December 7, 2004
By Larry Fatah

Christmas time evokes many images associated with the season, both religious and secular. Christmas trees and Santa Claus compete for time with nativity scenes throughout the world. And of course Bethlehem, a tiny town in the West Bank, becomes the focus of international attention every year because of the blessed event commemorated in the Christmas celebration.

Tourists fortunate enough to make the trip descend on Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas in the place where it all began over 2,000 years ago. But the simple fact that the possibility exists for international visitors to go to Bethlehem and not for most Palestinians is one of the most bitter ironies associated with this time of year. This point was made clear through a demonstration staged by the Civil Committee in the Palestinian village of Sawahreh last year. The demonstration emanated from a simple question: would Mary and Joseph have been able to get to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus had they been traveling today?

Mary and Joseph were two Jews living under Roman occupation. Their travel to Bethlehem was necessitated because of a census ordered by Caesar Augustus. Palestinians are living under Israeli occupation today, and their travel is restricted and sometimes completely prevented. Two days before Christmas 2003, two Palestinians dressed as Mary and Joseph attempted to cross an Israeli military checkpoint from Sawahreh and go on into Bethlehem. Mary was actually a 20-year-old student from Beit Hanina, a Palestinian town annexed to Jerusalem. Even though she sat atop a donkey, the fact that it was not 2,000 years ago was betrayed by her jeans and stylish boots protruding through the bottom of her traditional dress. Joseph was actually a villager in his 30s from East Sawahreh.

As the two approached the checkpoint, the idyllic Christmas-card scene was broken by the soldiers asking "Mary and Joseph" for IDs , by another soldier training a machine gun on us, and a third filming the whole proceeding, possibly for security purposes. The two soldiers manning the checkpoint took the whole event in their stride, asking the two actors in Arabic "You're re-creating the Mary and Joseph scene?" One asked the two where they were from. As one observer in the crowd quipped "Nazareth!," the two gave their true residences. This gave the answer to the basic question: our Mary and Joseph could not cross. The best the soldiers could offer was a little walk around the metal barrier by the checkpoint as some in the crowd sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" .

Why couldn't Mary and Joseph cross in the 21st century? Our Mary has an Israeli passport and therefore cannot legally enter Bethlehem, which is part of the West Bank. Citizens of the State of Israel are not allowed to enter the West Bank for "security" reasons. Our Joseph has a West Bank ID and, as such, could legally go from one West Bank town to another in this area, but he didn't have it with him at the time. Therefore he couldn't cross either. The fact of the matter is that many West Bankers are delayed and sometimes barred from going from one part of the West Bank to another. Furthermore, our Mary and Joseph really couldn't live together and therefore be married. He couldn't live in her town because it is part of Jerusalem, and most West Bankers are not allowed in Jerusalem. She could give up her Jerusalem status and go live in the West Bank with him, but that would be economic suicide. Jerusalemites who do that lose their Jerusalem status and are barred from entering the city or Israel.

The current situation regarding the restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank, according to November 2004 figures released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is bleak. There are a total of 719 obstacles or checkpoints that either hinder or completely block movement from one part of the West Bank to another or into Jerusalem and Israel. In addition, there are also the so-called "flying checkpoints," that are placed temporarily in roads by teams of soldiers or police. It should be noted that the majority of these checkpoints do not block or restrict the movements of Palestinians from the West Bank and into Israel, but from one part of the West Bank to another.

Part of the work of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is to monitor these checkpoints to ensure that the human rights of the Palestinians attempting to cross are not violated. The presence of the "ecumenical accompaniers" also serves to lower the level of tension at these sometimes tense encounters. Accompaniers file reports and take photographs dealing with their observations at the checkpoints. They will stand in solidarity with Palestinians attempting to cross, but will also interact with the soldiers on a human level in an attempt to advocate for the process of crossing to be expedited and free of violence. Accompaniers will sometimes work in cooperation with Machsom Watch, an Israeli group formed in January 2001. It is made up of 400 women, many of them grandmothers, all over Israel who go to monitor activities at the "Machsom" - the Hebrew word for checkpoint.

Checkpoints affect all Palestinians on a daily basis. The nonviolent demonstration with "Mary and Joseph" was a pleasant way of directing attention to a rather unpleasant situation. How different nativity scenes would look if the manger were replaced by the seat of a jeep and the shepherds by gun-toting soldiers. Hopefully the three wise men would have remembered their IDs.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is co-ordinated by the World Council of Churches. For more information on the EAPPI: http://www.eappi.org/.

World Council of Churches
Larry Fata, a Catholic teacher and journalist from the USA, is managing editor and communication officer of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).