Pieta: Gaza: December 27, 2008

Harold Pinter, Presente

Here they go again,
The Yanks in their armoured parade
Chanting their ballads of joy
As they gallop across the big world
Praising America's God.
The gutters are clogged with the dead
The ones who couldn't join in
The others refusing to sing
The ones who are losing their voice
The ones who've forgotten the tune.

The riders have whips which cut.
Your head rolls onto the sand
Your head is a pool in the dirt
Your head is a stain in the dust
Your eyes have gone out and your nose
Sniffs only the pong of the dead
And all the dead air is alive
With the smell of America's God.

© Harold Pinter, January 2003

This is Pinter on torture:
We have brought torture and misery in the name of freedom

by Harold Pinter, October 13, 2005, The Independent/UK
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319540.ece

The great poet Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror--and indeed the pity--of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly 100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more brutal, more pitiless.

But the "free world" we are told, as embodied in the United States and Great Britain, is different to the rest of the world since our actions are dictated and sanctioned by a moral authority and a moral passion condoned by someone called God. Some people may find this difficult to comprehend but Osama Bin Laden finds it easy.

What would Wilfred Owen make of the invasion of Iraq? A bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of International Law. An arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public. An act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading--as a last resort (all other justifications having failed to justify themselves)--as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.

An independent and totally objective account of the Iraqi civilian dead in the medical magazine The Lancet estimates that the figure approaches 100,000. But neither the US or the UK bother to count the Iraqi dead. As General Tommy Franks of US Central Command memorably said: "We don't do body counts".

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery and degradation to the Iraqi people and call it "bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East". But, as we all know, we have not been welcomed with the predicted flowers. What we have unleashed is a ferocious and unremitting resistance, mayhem and chaos.

You may say at this point: what about the Iraqi elections? Well, President Bush himself answered this question when he said: "We cannot accept that there can be free democratic elections in a country under foreign military occupation". I had to read that statement twice before I realised that he was talking about Lebanon and Syria.

What do Bush and Blair actually see when they look at themselves in the mirror?

I believe Wilfred Owen would share our contempt, our revulsion, our nausea and our shame at both the language and the actions of the American and British governments.

Rebuild the peace in silent streets where once your love was born.

Despite the unprovoked and extreme violence from the IOF, the demonstration was a great success. The primarily settler-used roadway of Route 60 was colored green and purple with the crushed remains of grapes and cardboard cartons. Passing settlers were able to witness the violence that their presence “necessitates,” and many reacted by honking their horns, photographing the demonstration, and one man was even seen proudly waving a peace sign. Though the grapes never reached the mouths of consumers, they were purchased from the farmers and given a political purpose on the road-a stretch of route 60 bordering Al-Khadr checkpoint, as well as a currently under-construction terminal checkpoint, and a small length of the Apartheid Wall already built and waiting to be connected to the Bethlehem portion.

WHAT I WROTE WHEN I FIRST STARTED THIS ADVENT PROJECT TWO YEARS AGO.
Dove of Peace by Elvira
One of the reasons I originally wanted to do a blog was to try the idea of the advent calendar-- to see how the daily window opening could fit into a blog format. Ever since Jacquie sat out the seige of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem I was interested in somehow conveying the terrible situation that clearly shows the pain of the occupation of the so-called holy land. Then Joel visited there this summer and he was struck with the irony of the fact that this location with its history of the nativity was now in heavily militarized occupied territory. So I found an advent calendar in Austria where I spent time in October for the Dictionary of War (www.dictionaryofwar.org).

So I was pretty new to blogs. I am not usually a "blog reader", which Molly says is the first step to getting into "blogdom". Nor have I posted on others' blogs. Molly describes a whole protocol of exchange of blog urls. The advent calendar didn't really get that much traffic. I wrote to the electronic infitada and to several Palestinian solidarity sites, giving them the url. But judging from the traffic report, I don't think they announced the url. Still I did get many visits, and many from far away countries. It didn't seem to ignite discussion. I received only one comment on the 24 days of pictures and text. I wish people had commented. If I had seen it on someone elses blog, I would have commented.

But some people have told me they appreciated it and wanted to buy a copy! Not realizing that it is totally digital. I never really even opened the windows.. except through photoshop tools!

So now the advent calendar is over and I still have this blog space.

FOLLOWUP INFORMATION
1. Commerce has taken over the cyber hymnal. The url to the hymn doesn't work any more without paying.
2. Bethlehem has a completed apartheid wall. More on that in weeks to come on this blog with a report by Jane Toby.
3. There are about 500 visitors a month to this blog. When I started it was much lower. But it's still relatively low for a blog.
4. Jacquie never got her footage back from the siege at the church of the nativity. She had given it to one of the priests for safe keeping. She later found out that the IDF had taken it from them and resold it to the BBC for a documentary. Jacquie still doesn't have her footage.

Awake the ire of nations.

From
http://palestinesolidarityproject.wordpress.com/tag/uncategorized/
Some police used military-style ‘pain compliance’ maneuvers, such as applying immense pressure to wrists and other sensitive joints, as well as wrenching back fingers and hands. Activists were thrown, and dragged by their ears, noses, necks and hair, while other police and soldiers forced demonstrators to the ground by leaning their weighted knees onto demonstrators’ heads and necks. Many activists were roughly thrown to the ground and dragged across the asphalt road, ripping their clothes. While attempting to stand up, many were pushed and kicked by the booted IOF police and soldiers.
During the assault, five people were arrested: two Palestinian males, one international female, and two Israeli males. The two Palestinian males, Mohammad Salah, 25, and Ahmed Salah, 30 were detained for carrying boxes of grapes, and while Ahmed was released at the end of the demonstration, Mohammad was not so lucky. Following the demonstration, Mohammad was taken by IOF soldiers to a wooded area near Betar Illit colonial settlement. When the soldiers reached this isolated area, they kicked and beat Mohammad in the head and shoulders. He is currently under care at a Bethlehem-area hospital. The international, an American woman, and the two Israeli men are currently still being held in Israeli custody at Gush Etzion police compound, housed within the colonial settlement of the same name.
Despite the unprovoked and extreme violence from the IOF, the demonstration was a great success. The primarily settler-used roadway of Route 60 was colored green and purple with the crushed remains of grapes and cardboard cartons. Passing settlers were able to witness the violence that their presence “necessitates,” and many reacted by honking their horns, photographing the demonstration, and one man was even seen proudly waving a peace sign. Though the grapes never reached the mouths of consumers, they were purchased from the farmers and given a political purpose on the road-a stretch of route 60 bordering Al-Khadr checkpoint, as well as a currently under-construction terminal checkpoint, and a small length of the Apartheid Wall already built and waiting to be connected to the Bethlehem portion.http://www.awalls.org/
http://bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com/2006/08/checkpoint-humiliation-and-bullets-at.html

Christmas under Occupation

by Mazin Qumsiyeh MRZine http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/qumsiyeh181208.html

When I look out the balcony of the faculty lounge at Bethlehem University I hear the constant hammering of the construction in the settlement that separates us from Jerusalem and I see Israeli settlements built on Palestinian lands surrounding Bethlehem on three sides. Every two weeks, Jewish settlers "visit" the hill on the fourth side (called Ush Ghrab) that they have set their eyes on. Yet, I hear the US media is focused on other things including the weighty matter of dodging shoes.

After living 29 years in the US, it is not easy to be living in Bethlehem area especially this Christmas season. Life can be at times hard, exhilarating, depressing, fun, and hopeful. Israel occupied this area in 1967, but the landscape had begun to change well before that. In 1948, Bethlehem became home to thousands of Palestinian refugees after more than 750,000 people were driven from their homes in what became Israel. Palestinians were forbidden to return, and three cramped refugee camps (Dheisheh, Azza, and Aida) add to the local migrants from villages whose lands were taken over.

Since 2002, we have faced the enormous human costs of a massive, concrete segregation wall. The wall zigzags around Bethlehem, placing fertile Palestinian agricultural lands on the "Israeli side," and in many cases goes straight through centuries-old villages -- separating Palestinian families from each other and from their jobs, hospitals, schools, churches and
mosques. The wall and checkpoints meant that many faculty and students can no longer make it to school at Bethlehem University and our student body has steadily lost its geographic diversity. The biblical and literal path from Nazareth to Bethlehem is blocked by many checkpoints and thirty-foot high slabs of concrete.

Many of my relatives lost jobs in Jerusalem or lost livelihoods that depended on the city of which we are a suburb. It is virtually impossible for West Bank Palestinians to obtain permits to enter Jerusalem or for Jerusalemites to engage in commerce with us. Even if one gets a rare permit, checkpoints make travel unpredictable and often impossible, precluding maintaining a decent economy. Unemployment is now at 45%, nearly twice what it was during the US Great Depression. But we can be thankful that we are not living in Gaza where things are far worse. Yet, the whole area feels like a ticking time bomb.

Israel's desire to acquire maximum geography with minimum Palestinian demography is the root of the suffering afflicting the Holy Land. Today there are 6 million Palestinian refugees and displaced people. Amnesty International has observed that the "peace processes" failed because Israel has ignored human rights, including the right of native Palestinians to return to their homes and lands. There is now a broad international consensus (with the exceptions of the US and Israeli governments) on the danger to international peace and security posed by Israel's continued violations of human rights and international law.
Clearly if one wants peace in the Middle East and beyond, the path starts by giving justice to Palestinians. I am doubly pained as an American and a Palestinian Christian because my taxes support this 60-year carnage. Israel is the largest recipient of US
foreign aid and the US administrations still go out of their way to cater to Israeli lobby influences.

The logic of military and political power dictates that Israel is now building more Jewish settlements and demolishing more Palestinian homes and farms in spite of its obligations under signed agreements and under international law. The current Israeli government is even moving further right to fend off the extreme right of Netanyahu before the elections. The incoming Obama administration has appointed Israeli apologists to key positions of power (Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel) indicating we should expect no "change."

Israel as the occupying power is responsible for the welfare of those under its belligerent military rule per the applicable Geneva conventions. Yet, Israel has intentionally de-developed the Palestinian economy. With the collusion of the EU and the US the economy of the West Bank and Gaza became even more dependent on Western "humanitarian aid." Some 30% of this aid is siphoned off into Israel and some 30% goes to support Palestinian "security forces" whose job seems to focus
not on protecting Palestinians from settler attacks but to fight any Palestinian who dares to resist the occupation or challenge the usurpation of his land.

There is a system of corruption involving governments and "authorities" trickling down to people. This is coupled with a media strategy that makes it look as if the only choices available to Palestinians are blowing themselves up or capitulation and endless negotiations. This sad state of affairs did not just happen but was engineered and is actively managed to perpetuate
occupation and dependency. Why else would Israel deny entry to academics coming to teach at the universities here or entry to equipment for even the simplest of industries? Why deny Gaza electric power and equipment to treat the sewage and thus let sewage of 1.5 million people flow into the Mediterranean Sea polluting Europe and even Tel Aviv?

But we are hopeful; history is not static as is amply illustrated by many historical examples including the rise and fall of the Bush dynasty. Here in Bethlehem, we derive strength from knowing that the foreign military occupation that existed at Jesus's time has ended. We derive hope from the thousands of visitors who come every year to show us solidarity. We derive contentment and patience from our faith and prayers. We derive energy from our work for peace with justice. The heads of our churches this year asked the international community to consider "what would Jesus do" in this situation of injustice.

In this season celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, let us all resolve to pray and work for ending the occupation that began in 1967 and for implementing other internationally recognized Palestinian rights. When we succeed, people of all religions (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) and all backgrounds will share this small piece of earth in harmony and peace. This will be the real change that we have been working for and that will finally shed the shackles holding US foreign policy.

This is our prayer this holiday season.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD is Chairman of the Board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People -- www.pcr.ps -- and is a professor at Bethlehem University in the occupied West Bank. This article first appeared in PalestineChronicle.com on 17 December 2008. Contact him through his website: http://qumsiyeh.org.

Drive hate and fear away...

Despite the presence of Reuters cameramen and other international media, around thirty IOF soldiers and police quickly attacked the non-violent demonstrators who carried cardboard crates of grapes. With their hands unable to be used as shields, many were beaten causing the grapes to prematurely spill onto the road. As the demonstrators attempted to continue their march, IOF police and soldiers choked, kicked and punched the demonstrators.

Your love bring down on David's town....

MARCH OF GRAPES
(this story will continue in the succeeding windows)
October 8, 2006- Palestinian, international and Israeli activists joined together to demonstrate against land theft, road closures and economic isolation by bringing two tons of the surplus Palestinian grape harvest to an occupation checkpoint along Route 60. In a display of civil disobedience akin to the North American Boston Tea Party, the demonstrators hoped to dump the surplus harvest onto the road, but were viciously attacked before they were able to reach the checkpoint.
Al-Khadr is a center for vineyards, as is the Bethlehem area in general. Every year its fertile lands yield 11,000 tons of grapes. Not long ago, these grapes were marketed to the entire West Bank, as well as Jordan, Gaza and Israel. Nowadays, with some roads blocked and others closed, and with new decrees restricting the delivery of grapes, the local produce has no market. The prices have dropped so low that the farmers can no longer earn their living. Many are forced to just leave the fruit to rot on the vines. Soon the Apartheid Wall will reach the site of the demonstration, and the Ghettoization of the area will be complete. Where grapes are the prime source of income and unemployment rates soar, this maneuver will effectively strangulate the already fragile local economy.
The wall in the Al-Khadr region will annex 20,000 dunums of Palestinian agricultural land, while the expansion of Betar Illit, Neve Daniel and Elazar colonial settlements will similarly steal additional lands. The Wall in the Al-Khadr and Bethlehem area will also imprison 19,000 Palestinians in between the concrete barrier and the 1967 West Bank border line, known as the “green line.”
For these reasons, local Palestinians, Israeli activists with Anarchists Against the Wall and Tay’ush, as well as international activists with the Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP), joined for a morning of civil disobedience with the intention of dumping a portion of the ample, though unmarketable, grape harvest onto Route 60 in protest. Approximately fifty demonstrators marched on Route 60, blocking northbound traffic, en route to Al-Khadr checkpoint, but were preemptively attacked by Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) police and soldiers. At the scene were numerous armored police jeeps, police transport vans and armored military jeeps. Also on hand was at least one agent with Shabak (Shin Bet), the occupation’s covert intelligence agency, seen filming the IOF’s brutality with a handheld video camera.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.wordpress.com/tag/uncategorized/
http://www.awalls.org/
http://bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com/2006/08/checkpoint-humiliation-and-bullets-at.html

Vicar Bans "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

A vicar has banned the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem from his services after witnessing the strife-torn state of Jesus's birthplace.

The Rev Stephen Coulter has decided that the words 'How still we see thee lie' are too far removed from the reality of Bethlehem today and should not be sung in his parish.

He toured Bethlehem in a recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was shocked at how the Arab-Israeli conflict that has raged around the West Bank town has decimated its population, wrecked its economy and hit tourism. At North Dorset district council's civic carol service, Mr Coulter told the congregation he could not join in the singing of the carol.

'My parishioners know why we will not be singing O Little Town in church this year,' he said. Mr Coulter showed the congregation a nativity scene he had smuggled out of Palestine which had been carved by one of his guides. He described how the guide's family was prohibited from leaving the town, which is surrounded on three sides by the Israeli concrete security wall, which in places is 25ft high. This was represented in the carving as a fence separating the crib from the Wise Men.
And he highlighted reports that the Israeli government was prohibiting the movement of communion wine from Bethlehem this Christmas because that, too, was deemed a security risk.
'My guide could sometimes queue for up to three hours to get out, but his wife and toddler daughters could not because they are considered a security risk,' Mr Coulter added.
'Bethlehem today is indeed a place of dark streets and of hopes and fears. Despite the current difficulties Bethlehem is the birthplace of our Lord and Saviour."
Scene of conflict: The controversial Israeli barrier in Bethlehem, which was erected three years ago.
'The Christians we stayed with consider themselves descendants of the very shepherds who were keeping watch over flocks by night 2,000 years ago.

'Can you imagine how they feel being stopped by security guards, Jews from Russia, who have been in the country for just five years and who have all the freedoms denied those who have been there for centuries?
'They ask how the Jews who were treated so badly in the Second World War now inflict the same treatment on others.'
Mr Coulter has written to Foreign Secretary David Miliband to lobby for peace and justice in Bethlehem and to North Dorset MP Bob Walter who was present at the service. He asked the congregation and civic leaders to keep the town in their minds this Christmas. 'Please exert your influence in any way you can to work for justice and peace in Bethlehem,' he said

...descend to us we pray.

Comment by clicking on the pencil.

O holy child of Bethlehem...

This is an advent calendar set in Bethlehem. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new browser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

...the dear Christ enters in.

where meek souls will receive him still....

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

...but in this world of sin...

No ear could hear his coming...

This is an advent calendar set in Bethlehem. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar

...the blessings of his heav'n.

O Little Town of Bethlehem.....

....to human hearts...

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

So God imparts...

the wondrous gift is g'ven.

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar

How silently, how silently

are met in thee tonight.

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

The hopes and fears of all the years

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

Yet in thy dark streets shining, the everlasting light...

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. for music and the complete lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm

O Little Town of Bethlehem Advent Calendar

EACH DAY IN DECEMBER A NEW WINDOW WILL BE OPENED!
WATCH FOR THIS ON-GOING LOOK INTO THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHELEM








































All the photos in the windows of the virtual advent calendar are from googling images of Bethlehem.







For music: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm