december 21, 2005

O Little Town of Bethlehem

On Tuesday, December 20, just five days before Christmas, Bethlehem’s Manger Square once again became the scene of a stand off. This stand off lasted less than two hours, but reminded some of the stand off in Manger Square during the depths of the intifada in April and May 2002. For 39 days, a bitter stalemate pitted the Israeli army against Palestinian gunmen who barricaded themselves in the church of the nativity.

The I.E. wanted many of those gunmen for an assortment of terror attacks against Israelis. The stand off attracted the attention worldwide and the foreign press perched on rooftops surrounding Manger Square to witness the final resolution of the stand off.

This time, gunmen from the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades seized Bethlehem’s city hall and some perched on its rooftop while others presented their demands. They chose the timing to attract the most attention. The world starts to turn its attention towards the city where Jesus Christ was born at this time of year, so when Manger Square becomes a battlefield once more, the news goes around the world in an instant.

I remember the stand off in 2002. It dragged on for weeks. One day, the Israeli army allowed us to come in as close as you could get to Manger Square. An Israeli tank stood guard outside which was off limits because of Palestinian snipers, but they allowed us to see what we could as we peered through the plywood that had replaced the blown out windows.

But there were other ways you could get in to Bethlehem. The taxi drivers in Bet Jella, the town next to Bethlehem enjoyed a robust business shuttling journalists in and out of Bethlehem. Until the last day of the stand off, the closest you could get was a side street just off of Manger Square. Many parts of Bethlehem looked like a war zone then. Rubble lined many streets, a curfew kept many people inside and the sounds of explosions didn’t seem far off.

On Tuesday, this stand off was over before you knew it, but it revealed the kind of lawlessness and chaos in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. This kind of anarchy has existed for several years now where it seems the ones in charge aren’t the Palestinian Authority but armed gangs. The rule of the gun has replaced the rule of law. Palestinian President Mahout Abbes says he will reign in these groups but after nearly a year in power, he has not been able or willing to do so.

Thankfully, Tuesday’s stand off wasn’t the kind of stand off there was more than three years ago, but it’s a reflection of the kind of little town Bethlehem has become. Christians would do well to pray for peace in the town where the prince of peace was born.

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