BOB ROSSI AND MARGARET STEPHENS January 9, 2003
We spent December in Palestine as Christian pilgrims and visited Jerusalem, Taybeh and Bethlehem. Palestinians gave us a lesson in patience and generosity of spirit which we hope will remain with us.
Taybeh, referred to as Ephraim in the New Testament and now Palestine’s last 100 percent Christian village, is in tragic decline as people emigrate. Israeli forces make travel to and from the village difficult, and the closure of Jericho’s casino has cost many people well-paying jobs. Housing construction for poor families and additions to a school have stalled for lack of funding. The village has a fourth century church and three other churches as well. Village priests and schools work hard to give children hope and strong values.
We left Taybeh with assurances that Israeli forces had lifted the monthlong curfew in Bethlehem. Military minds changed and soldiers refused us entry at a checkpoint, forcing us to find another way in. In neighboring Beit Sahour we shared in the life around us and came face to face with the banality and brutality of the occupation forces.
The staff of Bethlehem’s Holy Land Trust introduced us to the family of an altar boy killed by Israeli settlers and other Bethlehem Christians and Muslims as well. We saw how the occupation negatively affects families and disrupts the relationships which make civil societies function.
Palestinian Christians lead active spiritual lives. Religious imagery appears even in ordinary places, such as in restaurants and auto repair shops. During church services (liturgies), people have bread blessed and pass it around, choirs and priests chant in Arabic or Greek and women receive special blessings before Communion.
Armenians and Franciscans vie for space in the cave where Christ was born while a Greek Liturgy proceeds above them and the faithful pray before icons, often hurrying to and from church in order to avoid curfews. Christian-Muslim relations are generally good but stress under the weight of the occupation.
The absence of tourism has forced many businesses to close. Palestinian unemployment may run as high as 70 percent, and respiratory problems, anemia in women and trauma among children are readily apparent.
Despite this poverty, Muslims and Christians welcomed us into their homes. Palestinians allowed us into their lives and extended to us a deep and genuine hospitality which convinced us that the Palestinian people are seeking peace, security and contact with the world beyond the occupation zones.
Bethlehem defied the occupation by limiting Christmas displays and filled Manger Square with Christmas Day protesters. The Festival of the Holy Innocents also began with a Manger Square protest as hundreds of kids worked off the energy built up after having been confined at home by a monthlong lockdown.
Bethlehem’s churches and schools have been closed by the occupation, its civil administration can barely function and Israeli violence has taken the life of an altar boy, a disabled bell ringer and many others.
Palestinians have been patient in their suffering, and the world has much to learn from them.
Bob Rossi and Margaret Stephens of Salem are Greek Orthodox Christi