From: Daoud Kuttab [dkuttab@ammannet.net]
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 6:51 AM
To: daoud Kuttab; Palestine Net; pmw-action-calls-owner@yahoogroups.com;
Khaled Abu Aker; GNAA; Al-Awda-media@yahoogroups.com;
Al-Awda@yahoogroups.com; Ali AbuNimeh
Subject: [daoudkuttab] How will Palestinian Christians Celebrate
Christmas?

The following appeared on amin.org and the 
Jordan Times on Friday December 20, 2002

      How will Palestinians celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem? 
     
by Daoud Kuttab
       
          
      HOW SHOULD Christians celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem 
this year? Since Nov. 22, the city and its surroundings have 
been under a crippling 24-hour curfew that has only been relaxed 
for a couple of days during the entire period. Opinions vary from 
those calling for a total boycott of all festivities, including 
the traditional Latin patriarch's parade on Christmas Eve to 
those who insist that life and celebrations must go on in spite 
of the Israeli actions. 

      The dwindling Palestinian Christian community wants to 
protest as loud as possible the injustice heaped on it and the 
entire Palestinian nation, while wanting at the same time not 
to interrupt the traditional celebrations. The big fear is that 
Israel will try and create tensions between Palestinian Christians 
and Muslims by opening the city up just for Christmas, knowing 
very well that such moves would give the impression that Israel 
is biased in favour of the Christians. 

      The boycott supporters called on the local community of 
Bethlehem "not to fall for the trap that Israel is planning to 
set up by making it look like everything is OK on Christmas Eve. 

      "Turn the lights off on Christmas Eve, and encourage 
Palestinians from Nazareth not to come and don't march in the 
patriarch parade," an anonymous leaflet circulating in Bethlehem 
said. Christian Palestinians are even called on to keep their 
decorations inside their homes. "Do not place them in view of the 
street, where journalists will take the opportunity to take 
pictures and misrepresent what we have been living through." 

      Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah rejected this sentiment. 
While explaining the situation, he called on people not to cancel 
festivities. "As for the siege and the humiliation imposed on the 
Palestinians of Bethlehem itself and on all the Palestinian towns 
and villages, and the demolition of houses and the killing of 
people, all these measures push us rather to renew our courage, 
our hope and our love even to those who make hard our life. 
Therefore we have to pray. May God put an end to all that and 
give us instead justice, dignity and love. The present difficulties 
will not compel us to cancel our feasts. Besides the sufferings 
already imposed upon us, it is not necessary to dispossess ourselves 
of the joy of the feast and of our duty to worship God and present 
Him ourselves with all our sufferings." 

      No one knows what will happen. While Israeli troops are 
expected to stay in Bethlehem until long after Christmas and New 
Year, there are some indications that they will not insist on 
accompanying the Latin patriarch all the way to the Church of 
Nativity. The latest rumour is that they will escort leading 
Palestinian clergyman to the Paradise Hotel building in Bethlehem 
and then allow the local authorities and the church to pick up 
the traditional Jerusalem-Bethlehem parade from there. If that 
doesn't happen, said one leading Palestinian Christian, no one 
will agree to march into Manger Square with the Israeli army. 

      Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who was denied entry 
to the church last year and who will be denied the chance to 
participate in this year's events by the Israelis, has called 
on Palestinians to joyfully celebrate the Christmas season and 
not to allow the Israelis to dampen this festive holiday. 

      A third option is also being circulated. It calls for the 
public to celebrate the holidays but attempt to use them to 
demonstrate the displeasure of the Palestinians at continued 
Israeli oppressive measures. They want the world to know how 
they feel by wearing black shirts or decorating Christmas trees 
with empty bomb shells and other symbols of the Israeli army's 
brutal anti-Palestinian policies. Some non-violent activists 
are calling on Palestinians to go out in the streets with olive 
branches and black flags as a proactive participation in showing 
the world that Palestinians reject the continued Israeli 
occupation and oppression of their country.
     


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