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.