Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing "Hope flickers still in gloom of Bethlehem". It flickers here too as long as people are willing to publish such truths remembering what really matters...and in many ways what really matters are ALL our children, including the Palestinians.

We need to take care that our words and our actions do not harm the past, the present and the future of human kind.

And I find great hope in your conclusion pointing out the story of Bethlehem today with the two Bethlehem residents stringing "more than two miles of Christmas lights despite the gloom and tension and despite the possibility they would not be paid.Samaan Shaheen is a Christian. His coworker, Kahlil, is a Muslim. But they were still able to work together, day after day."

Yes indeed, their example really does inspire...as true goodness and decency always does.

Israel's Apartheid is a despicable crime: My thoughts and prayers are for Palestine, and all the many oppressed and impoverished people who refuse to succumb to hate and despair... for all the many who have kept the beauty of Palestine alive simply by being. They are the living links to many precious and beloved symbols and stories embraced by the Abrahamic faiths.

Sincerley,
Anne Selden Annab

http://journalstar.com/articles/2006/12/25/opinion/editorial/doc458efe0279bd6893959035.txt

Hope flickers still in gloom of Bethlehem

Monday, Dec 25, 2006 - 12:12:33 am CST

A gate in the wall that now shuts off access to Bethlehem. (Steve Sabella / Courtesy Photo)

O little town of Bethlehem / How still we see thee lie ... Phillips Brooks of Philadelphia wrote the words to “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in the 1860s, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Brooks wouldn’t recognize the place today.

A 24-foot concrete wall built by the Israelis separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

The wall is a poignant symbol of deepening hatreds that are eroding the long truce that made Bethlehem a special place where Christians and Muslims lived together in peace.

Just a few years ago, Manger Square teemed with Christian tourists during the Christmas season. Now, only a few dare to venture under the wall’s watchtower and through the gate to visit the Church of the Nativity believed to be the birthplace of Christ.

But even though many Americans might know the words to “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” they apparently know very little about the actual city.

A poll done by Zogby International for the advocacy organization Open Bethlehem showed that 58 percent of Americans thought Bethlehem was an Israeli city. Actually, it is in the West Bank, in Palestinian territory. That’s why Bethlehem is on the other side of the Israeli wall designed to protect Israelis from Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Since the wall was built, the Christians living in Bethlehem have felt increasingly threatened. And, like all Palestinians, they have found it difficult to earn a living with unemployment around 65 percent. A quarter-century ago a majority of the town’s residents were Christian. Today, the percentage is reported to be around 45 percent and dropping.

In the world at large — and certainly in the United States — blame for Bethlehem’s predicament is placed on the Palestinians. So it may come as a surprise that 78 percent of Palestinian Christians in the Zogby poll said the Israeli blockade was the reason Christians were leaving, rather than poor treatment by Muslim residents.

Skeptics may doubt those results, considering the poll was commissioned by an advocacy organization and that conditions in Bethlehem are hardly conducive to candid responses. Still, there’s little evidence to contradict the finding. And the Rev. Mitri Raheb of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. earlier this month, “The little town of Bethlehem is being transformed as we speak into one of the biggest open-air prisons in the world.”

Virtually all would agree there’s little evidence that the problems are going to improve anytime soon. Now Palestinians are killing each other as the Hamas and Fatah factions battle each other for power.

But there’s reason to hope.

A story in the London Times reported on the weeks of work this year by two Bethlehem residents to string more than two miles of Christmas lights despite the gloom and tension and despite the possibility they would not be paid.

Samaan Shaheen is a Christian. His coworker, Kahlil, is a Muslim. But they were still able to work together, day after day.

Their example inspires.