March 2: Election Day: Internationals go to Bethlehem while Israelis go to vote

Yesterday, the Palestinians asked the Israeli Jews and the few Palestinian citizens of Israel to join them on a discussion of the elections.  The report out to the entire group later in the evening was uplifting with the Palestinians feeling happy and their need to be heard fulfilled. They will remain at Talitha Kumi because they are not allowed into Jersusalem. 

The internationals first visited the Holy Land Trust.The Holy Land Trust is an activist/educational organization located in Bethlehem in area A (Oslo II Accord), which is under the authority of the Palestinian Authority.  Ellias is Executive Director and NVC trained. Although he hears a great deal of criticism about nonviolent resistance-“selling out to Israelis” “Popular resistance”, he believes that just to argue politics, each side has the truth, but will not meet needs. It will take conversation and mutual interests, vision—friendship, healing, seeing the humanness. The Trust has a focus on Palestinian women-empowering, special retreats.   Men face high unemployment, long waits at checkpoints, humiliating interactions with Israeli soldiers, so they are angry when they come home and take it out on wives in their attempt  to regain their sense of power. Women keep oral history, family, songs, games. The Trust also buys houses that were destroyed during different conflicts and helps finance their renovation. The family will negotiate with the Trust to allow a NGO to have its offices in the renovated house rent-free for a certain number of years. After which, the family can take the house back or rent it.

          

 1948-before peace/harmony. In 1948 520 villages were destroyed and the families were driven off.  Bethlehem has the highest unemployment after the Gaza. Tourism is the main draw; however the wall cuts Palestinians off from 65% of their historical land and the continual building of diverted roads and walls continue to decrease their access. Bethlehem did have the largest % of Christian Arabs, but with the walling off of historical and religious sites, the Christians are rapidly immigrating.  [Case in point, another Palestinian participant's entire family has immigrated, leaving only her husband's side of the family].

The Palestinians in Bethlehem cannot extend out beyond their designated territory so they can only go "vertical."  The refugees from the 520 villages want the right to return to their villages so they keep their green refugee cards and stay in camps such as Aza. The giant key is the entrance to Aza Refugee Camp. It represents the keys they used to lock the doors of their houses in the villages from which they fled.  

There are hundreds (540) murials around the refugee camp that illustrate the villages from which the refugees fled.  Aza Camp is the most gassed area in the West Bank--almost daily. When the Israeli police want to arrest somebody, they gas the entire camp so that people have to stay inside. It makes it easily to arrest even though it also means that children, old people, sick people, all people inhale tear gas. 

Before 1996, Exchange Rd. 60 was a four minute drive between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In 1996 after the Oslo II Accord, the Israelis began building a wall and a tunnel that cut Palestinians off from using Rd. 60. 

 Rachel's Tomb is the site revered as the burial place of the matriarch Rachel. The tomb is considered holy to Jews, Christians and Muslim.The Oslo II Accord in 1995 placed Rachel's Tomb in Area C, but Rabin decided to  cede Rachel's Tomb along with Bethlehem. So Israel's first draft placed Rachel's Tomb in Area A under PA jurisdiction.  Pressure exerted by religious parties in Israel to keep the religious site under Israeli control threatened the agreement, and Yassir Arafat agreed to forego the request. On December 1, 1995, Bethlehem, with the exception of the tomb enclave, passed under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. In 1996, Israel began an 18-month fortification of the site at a cost of $2m. It included a 13-foot-high (4.0 m) wall and adjacent military post

In February 2005, the Israel Supreme Court rejected a Palestinian appeal to change the route of the security fence in the region of the tomb. Israeli construction destroyed the Palestinian neighbourhood of Qubbet Rahil. From 2011, a "Wall Museum" was created by Palestinians on the North wall of the Israeli separation barrier surrounding Rachel’s tomb

This guest house faces the wall. Its top floor must keep its blinds shut at all times because it would allow residents/guests to be able to look into the Israeli Area C.   Frequently the Israeli police raid, the hotel to check for any questionable security risks; thereby, making it impossible to be a guest house anymore.  The owners now run a little gift shop.  She has constructed a nativity scene with a wall in front of Mary and Joseph.