What’s Christmas like for Christians in Bethlehem today?
The separation barrier in Bethlehem. (Credit: Catholic Church, England and Wales)
Embrace trustee, Rev Dr Munther Isaac is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. In a recent talk for the Balfour Project (a UK-based charity calling for peace, justice and equal rights in Palestine/Israel) Munther described the challenges facing Christians living in Bethlehem, under Israeli occupation, this Christmas. And he has a challenging message for Western Christians, including us, and our thin understanding of the Christmas story. We share extracts from his talk by kind permission of the Balfour Project.
Bethlehem is not just a name in the Bible, but it’s a real town. Today Bethlehem is a city of around 30,000 Palestinians, among them around 8,000-9,000 Palestinian Christians, belonging to different Church traditions. The two biggest are the Catholics and Orthodox, but we also have Lutherans, Melkites, Syrian Orthodox …
It continues to shock me that people are surprised to know that we exist. This is where it all started! It only makes sense that there are Christians here.
As Christians we work well together. There are very strong ecumenical relationships and we also have a very good relationship with our Muslim neighbours, with whom we’ve shared this city for a long time. Sadly, today the number of Christians are dwindling.
THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION CONTROLS EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES IN BETHLEHEM
Bethlehem is in the West Bank, in the Occupied Territories. When you visit Bethlehem, it’s so hard to miss the occupation, because the Israeli occupation of our land literally controls every aspect of our lives. The small district of Bethlehem is surrounded today by 22 illegal Israeli settlements and the wall that separates us from Jerusalem.
Israel controls everything outside the city. Our experience is like living in ‘gated communities’ because literally all it takes for Israel is to close these check points to enter and exit our cities and we’re besieged. That’s not hypothetical. It happens a lot.
And it goes way beyond that. Israel controls the air, the phone waves, the underground (we cannot dig for water) exports and imports, the economy. Right now, they are making it difficult for visitors who wish to stay longer than a few days in Bethlehem, and thousands of Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians are not able to obtain a visa to live in Bethlehem with their spouse and as a result, choose to live outside. It’s a very cruel system. It’s another way of forcing the emigration of Palestinian families.
Unemployment is very high. The economy of Bethlehem relies almost entirely on tourism. We’ve had a devastating two years because of covid. We’re grateful that tourists, pilgrims, are beginning to come back. We pray they choose to stay longer in Bethlehem and not just visit for a day.
So, all of these challenges, make life really, really difficult for us. It’s ironic that since the “Peace” process started, all we’ve seen is the expansion of Israeli settlements at the expense of Palestinian life. As a result, we’ve seen more and more Palestinians leaving.
More and more human rights organisations, including Israeli ones, are using the word ‘apartheid’ to describe these Israeli policies of control and segregation. So, when I’m asked about the biggest challenges Palestinian Christians face, I say the occupation in Bethlehem. This is by far our biggest challenge and everything else falls within this big matrix of occupation.
BETHLEHEM’S CHRISTIANS TRY TO BE SALT AND LIGHT TO THE COMMUNITY
Today one of the missions of the church is to stop the wave of emigration. As a pastor, I have many discussions with young people who are considering emigration. Encouraging them to stay is very difficult. It doesn’t make sense to stay here. But at the same time, we are needed.
In the Palestinian territories – the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – there’s a very strong Palestinian Christian presence. Not in numbers (we are around 1%) but as a very active presence. We have many schools, many hospitals, many politicians. One third of the healthcare system in the West Bank is either supported by the church or run by the church.
Our contribution is disproportionate to our numbers, and we are anything but a silent, victimised minority. To give a sense of some of the things we’re doing, a small church like mine, ‘The Lutheran Church in Jordon and the Holy Land’, just yesterday had a national conference, on Environmental Care. As a church we’re playing a leading role in that field. Today we had another national conference in Ramallah on Gender Justice, in the court and in society and also in the church. So our presence it’s not just we pray and do our ‘Christian stuff’, but we try and be, as we love to say, the salt and light in our community.
PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS ARE STUGGLING BECAUSE WESTERN CHURCHES ARE SILENT
One of the biggest challenges we have is what I call “Western Christian attitudes to the land”. The language of the church and the theology of the church focuses on ‘the church and the Jewish people’, the land, the covenant with Abraham and so on, as if there are no Palestinians. “Jews returning to their land” - it’s very common language, even among friends. That language puts me, as a Palestinian, as if I am occupying someone else’s land, and it’s now my fault. I become the occupier, even though we’ve been living here for thousands of years.
Christian Zionism is the most extreme expression of this. At the same time, there are many of what I call ‘diplomatic churches’, churches who pray for both sides and pray for peace and think that they are contributing to peace. But by not challenging Israel on its human rights abuses, breaking the International Law, and by looking at the conflict as if it’s a conflict between equals, they are enabling the occupier. Today we are struggling, not just because of Christian Zionists but because of churches who are silent.
WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN TO CHRISTIANS HERE IN BETHLEHEM?
So, in this reality of despair, where we don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, what is the Christian message? What does Christmas mean to us here in Bethlehem?
When Jesus was born here 2,000 years ago, he was born in similar circumstances. Consider the terminology in the birth narrative: an empire, a census. A census is a way of taxation and control. Just think of this pregnant young woman, having to travel in difficult circumstances just because this emperor in Rome wants to get more tax and he wants to do a census. We are talking about a ruthless empire - we see it’s manifestation in the massacre of the children. It’s in this environment that Jesus was born.
He was born in a cave, among the occupied – this is very important part of the narrative – among a family that later became refugees because of political tyranny. The first people who got the good news that a saviour was born were shepherds – not high-class in the community. 2,000 years ago, ‘good news’ was normally that Caesar’s heir is born or a military victory. The good news the day Jesus was born was that someone was born, not in Rome, not in a palace, or not that there was a political or military victory. No, the good news was that Jesus was born in a manger, in a cave among a family that’s really nobody.
It’s clear to me that God takes sides in the story. God is in solidarity with a family that became a refugee family. God is in solidarity with the oppressed, with the marginalised, with those who are living under the impact of a difficult tyrant and empire.
In the midst of this difficult reality 2,000 years ago, the angels came with the message ‘Peace on Earth’. I think we’ve softened, we’ve cheapened this peace in many ways when we’ve talked about it just as an individual feeling. This was a challenge to the Pax Romana concept of Caesar bringing peace through might, through power. This is a radical challenge by the gospels to the ideology of empires.
When I hear these words ‘Peace on Earth,’ I hear it as a mandate. We are called to be peacemakers as Christians – Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’. But what does that mean? Does it mean neutrality and praying for both sides? From the Christmas narrative, I don’t think so.
PLEASE HELP US GET RID OF THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION
If you see two people arguing, you’d pray for both sides and you tell them get along. But if you see people not just fighting, but one stepping on the throat of the other, suffocating him, you wouldn’t call for peace. You’d call for the end of the oppression and the end of violence. This is what is needed today. This is our call as Christians, as Palestinians today. If you really want to help us live in peace and continue the message here, please help us get rid of the ugly occupation, this ugly reality that we live in. This is not a time for neutrality and diplomacy.
But despite everything, I want to tell you that we are hopeful people. And it’s not just cheap hope. Hope is not waiting for something. We create hope through our action. We are holding fast to that hope, continuing the Christian message, and we call you to join us in our ministry of hope and in our ministry of peace.
WATCH REV MUNTHER’S TALK IN FULL
Follow the link below to watch Rev Dr Munther Isaac’s full talk and Q&A session on ‘Palestinian Christians, Reality, Challenges and Prospects‘.
