O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

While carving the turkey for your family and merrily quaffing mulled wine 'midst happy laughter, remember that the romantic Little Town of Bethlehem at the centre of our childhood Christmases is now "an immense prison" in the words of Michel Sabbah, former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and entirely surrounded by Israel's ugly 8-metre separation wall bristling with machine-gun towers.

The good citizens of Bethlehem are cut off from their capital Jerusalem, only six miles away, the rest of the West Bank and the whole world.

Consider that the United Nations, for obvious reasons, designated Jerusalem and Bethlehem a protected international zone under UN administration. Israeli rule was not to be permitted.

Consider also that when Palestine was under British mandate Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the population and how 63 years of terror, illegal occupation, dispossession, interference and economic wrecking tactics have whittled their numbers down to less than 2 per cent.

Consider that, at this rate, there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born... thanks to the cowardice and inaction of our political leaders.

How will the 26 bishops sitting around in our House of Lords, doing nothing, explain that to their dwindling congregations?

As usual, many Palestinians in Bethlehem and the other cities and villages throughout occupied Palestine will be unable to reunite with their families or celebrate Christmas at their holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem due to cruel Israeli-imposed travel restrictions. Imagine for a moment what sort of Christmas the half-starved children in blockaded Gaza are having this year, and every year... and what New Year prospects face all the other Palestinian children struggling to grow up with the Israeli army's boot on their necks.

Deep down it is not about religion at all. The struggle is between justice and a criminal conspiracy of huge international proportions, the tentacles of which spread far beyond the Holy Land and impact on all of us, even here in the deepest recesses of England's green and pleasant land.

In the New Year civil society must resolve to DO SOMETHING about it, one way or another, before the evil spins irreversibly out of control.

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart.

By James M. Wall * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Kathy Kelly

He made one huge mistake. He forgot to ask: What is the enemy's goal? If he had asked himself that question, he would have known that the overarching purpose of the flotilla and the flytilla was to draw attention to the harsh and ugly reality that Israel maintains absolute military control over the lives of Palestinians living under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Did he not know, could he not have realized, what a burden it is for the New York Times to cover up the harsh and ugly reality of occupation when Israel so dramatically shuts its doors to anyone it brands as "pro-Palestinian"?

In its report on the airport blockade, The Times was forced to use a headline that said the visitors were blocked from attending a "conference" in Bethlehem. That did not come out very well for Netanyahu. The Israeli line was that the visitors were blocked because they were a threat to Israeli security. Both the Times and Israel know that "conferences" are held in Bethlehem all the time without all this fuss.

How is this flytilla different? Could it be because this "conference" was clearly intended to draw world attention to Israel's treatment not only of Palestinians, but also to its behavior toward friends of Palestinians?

The Times inserts a brief observation that Palestine has no airport of its own. And why, pray tell, an astute reader will want to know, is there no airport in Palestine? The Times does not say. It also fails to mention that Israel will not permit Palestinians to build their own airport. Nothing gets built in occupied Palestine without Israeli approval.

In her Friday story, the Time's Isabel Kershner reported that Israel was aware that the air travelers had been invited by Palestinian activists to come to Bethlehem for a week of "fellowship and actions".

Most of the foreigners who planned to fly to Tel Aviv and join the "Welcome to Palestine" initiative were either deterred from trying to come or were prevented from boarding flights to Israel by foreign airlines, on instructions from the Israelis.

The Palestinian hosts decried the Israeli measures, but also chalked up a small victory.

Fadi Kattan, a Palestinian organizer, said at a news conference in Bethlehem that he was "pleased - sadly pleased" that the episode had exposed what he described as Israel's draconian anti-Palestinian policies.

Netanyahu's initial response to this planned event proved once again that a man in a panic does not think clearly. Instead of letting the party go forward, Israeli authorities put together a "no fly" list of "peace and justice" passengers believed to be "threats" to Israel's security.

Outside groups are frequently invited to Palestine to travel to Bethlehem and other parts of both Israel and Palestine to talk, pray and plan. Religious types often get through passport control clutching a Bible or a guidebook to the "holy sites". It also helps if you know the name of an Israeli rabbi, just in case you get into a second round of questioning. But this time was different. Both sides knew the game was on.

Ha'aretz reported:

Over the past few days, hundreds of police officers were deployed in and around the airport near Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the base of operations at Ben-Gurion with his internal security minister, the police chief, security branch representatives and immigration officials.

Netanyahu demanded that European airport authorities do to air passengers what the Greek Coast Guard did to the flotilla, halt them at the alpha point. Knowing some passengers would make it to Tel Aviv, Netanyahu took personal command of his second line of defense, Ben Gurion airport.

Ben Gurion authorities had to sift through the long line of American and British Bible tour groups, Christian pilgrims, business travelers, and the European Holy Land travelers, to find those dangerous passengers who made it through the security net.

Al Jazeera reported that "of the 600 Tel Aviv-bound pro-Palestine activists who wanted to fly Friday, the majority were prevented from boarding their flights".

The Palestinians and their international allies had set Netanyahu up. He fell for it hard in his response to the Freedom to Enter flytilla campaign which originated in Bethlehem under local Palestinian leaders like Mazin Qumsiyeh.

Netanyahu's overreaction to the international flotilla left him looking like the town bully who gets his way with other nations by using his Daddy's money. In the case of both the flytilla and the flotilla, Netanyahu is the big loser.

Kathy Kelly is shown in action in the picture above, holding her weapon, a microphone. She was one of those passengers who made it to Tel Aviv. She was already well-known to Israeli officials, just as she is well known to her many friends and admirers elsewhere, including those of us in her home town of Chicago, Illinois, where the author of this blog, in the interest of full disclosure, must confess to having known, and admired her, for more than two decades.

Kelly was among the passengers on the Audacity of Hope, the US ship which was sailing to Gaza, when it was intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard. Undaunted, she wrote in The Palestine Chronicle that she would fly to Tel Aviv. She explained her reactions as she prepared to leave Athens:

I leave Greece tonight with sincere regret that I didn't spend more time learning from these sturdy activists.

I, and another US Boat to Gaza campaign member, Missy Lane, will head to Tel Aviv, where we plan to be part of a "flytilla," a new campaign which will bring hundreds of activists together in Israel's Ben Gurion airport, all of us intent on reaching Palestinian refugee camps and/or visiting Gazan families.

Earlier this evening, a group of U.S. activists who've been able to remain longer, here in Athens, demonstrated at each of the heavily guarded streets leading to the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Greece. The Ambassador is hosting a huge festival tonight, in celebration of the U.S. July 4 holiday that commemorates independence.

Several Greek people passing us read our signs seeking freedom for Gaza and asked us to understand that as recently as one year ago, the government of Greece showed no sign of submitting to Israeli or U.S. pressure and allowed international flotilla boats to sail. But, now they are dependent on the whims of financial elites around the world. The IMF is prescribing draconian measures which will wreck their economy and make them subservient to the dictates of foreign multinationals.

Kelly and Missy Lane landed at Ben Gurion, where they were detained by airport authorities. No word yet on what will happen next to the two of them, though a swift return back home is likely.

Kelly, by the way, would be the first to insist that we acknowledge here that she is but one of more than 600 travelers who participated in both the flotilla and flytilla projects. There are many more Kathy Kelly stories among those peace and justice travelers to Palestine. And their number is growing. No wonder Netanyahu is in such a panic.

Here are the beginning words from the citation presented to Kelly from the Justice Studies Association when Kelly was awarded the 2011 Noam Chomsky honor for her work on peace and justice issues:

Kathy Kelly is a long-time pacifist and co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. A tireless activist whose efforts toward peace transcend borders, regions and time zones, writer Studs Terkel wrote of her: "She has visited more countries, cities and small towns not listed in Baedeker's [travel guide] than anyone I have ever known."

Born, raised and educated in Chicago – as a student at St. Paul-Kennedy High School, Kelly watched the film Night and Fog which exposed her to the horrors of the Holocaust. She also was exposed to the writings of Daniel Berrigan and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. All of this convinced her to make a commitment never to sit by and watch evil happen.

Now 58, Kelly has spent her life living up to her commitment. Over the last 30 years, she has helped the victims of war wherever they were – whether in Bosnia, Haiti, the West Bank, Iraq or Afghanistan. A war tax resister since 1982, Kelly has perhaps most notably used her resources (financial and spiritual) to provide medicine and other supplies to those trapped by the politics of militarism. Kelly co-founded Voices in the Wilderness, a peace group that highlighted the suffering of Iraqi civilians during the U.N. imposed economic sanctions of the 1990s. (To read the complete citation, click here.)

No American television coverage has yet to emerge from the flytilla. But there is clip available from the English language channel of RT (Russia Television), which provides an interview with Pippa Bartolotti, a British passenger who made it successfully through Ben Gurion passport control.

Video link: http://youtu.be/k0D0yyoTqs8

* James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois. From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine. Jim launched personal blog April 24, 2008.

"We need advocates for the truth," they tell him

By Stuart Littlewood * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Dr Williams is the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury

Kairos Palestine, the voice of Palestinian Christians, has given the Archbishop of Canterbury a strong ticking-off for remarks he made during a BBC interview.

Rifat Kassis, Coordinator of Kairos Palestine, said he was "deeply troubled" by the archbishop's "inaccurate and erroneous remarks" about the situation of Christians in the Middle East. He called the archbishop's failure to mention the Israeli occupation and the regime's oppressive policies "shocking".

In a letter [.PDF] to the archbishop, he said:

We were deeply saddened by your declarations because we know that Your Grace is well informed ... and you know very well that in the Bethlehem area alone there are 19 illegal Israeli settlements (such as nearby Har Homa built on Jabal Abu Ghneim) and the wall that have devoured Christian lands and put Bethlehem in a chokehold. You know well that only 13 per cent of Bethlehem area is available for Palestinian use and the wall isolates 25 per cent or the Bethlehem area's agricultural land. Not to mention the situation of Christians in Jerusalem, which you know very well, since you should have received reports from the Anglican bishop in the city whose residency permit was denied by the occupying power.

Mr Kassis ended by saying: "We would like to remind Your Grace that Christian Palestinians need advocates for the truth. It is the truth, and only the truth, that will lead to peace and justice in our home."

So what did Archbishop Rowan Williams say to the BBC that so infuriated his Palestinian brethren?

Apparently, it was the way he talked about the ethnic cleansing of Christians, referring to extreme pressure in Iraq while suggesting that the exodus of Christians from Palestine was due to "a much more undramatic but equally steady and strong pressure".

Interviewer: But that's a strong term to use isn't it, ethnic cleansing?

Archbishop: It is a strong term but I think not disproportionate where Iraq is concerned. The level of violence has been extreme.

However, Williams seemed careful to avoid connecting the term "ethnic cleansing" with Israel's programme to dispossess and terrorize Palestinians:

Interviewer: Do you think that the British government, other governments, should be more vocal in their support for Christians who you are seeing at the moment under great difficulty in a number of these countries?

Archbishop: Well, to be honest, I think at the moment there is quite a lot of support. And I can't fault what's been said by our government on this issue because I think the issue of religious freedom in general has very high priority in the Foreign Office at the moment. So I hope that continues.

The truth is that the British Foreign Office is infested with pro-Israel placemen and has not lifted a finger for religious or any other freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The archbishop continued: "Also I think people in the West know perfectly well that if foreign powers take up the cause of a minority in another country it can be utterly counterproductive."

Was he, by any chance, thinking about the foreign powers that implanted Jewish aliens in the Holy Land in 1947 and the running sore ever since?

He went on the say:

I think there are still perhaps too few people in this country who are aware of the haemorrhaging of Christian populations from the Holy Land. The fact that Bethlehem, a majority Christian city just a couple of decades ago, is now very definitely a place where Christians are a marginalized minority. We want that to be a little bit higher on people's radar...

But the archbishop was careful not to offend the Israeli occupiers.

Interviewer: Would you see what's happening in Bethlehem as another example of what you've described as ethnic cleansing?

Archbishop: It's not ethnic cleansing exactly because it's been far less deliberate than that I think. What we've seen, though, is a kind of Newtonian passing on of energy or force from one body to another so that some Muslim populations in the West Bank, under pressure, move away from certain areas like Hebron, move into other areas like Bethlehem. And there's nowhere much else for Christian populations to go except away from Palestine.

I'm sure that trapped and imprisoned Palestinian Christians will be relieved to hear that their misery is all down to Newtonian energy effects.

Archbishop Williams's comments about Bethlehem were "particularly faulty and offensive", according to Rifat Kassis, especially his claim that Muslims coming into the Bethlehem area, where space is limited, was forcing Christians to leave.

Are the archbishop and his Anglican Church the "advocates for the truth" so desperately needed?

It is not the first time the archbishop has upset Palestinian Christians. For decades the Israelis' game has clearly been to obstruct and paralyse Christianity in the Holy Land. When Palestine was under British mandate, Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the population. Sixty-three years of hostilities, dispossession, interference and economic ruination have whittled their numbers down to less than 2 per cent. At this rate, there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born.

And in November 2008, while Israel was planning its murderous assault against Gaza's civilians (including the Christian community), the Archbishop of Canterbury was gallivanting with Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks on a visit to the former Nazi camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to demonstrate their joint solidarity against the extremes of hostility and genocide.

"This is a pilgrimage not to a holy place but to a place of utter profanity," said the archbishop, "a place where the name of God was profaned because the image of God in human beings was abused and disfigured. How shall we be able to read the signs of the times, the indications that evil is gathering force once again and societies are slipping towards the same collective corruption and moral sickness that made the Shoah possible?"

Evil was again gathering its forces and corruption and moral sickness were on the rampage even as he spoke. And did the Archbishop and the chief rabbi afterwards go to sniff the stench where the name of God had been profaned in the ruins of the Gaza Strip and utter the same brave words?

Did they hell!

When the Church of England's head honcho finally visited Gaza, the Israelis refused him access to the Strip but at the last minute allowed him into the shattered enclave for just one-and-a-half hours, enough time to show his face at the hospital and no more. He said nothing about his experience to the House of Lords where he has a seat and the support of a large gaggle of bishops.

This despite his claim to be "in a unique position to bring the needs and voices of those fighting poverty, disease and the effects of conflict, to the attention of national and international policy makers", despite his declaration that "Christians need to witness boldly and clearly", and despite his urging greater awareness of the humanitarian crisis to ensure that the people of Gaza are not forgotten.

The archbishop's website, however, did report how he hobnobbed with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, paid his respects to Yad Vashem and the Holocaust, and talked with the president of Israel. There was no mention of any similar get-togethers with senior Islamic figures, leaving a question-mark over his real commitment to inter-faith engagement.

The archbishop's agreeing to accept the hospitality of Jewish political and religious dignitaries while they squished his wish to carry out his Christian duties in Gaza, tells us a great deal.

So is the guy a closet Zionist like so many other so-called Christians?

I'm reminded of the he words of Desmond Tutu: "Where there is oppression, those who do nothing side with the oppressor."

"Christianity destroyed not by Muslims but by Israel"

The archbishop has a chance to redeem himself with the international conference on Christians in the Holy Land he plans to hold next month. For two days I've been asking his press office for details of delegates, keynote speakers, etc but have received nothing. We are left to speculate.

It would be nice if the conference were addressed by that excellent trio from the Holy Land: Archbishop Theodosius Hanna (Greek Orthodox Church), Monsignor Manuel Musallam (Latin Catholic) and Mr Constantine Dabbagh (Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches). These courageous spiritual leaders and human rights defenders toured Ireland last November to raise awareness of the situation in their homeland under Israeli military occupation and the plight of the dwindling Christian community. Their central message was simple: "We need only one thing - to be protected by the world against the crimes of Israel" (For details please see my article "No such thing as justice in the Holy Land".)

Fr Manuel told members of the Irish government:

Christianity in the region has been destroyed not by Muslims but by Israel. Israel destroyed the church of Palestine and the church of Jerusalem beginning in 1948. It, not Muslims, has sent Christians in the region into a diaspora... Christians in Palestine are not suffering persecution, because we are not considered to be a religious community, but rather the people of Palestine. We have the same rights and the same obligations.

We have spoken to Israel for more than 18 years and the result has been zero. We have signed agreements here and there at various times and then when there is a change in the government of Israel we have to start again from the beginning. We ask for our life and to be given back our Jerusalem, to be given our state and for enough water to drink... I have not seen Jerusalem since 1990.

However, given the Anglican Church's recent form, it wouldn't surprise me if the conference is hosted by the CMJ (the Church's Ministry among Jewish People). The CMJ is "propelled by devotion to God and the fulfillment of His promises to His people Israel". In its statement of faith the CMJ says Christians have "a special responsibility to love, defend and share the Gospel with God's historic, chosen People, the Jews".

The CMJ's attitude to the Israel-Palestine struggle is unhelpful to the Palestinians. For example:

• Gentiles are "fellow-citizens with God's people"...
• CMJ rejoices that, "after 2,000 years ... the Jewish people now, at last, have returned to the land from which the majority were dispersed in AD70..."
• CMJ recognizes that the state of Israel was set up "as a result of a majority vote of the United Nations in 1947..." However the ministry does not hold any official position as to the appropriate location of the borders of the state.

That signifies approval for Israel's continuing land-grab and lawlessness. If CMJ recognizes the UN's partition it should also accept the borders on which it was based.

According to Wikipedia, "CMJ has always adopted a Zionist position, and expressed the view that the Jewish people deserved a state in the Holy Land decades before Zionism began as a movement."

The CMJ was adopted as an official ministry of the Church of England in 1995 and has been operating in the shadows ever since. It is, if you like, the Church of England's Zionist wing.

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website.

Protesters in Egypt and Tunisia can learn from events in Palestine, the region's barometer for reform

By Sam Bahour* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Civil uprisings in the Arab world 'were coined in the Palestinian context'. Photograph: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images

Current events in Egypt and Tunisia have the entire region and beyond glued to their television sets. The all-too-spoken-about Arab street has risen, seemingly from the dead. But while it is satisfying to see a dictatorial head of state being ousted by his own people, it is far too early to rejoice.

What we are witnessing is the removal and replacement of leaders, not an upgrading of the political systems that allowed someone like the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to remain in power for 30 years and then have the audacity to position his son to succeed him, while the Egyptian people sank into deepening poverty. Unrest across the region will force these reactionary regimes to make some minimal changes, such as introducing term limits, which should have been done decades ago. But these knee-jerk legislative changes are solely aimed at persuading the demonstrators to go home.

Likewise, no one should belittle the fact that hundreds of thousands of average citizens are challenging their governments in the streets. This is not like demonstrations as we know them in western countries. It is the real thing. Serious conviction – and sustained repression – is the prerequisite to get many people to challenge a police state that ignores even the most basic human rights.

In the Arab world, civil uprisings – or intifadas, as they are frequently called – were coined in the Palestinian context. However, the context of the first Palestinian intifada was very different to what we are seeing today. Back in 1987 Palestinians genuinely became fed up with the foreign military occupation that Israel maintains to this day. Communities across the West Bank and Gaza took to the streets and sustained their efforts for nearly six years. Demonstrations were only part of the story. The real ingredient to the Palestinians' ability to remain steadfast was much more complicated. Palestinians are highly political, and they organised themselves in a decentralised fashion and knew how to operate out of Israel's sight.

But the first intifada was aimed solely at a foreign entity, Israel, and ended with the signing of the infamous Oslo peace accords, which have failed multiple times over the past two decades. The Palestinian leadership tried to pick the fruits of their intifada prematurely and paid a dear price in human, political, economic and social loss.

Egyptians would be well advised to learn from the Palestinians that the window of opportunity for real change comes all too infrequently. They should therefore be very clear on what they desire from this historic episode. I'd guess that the US state department already has more than a few scenarios in place and dealing with these is what the Egyptian people will really be up against in the coming weeks.

The second Palestinian intifada in 2000 had many more similar elements to today's upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt. Following the collapse of the Camp David II talks and continuing Israeli provocations, the Palestinian street erupted. Although this second uprising was quickly steered to target Israel, the undercurrent at the time was boiling against a Palestinian leadership that was seriously corrupt and refused to shift gear politically, opting instead for a never-ending US-sponsored peace process.

The Palestinian president at the time, Yasser Arafat, knew that the second intifada had the potential to turn on him and the house of cards that he had created, the Palestinian Authority. Arafat knew how to shrewdly get his people to vent their anger elsewhere – towards Israel, the foreign occupier. Arafat thought, like today's Mubarak and the many other leaders of his generation, that the US would come to his rescue and make things happen. He was wrong. Every major Palestinian political crisis witnessed the traditional Palestinian leadership taking minute steps forward to keep the masses at a distance. Often these steps meant rearranging the cabinet while paying lip service to the demanded structural reforms. Expect the same in Egypt and Tunisia.

Over the years, Palestinians have been able to maintain pressure on their occupier and keep their own quasi-government in check because they were organised at the grassroots level for many years beforehand. This level of deep, sustained organising has been weak to non-existent in most of the Arab world. The police-state governments in Egypt, Tunisia and across the Middle East made sure civil society remained obedient – as the media and the private sector were made to be.

The obvious question is: if Palestinians are so experienced in taking to the streets, why then are there so few serious demonstrations in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem or Gaza in solidarity with the Egyptian people? The reason is that the Palestinian Authority has been co-opted by a US-dominated and foreign-funded agenda which, in times of crisis, understands a single tool: force. The same applies to the Palestinian government in Gaza, for different reasons. Since the last Palestinian elections, which ended in infighting, the US has equipped, trained and led a new generation of Palestinian security services to serve their old model of Arab world governance – police states and banana republics. Expect the US not to embrace real democracy in the Arab world, but rather to put a new, younger facade on an old and corrupt system of governance.

If you want a barometer for today's Middle East political temperature, follow Egypt; however, if you want a barometer for tomorrow's possibilities for serious, sustainable reform, keep your eye on the Palestinian people who are in a dual struggle – one to shed themselves from 43 years of a brutal Israeli occupation and one to create the first Arab model of truly representative and accountable governance. The main factor preventing the Palestinians from continuing on their path to structural reform, following their first genuine elections in 2006, is the refusal of the US to accept the results of those elections. Expect a similar US veto on any forthcoming Egyptian move towards electoral reform that encompasses true representation.

Until the people of the Middle East take reforms seriously and transform their mass demonstrations into sustained, organised efforts that address all aspects of society – political, legislative, economic and social – then the blood and tears invested in this latest round of civil outcry will be wasted.

* Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant living in the Palestinian city of Al-Bireh in the West Bank. He is co-author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994).

Via: Guardian

The Ibrahimi Mosque, Hebron (Al-Khalil), West Bank, Palestine.

By Khalid Amayreh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) seems prone to agree to "indirect talks" with Israel without the latter undertaking any meaningful freeze of Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, the Israeli government is making only provocations, rendering the resumption - let alone success - of peace talks more unlikely, especially in the near future.

Israel lately undertook several measures that Palestinian officials insist reveal Israel's determination to perpetuate its military occupation of Palestinian land and eliminate the possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state. One of these measures is a decision by Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week to add two ancient mosques, the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, to Israel's so-called heritage list.

The two sites are located in the Palestinian heartland, which implies that Israel intends to annex the two shrines, a prospect vehemently rejected by Palestinians.

Prior to the Israeli decision, Western officials involved in efforts to revive the peace process indicated that the resumption of talks between Israel and the PA would occur in a few weeks. Tony Blair, the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East peace process, was quoted as saying that "substantial progress" had been made in US efforts to get the two sides to restart stalled talks.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas who has been on an extensive tour in three continents to explain Palestinian grievances to his hosts, has spoken of the consolidation of a Palestinian culture of peace, telling the European Parliament that peace could only be achieved through negotiations, not violence. He seems to have toned down his earlier insistence that the resumption of peace talks with Israel take place only after Israel agrees to freeze settlement expansion.

The latest Israeli provocations, however, with regards to the seizure of the two mosques, seem to have poisoned whatever atmosphere of optimism or modicum of goodwill US Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell may have succeeded in fostering during his latest visit to the region. One Palestinian official intimated that Palestinian consent to resume stalled peace talks with Israel would be purely for show. "If we agreed to resume the talks under the present circumstances, we would be doing so solely to please and appease the Americans who apparently want to make an achievement of some sort, however shallow it may be."

Another official, Ghassan Khatib, who heads the Palestinian Government Press Office, voiced a similar view, saying that the resumption of talks with Israel would in no way mean that peace or justice were at hand. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from his office in Ramallah, Khatib said peace talks would be "pointless" if the two sides didn't agree on three central points: a time ceiling to end the talks; the features and borders of the would-be Palestinian state; and the terms of reference - namely UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian issue, including the right of return guaranteed for Palestinian refugees uprooted when Israel was created more than 60 years ago.

Asked if he thought that indirect talks would be sufficient to resolve these defining issues, Khatib said that no amount of talks - direct or indirect - would be sufficient. "The problem lies not in holding more talks; the real problem has to do with Israel's refusal to end the occupation."

Khatib said the coming weeks and months would either witness more paralysis, which might precipitate violence, or a resumption of peace talks whose predictable failure would bring about the same. "My impression is that there can be no serious peace talks, let alone a peace agreement, with this rightwing [Israeli] government which, instead of facilitating the peace process, is actually poisoning the overall atmosphere by stealing more Palestinian land, seizing mosques and building more settlements."

This pessimism is shared by most - if not all - PA and Fatah officials. Ahmed Qurei, a former Palestinian prime minister and parliament speaker, told reporters recently that, "the prospects for a peace agreement with Israel are very dim," and that the "next five years will be very, very difficult." He said Israel was "still unwilling to bring itself to recognise the Palestinian people's right to freedom, independence and human dignity."

While some Palestinian leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza-based prime minister, are already calling for a new uprising against Israel as means of exiting the untenable present stalemate, some PA officials are entertaining a French proposal, which still needs to be refined, that would recognise an undefined Palestinian state within 18 months.

"We welcome these European declarations, especially those of France, which we consider to have adopted a new attitude amidst the current political stalemate," Nabil Shaath, a prominent PA spokesman, was quoted by the Maan News Agency as saying.

However, such a state without defined borders would, many Palestinians and their supporters contend, be a prescription for the liquidation of the Palestinian cause since it would enable Israel - perhaps under a rubric of land swapping - to consolidate its control of East Jerusalem and additional large chunks of the West Bank.

The PA has repeatedly said that it would never accept a state with temporary borders.

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

Dr Francis A Boyle* (Palestine) | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

It was December of 1991 and I was serving as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations in Washington DC.

The Israelis were stalling, not even negotiating in bad faith, and the Americans under Baker and Ross were doing nothing to get the negotiations started. This had been going on for 3 weeks and Christmas was fast approaching...Those of us on the Palestinian team who were Christian were wondering if we were going to be able to get home for Christmas - many Palestinians are Christian, the original Christians, going back to Jesus Christ and the Apostles themselves.

I would periodically check in with my wife and two sons at the time - little boys. My poor, sweet wife had to do all the Christmas preparations by herself without me. So the weekend before Christmas I called her up to say I still did not know if or when I would be coming home. My oldest son who had just turned 5 talked to me on the phone: "Daddy why aren't you home f
or Christmas?"

"Well son, I'm trying to help 
the Palestinians."

"Daddy, why are you doing that?"

Hard to explain the entire Middle East conflict to a 5 year old, so I put it into terms he could understand: "Son, you know that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem don't you?"

"Yes Daddy."

"Well I am here with the Mayor of Bethlehem and some other Palestinian leaders. They are my friends and I am their lawyer. I am working with the Mayor of Bethlehem to help all the Palestinian children have a 
merry Christmas."

"Ok Daddy."

We got the word we could go home for Christmas on December 23 and I got on the first flight out of D.C. getting home just in time for Christmas Eve with my family.

Periodically, I had attended UCC Christmas Season Church Services in town with my family. When it came time for prayers from the congregation, I always got up and asked everyone to help the Palestinians along the following lines: "...Bethlehem is cut-off and surrounded by the Israeli army - the Church of the Nativity too. 
The Israelis are inflicting ethnic cleansing upon all the Palestinian, both Muslims and Christians.

They are also pursuing a policy of deliberately forcing Palestinian Christians out of Palestine as part of a perverse strategy to turn a war of national liberation into a religious crusade, figuring it would play better in the United States. And these are the original Christians, going back to Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

"Meanwhile, the US government is financing it all to the tune of $5 billion per year. Everyone in this congregation has gifts given to them by God. So go out and do something to help 
the Palestinians!"

Despite my best efforts over several years, that UCC Congregation refused to lift one finger to help the Palestinians. So about four years ago, I quit their Congregation and severed all ties with them. They are just a gang of moral cowards and hypocrites. They have nothing to teach me or anyone else about Christianity, let alone about peace, justice and human rights. A paradigmatic example of Dietrich Bonheoffer's "cheap grace" indeed!

* Francis A. Boyle is a US-based Professor of International Law and author. He was legal advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations 
during 1991-93)

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM

Groups in the Bethlehem area dedicate a series of events called Shepherds' Nights (December 23-25) to Jerusalem (increasingly being de-Palestinized) and hold a commemoration and protest asking to lift the siege on Gaza (December 31st).

See program below and join us (also we could use volunteers, please email me if you can help).

Here in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace was born in an area ruled by a tyrant ruler (King Herod while claiming Judaism engaged in slaughter of Aramaic speaking natives) who was supported by a world empire.

Here where 2000 years later, natives are still engaged in a struggle against tyrant rulers supported by distant empires. Here where civil resistance flourished and where its history over millennia is yet to be told.

Here where Jesus did not spare the money changers in front of the temple nor did the early Christian descendents (Muslim and Christian) spare the rulers from their anger at injustice starting a number of uprisings to challenge the brutality of occupation and colonization (we call such an uprising a shaking off or Intifada).

Here where life is so abnormal today that visiting internationals no matter how prepared are always shocked to see concentration camps surrounded by walls, Nazi-like behavior of occupation soldiers brought from around the world to police native people, and Palestinian officials who keep accommodating the occupation and finding out that the demands of the occupation keep increasing.

But here is also where love and hope grow and where people of all backgrounds (religions and ethnicities) get together to work for peace (and not just talk about it). Come and see.

You may want to see this Video of (at least last) Christmas in the Holy Land and an article I wrote about Christmas under occupation.

Shepherds' Nights Festival 2009

Join us this Holiday Season and show your support of Palestine
23 - 25 December (All events at the YMCA Beit Sahour) *
Theme: For Jerusalem

Day One - Wednesday 23:
17:00 Opening and Welcoming.
17:30 Band Show.
18:00 Dabka Dance Performance.

Day Two - Thursday 24:
15:00 Children show and Christmas Gifts Distribution.
16:30 Christmas Service at YMCA Shepherds' Grotto.
21:30 Choir Performance - Christmas Hymns.

Day Three - Friday 25:
16:00 Gathering at the Greek Orthodox Shepherds Field.
16:30 Candle Procession towards the YMCA Beit Sahour (Jerusalem theme).
17:30 Dabka Group Performance.
18:00 Christmas Carols.

* Organized By Palestinian Center for Rapprochement, Siraj Center, East Jerusalem YMCA / Beit Sahour Branch, and YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative

31 December 2009, 4-6 PM: Vigil and commemoration in Bethlehem to honor the victims of last year's massacres and to demand lifting the siege on Gaza. There will be simultaneous events around the world and a march on Gaza.

In Bethlehem, it is planned to have Children read names honoring the 300+ children murdered in Gaza a year ago and to pray and pledge to work for peace in 2010 (Organized by several groups in the Bethlehem area).

Again, we could use your support in many ways (volunteers, donations, etc) and you are always welcome to visit us here in Palestine.

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

When celebrating Christmas, it would be a good idea to think about the birthplace of Jesus. What is like in the Holy Land under the Israeli occupation, injustice and racism? How does Christmas feel when the Holy Land is under siege?

Help bring joy to the Holy Land.
Help break the siege.
Support the Freedom March to Gaza, Holy Land (Palestine).
http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9esPiCxLDZk

Cartoon by Mohammadreza Doustmohammadi / Iran

by Hannah Mermelstein

"The war is with the Arabs."

I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, "The war is with the Blacks."

I think about security. Israel's abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people's right to security. "The war is with the Arabs" is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like "Death to Arabs" and "Kahane was right" (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to "Hitler was right" in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).

But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael ("Heroes of Israel") Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, "Yaffa" will become "Yafo," "Nasra" will become "Natzeret," and "Al Quds" will become "Yerushalayim."

Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs. A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes. "It may be conspiracy theory," he said, "but I don't know."

"I'd like to think that Israel couldn't get away with that," I responded.

"Of course they can," another friend from Lyd said, "and if the conditions are right, they will."

Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future. Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will. Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work. Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.

Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect. If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?

A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.

I met a woman in Jerusalem who was displaced from her home by settlers, physically removed from her house by dozens of Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. Twice a refugee (1948 and 2008), Um Kamel currently lives in a tent near her house that has been destroyed and re-pitched six times in the past six months. This is perhaps the height of insecurity, and yet Um Kamel stays strong and determined. Many in Palestine would call it sumoud, or steadfastness.

This kind of strength is seen remarkably often in Palestine, and indicates a deeper security that comes in part from faith. Faith in God, sometimes, but also faith in each other, in the justice of one's cause, in the tide of history that has shown that no single occupation in Palestine lasts forever. This, of course, is also Israel's deepest fear. That no matter how many walls they build, how many people they imprison, how many homes they destroy, how many signs they erase, and how many people they expel, true security will remain elusive, and eventually, Zionism will fail. As many older Palestinian people have said to me, with security, "We have lived through many occupations. This too shall pass."

Hannah Mermelstein is a co-founder of Birthright Unplugged and lives in Boston, Philadelphia and Ramallah.

A group of Israeli settlers torched an historic mosque in the town of Al-Khader, near Bethlehem, on Tuesday. The settlers used 20 beehives as fuel for the fire, after stealing the beehives from a Palestinian farm located near the mosque.

The Al-Hamadiyya Mosque is the main center for prayer for most of the villagers in Al-Khader village, and is believed to be 700 years old.

The villagers restored the mosque several years ago, after they were prevented from going to other nearby mosques due to Israeli restrictions. The town of Al-Khader is completely surrounded by Israeli fences and the Wall, which is being constructed on the village land.

Israeli settlers have been attempting to seize land around Al-Khader for the expansion of the Jewish-only colonies of Efrata and El'azar. Al-Khader has faced increased restrictions by the Israeli military, including being unable to leave the village, which is completely surrounded.

So, with no way to leave their village, a group of local Muslim leaders restored the ruins of Al-Hamadiyya mosque. An imam was appointed two years ago to head the restored mosque.

The imam and fellowship of the mosque called on the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to help them rebuild the burned mosque, and to help protect the village from future Israeli attacks.

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Why was this NOT reported by CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc?

Simply because:

1. The terrorist operation was NOT in Tel Aviv - Israel, but Bethlehem - Occupied Palestine,

2. The terrorists are NOT Muslims, but Jews,

3. The terrorists are NOT Palestinians, but Israelis,

4. The site is NOT Jewish, but Muslim's,

SO, WHO CARES?!

Just imagine a terrorist burning a Jewish holy site... What would happen?

1. Bush would be given his war deceleration speech,

2. EU evacuating their nationals from the Middle East,

3. UN and Security Council are voting on new resolutions to back WW III,

4. ...

What a hypocritical world we live in!

Here is a sample of Israeli occupation practices against Non-Violent demonstrations south of Bethlehem against apartheid wall construction.

[Hat tip: Sami Awad]