Israelis
grab the remainder of Palestine and eradicate the memory
of Christ from His native land.
Sharon’s supporters in the American mass media gave him
support by rising the current wave of Arab-bashing and
general racist chant. “Osama Bin Laden's shifty, oily,
semitic features leer from every news bulletin, in a
barely concealed appeal to the American viewers' racism.
Dr Joseph Goebbels could not have done it better”,
reported from America the British historian, David
Irving. He should know, he was a biographer of Goebbels.
President Bush demanded immediate Israeli withdrawal. He
did it in sotto voce, saving ‘there will be no
discussion’ line for Afghanis. We shall see whose will
prevails, whether President’s chapter goes as far as
Israel, whether this bark could be backed by a bite.
In P. G. Woodhouse hilarious novel, A Damsel in
Distress, there is a wonderful line fully applicable to
the President Bush: ‘Your argument seems to be without a
flaw. But what then? We applaud the Man of Logic, but
what of the Man of Action? What are you going to do
about it?’
After the great church, our procession moved to Beth
Jalla, a sister city of Bethlehem. Beth Jalla’s two
hospitals were shelled, and ten people were killed by
indiscriminate Israeli fire. The bereaved families stood
in the church yard, clutching portraits of their dead
and receiving condolences. Especially touching was the
stunning beauty of Rania Elias, a 20 year old girl
killed by Israeli shell in her own bedroom. She sat for
her portrait in a white wedding dress, the dress she was
buried in.
Beth Jalla is grim but defiant. On its streets, stood
young men with AK machineguns. C’est la Tanzim, people’s
militia, explained a priest to his fellow. Dashing
Tanzim boys in their berets reminded me of Fidel’s young
barbudos, as if the Palestinian revolution regained its
second breath. As the convoy moved out, the tanks moved
in, and a chatter of small arms echoed over the twin
cities.
A big dark-skinned Oriental Jewish taxi driver picked me
up at the checkpoint. The massive steering wheel of his
Mercedes turned like a toy in his huge hands. He looked
like a twin of a giant Tanzim guerrilla I saw fifteen
minutes and five hundred yards away, in Aida refugee
camp. ‘I lived all my life with Arabs, he said. My wife
tells me, I am an Arab in my heart. We should live
together. As things are, with this war going on, there
are no tourists, no income, and no hope. Jerusalem and
Bethlehem stand together or fell together’.
Yes, despite the official brainwashing, on both sides of
the Divide, there is an understanding. The Holy Land
can’t be divided, it should be tended jointly by all of
us, as equals. There is enough room to pray, to play, to
grow olive trees, write software and guide tourists.
Tanks must go, together with artificial border between
Israel and Palestine.