NILS VON KALM, a member of the management committee of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN) in Australia, reflects on the situation in Bethlehem – the birthplace of Jesus Christ – and the plight of the Palestinian people in the lead-up to Christmas…
As the days count down to another Christmas, I can’t help but feel sad at the tragic irony that is the current situation in Israel and Palestine and the fact that we will soon be remembering the birth of the Prince of Peace in that very place. As I write, predictable clashes are breaking out between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers over US President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
One of the carols we sing at this time of year is O Little Town of Bethlehem. Indeed it is, as the carol says, that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. This holy and desecrated place is a reflection of the contradictions within us all, and yet I still believe that hope will win out against fear.
The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. PICTURE: シャター/licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0 (This picture was initially wrongly attributed to the author).
“I wonder if the baby Jesus wouldn’t just cry as a baby does if He was in Bethlehem today. I think He would also cry over what has happened to the land in which He was born. The Christ child who came to renew all things, to right all wrongs, would weep like He did over Jerusalem just before He was crucified by the very people who should have recognised Him.”
One of the beautiful symbols of that hope is captured by the wonderful artist, Banksy, and his recently opened Walled Off Hotel, situated literally in the shadows of the separation wall that cuts off Israel and what is left of the land that Palestinians have had stolen from them since the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel.
Banksy built the hotel in the hope of bringing Israeli tourists to Bethlehem and to show people the reality that Palestinians have to live with every day of their lives.
I wonder if the baby Jesus wouldn’t just cry as a baby does if He was in Bethlehem today. I think He would also cry over what has happened to the land in which He was born. The Christ child who came to renew all things, to right all wrongs, would weep like He did over Jerusalem just before He was crucified by the very people who should have recognised Him.
The land of Jesus’ birth has been in the news for all the wrong reasons again in recent weeks, as US President Donald Trump made the unprecedented decision to declare Jerusalem the capital city of Israel and move the US Embassy there. Supporters of this move say that Trump is only making formal what is effectively already in place, as the Israeli Parliament already sits in Jerusalem. Such an explanation (probably deliberately) misses the point of this move.
The move is largely symbolic, but that’s the whole problem. Since Israel came into existence as a modern state in 1948, it has systematically stolen land that was legally granted to Palestinians. The land that was given for a Jewish homeland after the terror of the Holocaust has extended to annex land that does not belong to them. The oppressed has become the oppressor.
Added to that, Israel has been aided and abetted in this by the United States. Many of the Israeli bombs that kill Palestinians are supplied by the US, which also always supports Israel in United Nations resolutions. So, for the US to now come out and move their embassy to Jerusalem is yet another slap in the face for Palestinians. It makes the strong statement that Jerusalem belongs to Israel and therefore condones (again) their continued annexation of land that is not theirs.
Many Christians, particularly of my (evangelical) persuasion, and particularly in the US, will applaud this decision as yet further confirmation that Donald Trump is indeed God’s appointed man for the White House. What they miss though is what is written in the very book they take so literally as evangelicals: the Bible itself.
Whilst this is of course a highly complex issue which an article like this cannot fully do justice to, it is worth making a few crucial Biblical points about the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict:
1. Many Christians claim with tears in their eyes that Israel was given by God to the Jews as an eternal homeland. What they miss is that this was the case only as long as the people of God obeyed God. The fact that they consistently failed in this is shown in the raising up of the prophets who continually railed against Israel for their injustice.
“Many Christians, particularly of my (evangelical) persuasion, and particularly in the US, will applaud this decision as yet further confirmation that Donald Trump is indeed God’s appointed man for the White House. What they miss though is what is written in the very book they take so literally as evangelicals: the Bible itself.”
2. Added to that, the claim that Israel was given by God to the Jews forever is an Old Testament one. I am continually amazed at the propensity of Christians to completely ignore Jesus when they make what they see as biblical claims. In the biblical story, Jesus is the new Israel. The promised land is no longer a land with borders; it is a person, God himself come to live among us. The kingdom which he came to inaugurate through his life, death and resurrection knows no boundaries. It tears them down. In the kingdom of God there is neither Jew nor Greek, as Paul, the great Jewish apostle himself, says in his letter to the Galatians (3:28).
3. Thirdly, to appeal to biblical reasons to justify Israel belonging to the Jews exclusively doesn’t make any sense and is hypocritical, as modern Israel is a secular state.
There is a wonderful book I would recommend which explains the above points in more detail. It is by the Biblical scholar, Gary Burge, and is called Whose Land? Whose Promise?.
Perhaps above all though, and of course linked to the points above, is the fact that throughout the Bible is the theme of God’s overarching concern for justice. From the creation story in Genesis, where humans are made in the very image of God with full dignity, to the new creation in Revelation, where we see the picture of heaven and earth finally being fully joined into a place where there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more death, there are more than 2,000 verses that mention God’s heart for justice.
It is this justice of God that is not being done in the land of the Prince of Peace. The peace on earth and goodwill to all that was promised is not yet a reality in that land. God knows it needs to be.
I saw the reality of this when I visited this beautiful land last year. I spent time in East Jerusalem, the Old City, and visited the Spafford Children’s Centre where children and youth who are traumatised by the ongoing conflict are cared for. I walked down the Via Dolorosa where Jesus lamented to the mourning women, “If people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31). And I visited Bethlehem, the City of David, where, as we remember at this time of year, a Saviour was born, but which is now surrounded on three sides by the wall that separates Israelis from Palestinians.
Finally, I visited Gaza, the third most densely populated region on the planet. In Gaza today, electricity is on for only between six to eight hours per day – and that is intermittent, water is undrinkable, the surrounding sea and air space is controlled by Israel, and unemployment is at 41 per cent. It is the largest open-air prison in the world. Palestinians cannot leave Gaza without a valid permit which is impossible to obtain unless you have dual citizenship, which the vast majority of the population does not. If the situation in Gaza does not change in a couple of years, it will probably become uninhabitable.
“[T]he justice of God that is not being done in the land of the Prince of Peace. The peace on earth and goodwill to all that was promised is not yet a reality in that land. God knows it needs to be.”
Thousands of Christians live in Gaza and the West Bank (the other Palestinian territory). Many Christians do not know this; they do not know that there are even Christians who are Palestinian. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are treating the family of God like our enemies. Ninety-nine per cent of them just want to live in peace like the rest of us. When people equate Palestinians with terrorists, they display more about their own ignorance of the reality on the ground than they do about the facts. When I ask such people when the last time they were in Gaza was, and how many Palestinians they know personally, the conversation turns strangely quiet. When we see this as being about people – and not an issue, we see the humanity of the situation, that these are people made in the image of God, just like the rest of us. It is true that a tiny minority of Palestinians do not want Israel to exist, just like a tiny minority of Israelis don’t want Palestinians to exist. But Palestinians are beautifully hospitable people, which is typical of that part of the world.
Recently, when Donald Trump named Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he said he was doing it in the hope of peace through a two-state solution. I believe he is either lying or horribly misinformed. I think the two-state solution has been dead for some years. With more and more Israeli settlements being illegally built on Palestinian land, Israel is not going to move on a two-state solution and have those settlements knocked down again.
Maybe the next generation of evangelical Christians will have enough influence in the US to be able to influence their government to see a peaceful way forward. An article in the latest issue of Christianity Today showed that evangelicals of the millennial generation in the US are more likely to support justice for Palestinians than they are to support Israel at whatever cost.
Maybe then, the final words of O Little Town of Bethlehem will ring true:
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
This Christmas, as we remember the Holy Child descending to us, may we remember that this babe in the manger became the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, killed by an occupying power, as many Palestinians are today. But may we also remember that He rose to bring His reign of justice, peace and love to a world where walls will be torn down and the poor will be lifted up. O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel. How we need you this Christmas.
Nils von Kalm is a member of the management committee of Australian-based the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network.
