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Bethlehem
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Bethlehem, The Holy Land’s Collective
Cultural National Identity: A
Palestinian Arab Historical Perspective
Adnan A. Musallam
CONTENTS
ˉ
Introduction
ˉ
Bethlehem in History and the Arabization
Process
ˉ
Modern Awakening, Zionist Settlements
and Bethlehemite Solidarity
ˉ
The 1948 Disaster (Nakbeh) and
Reassertion of Palestinian Identity,
1948 – 1982
ˉ
Palestinian Peace Offensive, 1974 –
Present
ˉ
Islamic Trend in Palestine
ˉ
Challenges to Bethlehem’s Cultural
Identity
ˉ
Conclusion
Bethlehem, The Holy Land’s Collective
Cultural National Identity: A
Palestinian Arab Historical Perspective
Introduction
Eternal attachment to the soil of
Palestine, Islamic and Christian
collective identities, Arab
consciousness, dispersion throughout the
world, anger and alienation, vision of
return, steadfastness on the national
soil, resistance and uprising, quest for
self ‑ determination and for a just and
lasting peace . . . all these are
important dimensions of Palestinian Arab
national identity. This identity gives
Palestinians everywhere, in Bethlehem
and in the areas controlled by the
Palestine National Authority (PNA), and
in the occupied territories or in the
diaspora, a clear sense of a unified
selfhood.
Palestinian identity is neither a child
of yesteryears, for example a child of
World War I or World War II, or the 1948
Palestine War, or of the 1967 June War
nor of the Intifada. This identity is a
result of the amalgamation of peoples
and cultures and is an accumulation of
cultural and human experiences which
span human history since the dawn of
civilization, and especially beginning
with the third millennium B. C. when
the Arab Canaanites settled in the
country and built highly fortified and
developed city‑ states.
Bethlehem in History and the Arabization
Process
Bethlehem, a Canaanite settlement is
known to have existed as early as three
thousand years B.C. It is mentioned in
the Tell El-Amarne letters, dating from
the 14th century B.C., in
which the Egyptian governor of Palestine
informed the king of Egypt that a town
south of Jerusalem called Bit Ilu Lahama
(House of the goddess Lahama) had fallen
in the hands of the "Kharibus"
(Hebrews). Deeply engraved in this
accumulated cultural experience as well
was the founding of the City of Jebuse /
Ur Salem / Jerusalem (the City of Peace)
in the second millennium B. C. E. by a
Canaanite tribe, the Jebusites.
Jerusalem was later captured and
occupied by King David and the
Israelites in 1000 B. C. E.
Prophet and Judge Samuel came to
Bethlehem and anointed David as king in
the place of Saul (1 Sms, 15,16,35).
Bethlehem, likewise, appeared in the Old
Testament in the context of prophecy
(Isaiah 7,4): "The virgin shall be
with child, and bear a son, and shall
name him Emmanuel". This Virgin birth
was realized in the reign of Herod the
great (37-4 BC.), the vassal of the
Roman Emperor Augustus. Christ was born
in a grotto in Bethlehem. Emperor
Hadrian erected a pagan statue, Adonis,
over the Grotto. Emperor Constantine
eventually ordered the construction of a
church on the Grotto ( the present
Nativity Church).
Following the appearance of the
Canaanite city- states, Bethlehem and
Jerusalem saw wave after wave of peoples
who conquered and or settled in
Palestine: ancient Egyptians (who ruled
Palestine for 615 years), Hyskos (230
years), Hittites (60 years), Jews (414
years), Babylonians (48 years), ancient
Persians (208 years), Greeks (7 years),
Egyptians/ Ptolemies (123 years), Syria/
Seleucids (57 years), Maccabees Jews and
Seleucids (72 years), Armenians (7
years), Romans and Byzantines (698
years), Persians (14 years), Arabs
(beginning in 638 C.E.., an Arabization
and Islamization processes began,
leaving a permanent cultural legacy as
seen in the present Arabic speaking
peoples of Palestine including the
modern inhabitants of Bethlehem who are
Christian and Muslim Arabs), Seljuk
Turks (14 years) Seljuk Turks, Arabs and
Crusaders (192 years), Egyptian Mamlukes
(226 years), Ottoman Turks (402 years),
Egyptians/ Muhammad Ali (8 years), Great
Britain (31 years), Israel (40 years).
Arabization was manifested in the Arabic
language and culture and gave the
Palestinians their predominantly Arabic
identity. Arabic became the native
tongue and Arab culture supplanted the
existing accumulative cultures of the
peoples and conquerors who had
inhabited the land since the dawn of
history. Islamization, on the other
hand, transformed the spiritual and
social life of Palestinians. In 637 C.E.,
Arab armies under the leadership of the
second Rightly Guided Caliph Omar ibn
al- Khattab entered Bethlehem and
Jerusalem. Patriarch Sofronius received
him warmly and asked the Caliph to grant
security to the people and their
churches. The pious Omar visited, both
the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
and the church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem and refused to pray in both
fearing that he would set precedents for
his people. Instead, the Patriarch
offered him two plots of land near the
two churches. In the meantime, Caliph
Omar issued a Covenant to Patriarch
Sofronius and all Christians,
safeguarding them as free non Muslims
under the protection of the Caliph and
the Muslims as ahl al-dhimmah:
"let this safety be guaranteed to their
persons, their churches, monasteries and
all their holy sites including: the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the
birth place of Jesus (Peace be upon
him), its large church and its grotto…
we hereby also grant safety to all
remaining Christian denominations, and
those that come on pilgrimage…"
With the advent of Muslim Arab rule in
Palestine local Christians were Arabized
as well even though large numbers of the
settled Christians including the
citizens of Bethlehem were ethnically
Arabs of the Ghassanid tribes that had
migrated earlier from the Yaman
northward toward geographical Syria.
Bethlehem's two largest Christian Arab
clans/quarters trace their origin to
these southern Arabian Christian tribes
(the Gassanids). These include Al-
Farahiyyah clan/ quarter who trace their
origin to the Yaman and to their
grandfather, Farah, who came from Wadi
Musa in southern Syria (now in Jordan).
There is also An- Najajreh, who say that
their ancestors came from Najran in
Arabia. Likewise, Al- 'Anatreh clan/
quarter trace their ancestry to
Christian Arab tribes.
By the 14th century A.D. Arabic and
Muslim civilization, which extended from
Morocco to Indonesia, exhausted itself.
Arab lands eventually fell into Turkish
Ottoman Muslim hands. While the West was
steadily moving to new scientific,
intellectual, and cultural heights,
stagnation afflicted the Ottoman Empire
among both Arabs and Turks by the end
the 17th century.
The common Arab ethnic tribal background
of both Muslims and Christians in
Palestine often transcended religious
affiliations. This was seen clearly in
the division of Arab society into
southern Arabs (Yaman) and northern
Arabs (Qays). In the ensuing alliances
and conflicts during the decline of the
Ottoman Empire from the later 17th
to the early 19th centuries
one would see, for example, a Muslim
town like Hebron and a Christian town
like Beit Jala, both Qaysis, stand
together to face their rivals among the
Christians of Bethlehem and the Muslims
of Jerusalem, both Yamanis.
Otherwise, Palestinians lived in harmony
in the Sunni Muslim Ottoman state as
loyal Ottoman subjects. The common Arab
roots of Christians and Muslims, based
in language, history, etc., would,
however, become re-enlivened with the
advent of Arab nationalism in the 19th
century.
It is the same Bethlehem and Jerusalem
that would become two of the most
important centers of Christianity and
the Christian dogma concerning the
birth, crucifixion, death, and heavenly
ascension of Jesus Christ.. To the
Muslims, throughout the world, Jerusalem
would become the site of the Prophet
Muhammad's Journey (al‑Isra') and his
Ascension (al‑Mi'raj) on the winged
steed (al‑Buraq). It is now the third
sacred city of Islam, after Mecca and
Medinah, and the first of the two "qiblas"
toward which the Muslims turn in their
daily prayers.
Thus the Nativity Church and the Church
of Holy Sepulcher and al‑Aqsa Mosque,
are symbols of central importance to
both Christian and Muslim Palestinian
national identity. Israelis should not
be too surprised that Palestinians
insist that Arab Jerusalem is their
eternal capital as well. Cordoning off
Jerusalem from the residents of the
occupied territories and the PNA areas
and preventing them from praying at
their holy sites do not lessen the
importance of Jerusalem to them. For it
only inflames their nationalist and
religious feelings and deepens their
identity.
Modern Awakening, Zionist
Settlements and Bethlehemite Solidarity
The Arab cultural renaissance of the
19th century and the deteriorating Arab
‑ Turkish relations on the eve of World
War I played a key role in furthering
Arab national consciousness among the
Arabs of Bethlehem and Palestine. Nakhle
Zuraiq (1861‑1921), a native of Beirut
and a student of the leaders of Arab
national renaissance, Butrus al‑ Bustani,
Nasif al‑ Yaziji and Yusuf al‑'Asir,
came to Jerusalem in 1889. He is
credited with reviving Arabic language
and literature in the schools of
Jerusalem and Palestine. His students
would become future Palestinian Arab
national cultural leaders, including
Khalil as‑Sakakini, Ibrahim Touqan, Musa
Aqel, and Saleem al‑Husayni, to mention
a few.
Najeeb Nassar, another colorful Arab
personality from Lebanon, who had
settled in Haifa and founded "al‑
Carmel” newspaper in 1908, drew the
attention of his fellow Arabs to Zionist
settlements and the dangers of selling
land to them. He translated the article
"Zionism" (found in the Encyclopedia.
Judaica) into Arabic and published it in
sixteen articles. It should be noted
that the Palestinian dimension of Arab
nationalism began to crystalize
gradually at this juncture, having
gained momentum from the increased tempo
of Zionist colonization of Palestine and
the resulting deadly Arab- Zionist
alruggle over the land.
The story of World War I and its impact
on the Arab East have been treated in
depth. Suffice it to say that despite
Western promises to help Arabs attain
independence, and despite the key role
Arabs played in tipping the military
balance in favor of the Allies in the
region, the Geographical Syria (Bilad
al-Sham) was divided by the same West
into small entities: Palestine, Lebanon,
Syria and Transjordan.
The resentment of the West was felt
mostly by Palestinian Arabs whose
country was entrusted to Britain at the
San Remo Conference of April 1920 with a
proviso putting the Balfour Declaration
( the establishment of a Jewish national
home) into effect. Since that time anti‑
Western sentiments have been kept alive
in Palestinian Arab national
consciousness. These feelings were to
become as well an integral part of
Palestinian identity and the Palestinian
national movement since the early
1920's.
Bethlehemite solidarity with their
fellow Palestinians was deeply
entrenched, and was apparent in the
activities of the various sectors of
society: Thus, when the American
King-Crane Commission of Inquiry arrived
in Bethlehem on 17 June 1919 to
ascertain the wishes of the local
inhabitants about their future, they
found that "in that old Biblical city
all the delegations showed a very
careful organization. They were in
general agreement concerning the unity
of Syria and Palestine, wanted complete
independence if possible, and were
opposed to Zionism and Jewish
immigration." Even the phenomenon of
Bethlehem area emigration to the
Americas, which was given further
impetus by the continued uncertainties
of the Palestine Problem throughout this
century, became a political issue
closely related to Arab Jewish conflict.
Thus, when many Palestinians from the
Bethlehem/ Beit Jala areas lost their
Palestinian citizenship as a result of
newly- enacted laws by the British, the
nationalist forces launched public
campaigns in the 1920's and 1930's. They
argued that, while native born Arabs who
wanted to return from the Diaspora were
being deprived of their citizenship,
alien newcomers, Jewish immigrants, were
given citizenship only after a two-year
residency.
Henceforth, and unlike the other Arab
national movements which were facing one
enemy, the colonial power, the
Palestinian movement was fighting on two
fronts:
1‑ Jewish Zionists who were intent on
building the Jewish national home.
2‑ The
British, who had committed themselves
under the League of Nations Mandate to
help Zionists realize their national
home on the ground.
The collapse of a series of Palestinian
populist uprisings in 1920, 1921, 1929,
1933, 1935, and 1936‑1939 led eventually
to the collapse of Palestinian society
and the creation of Israel in 1948. This
event caused the uprooting (transfer) of
close to 750,000 Palestinians and the
breaking up of the land of Palestine
according to the February – June 1949
Armistice Agreement into Israel, West
Bank under Jordan and the Gaza Strip
under Egypt.
Many citizens from Bethlehem
distinguished themselves in that period.
They included, among others, 'Issa
Khouri Basil Bandak who represented
Bethlehem in the Muslim-Christian
Society, and later in the Palestine Arab
Congresses. The Arab Congresses
Executive, chaired by Musa Kazem al-Husayni,
sent Bandak to the Americas in 1930 to
propagate the Arab position in
Palestine. In 1935, as the newly elected
Mayor of Bethlehem, he joined with the
mayors of Jerusalem, Acre, Gaza, Ramalla
Beit Jala and other towns, to form the
Reform Party (al- Islah). In 1938 he was
imprisoned and deported. Issa Bandak
was, in addition, a pioneer journalist
in the Bethlehem area having worked
closely with fellow Bethlehemite Yuhanne
Khalil Dakkarat in the nationalist An-
Nadi Al- Adabi/ Literary/ Ethical Clulb
and in Bethlehem's first experiment in
journalism, Bayt Lahm (1919-
1921). In the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's
Bandak published the longest lasting
paper in Bethlehem's history, Sawt
al-Sha`b (Voice of the People),
1922- 1948.
In the
1930's, especially 1936 through 1939,
Bethlehem like the other Arab
communities, witnessed a six-month
general strike to force Britain to stop
Jewish immigration and land sales.
Public agitation was undertaken by
students as well as men and women of
Bethlehem,. Many were arrested and sent
to detention camps. Armed resistance
against British forces which began in
1936 was spearheaded by Bethlehemites
Ibrahim Khulayf and 'Issa Abu Qaddum.
Both worked closely with Palestinian
resistance leader 'Abd Al- Qader Al-
Husayni and fellow Syrian Arab military
leader Sa‘id Al-‘Aas to strike at
British military targets in the
Bethlehem district. Khulayf, Abu Qaddum
and Al-‘Aas were killed in British
ambushes.
The 1948 Disaster (Nakbeh) And
Reassertion Of Palestinian Identity,
1948 – 1982
Bethlehem did not escape the upheavels
of 1947- 1948. In March 1948, a
Bethlehemite member of the Palestinian
Jihad resistance, Antone Dawid, who was
the chauffeur to the American Consul
General in Jerusalem, was believed to
have placed explosives which blew up the
headquarters of the Jewish Agency in
retaliation for Zionist terrorist acts,
such as the blowing up of the King David
Hotel, where many Palestinian Arabs and
Jews as well as British officials were
killed.
On March 27, 1948, a Jewish Zionist
military envoy was ambushed in
Bethlehem's suburb of Duheishah.
Twenty-five settlers were killed and 22
vehicles were destroyed. This 30 hour
confrontation ended when 149 survivors
were escorted to safety by British
forces. That was one of the last
victories that the Palestinians Arabs
achieved. Henceforth, and as a result of
the fall of the strategic Al- Qastal
village, the death of Palestinian
military leader ‘Abd al-Qader al-
Husayni in Al- Qastal battle, and the
gruesome massacre at Deir Yassin, all
taking place in early April, the
uprooting and transfer of large segments
of Arab population in the Jerusalem area
began to take place.
The Bethlehem area Central Committee to
Aid the Refugees estimated that in the
early months of the uprooting and
disaster (An- Nakbeh) 50,000 refugees
arrived in the Bethlehem area before
they moved on to other places in
Palestine or Jordan. However, by
September 1948 the official numbers were
estimated to be 21,030. Relief work was
organized by the Red Cross, i.e., two
years before UNRWA stepped into the
picture to oversee the three Bethlehem
refugee camps. The city of Bethlehem
itself, likewise, suffered immensely,
and poverty became a way of life among
its inhabitants during the Palestine war
of 1948-1949.
Between 1948 and 1967 Israel attempts
were made to liquidate "Palestinianism",
that is, the eternal attachment of
Palestinians to their native soil, an
attachment that identifies them with the
land of Palestine only. It was not
surprising in the early 1970' s that
Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of
Israel, articulated the idea that
Palestinian identity did not exist at
all. Palestinians under occupation or in
the Palestinian Diaspora, for their
part, insisted on their identity despite
the many odds working against them,
including hostile Arab regimes and
western powers along with the powerful
pro‑Israeli Western mass media which
made the two terms “Palestinian
identity" and "terrorism" synonymous.
Until the advent of the Madrid Peace
Conference in 1991 and the Oslo Accords
in 1993, the Palestinians were rarely
heard in the international media.
The interplay between Palestinian
feeling of alienation as a result of the
loss of the homeland and the feeling of
being treated as sub‑human in the
dispersion camps amidst world apathy,
and the Palestinian insistence on the
preservation of their identity led to a
reassertion of Palestinian Arab national
consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s.
The ideas of alienation and identity are
very important aspects of modern
Palestinian Arab literature as seen, for
example, in Mahmoud Darwish' s " Letter
from Exile" (1973)
Fathers, sisters, relatives and
friends
Perhaps you live
Perhaps you are dead
Or perhaps, like me you have no address
What is a man’s worth
Without a homeland
Without a flag
Without an address
What is a man’s worth?
On the other hand, the same literature
comprises as well expressions of
resistance which are "the most powerful
negation of alienation. The poetry of
resistance and struggle is part of
Palestinian identity and community and
serves to express the communal
sentiments of a scattered people". The
literature of resistance can be seen in
the 1950s and 1960s in the many
literary works of the Palestinian martyr
and symbol of Palestinian resistance,
Ghassan Kanafani.
The June 1967 War was indeed a
thoroughly humiliating experience for
the Arab regimes and the masses
everywhere, including the Palestinians
in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Arab
Jerusalem and in the Palestinian
Diaspora. To the Palestinians, however,
it was also a historical turning point.
Rosemary Sayigh points out: "It is
difficult to separtate out the
Palestinian Resistance Moment from the
historical movement mood in which it
first arose, soon after the Six Day War,
like a phoenix out of ashes galvanizing
a whole nation humiliated by the
collapse of the Arab armies". The
Palestinian Resistance Movement, which
began military operations in early
January 1965, emerged victorious having
taken control of the impotent Palestine
Liberation Organization ( PLO) which was
established earlier in1964.
This was in response of the dire need of
the post‑1967 War for a Palestinian
organizational structure that could
represent and direct in an efficient
manner the growing sentiment of
Palestinianism and the Palestinian quest
for self‑determination and statehood .
Henceforth, the PLO became synonymous
with Palestinian national identity as
well as becoming the sole legitimate
representative of the Palestinian
people.
The PLO's anti‑Israel operations
worldwide and the heroic resistance of
the 1968 Battle of Karameh led to
renewed sense of Palestinian self‑
respect and determined activism. This
contrasted with the low state of morale
in other Arab countries resulting from
the June 1967 defeat. In the words of
the 1988 Declaration of Independence:
"And as a result of long years of trial
in ever mounting struggle, the
Palestinian political identity emerged
further consolidated and confirmed. The
collective Palestinian national will
forged for itself a political
embodiment, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, its sole, legitimate
representative recognized by the world
community as a whole, as well as by
related regional and international
institutions.. even as it suffered
massacres and confinement within and
without its home".
The massacres of Sabra and Shatilla in
1982 and the heroic resistance of the
refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1980s
further intensified the reassertion of
Palestinian national identity. But the
1983 expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon
only underlined the importance of the
occupied Palestinian territories. And
this was the prelude that would form the
preparatory ground work for the outbreak
of the popular uprising (Intifada)
in December 1987 against Israeli
occupation in the Gaza Strip, the West
Bank and East Jerusalem. This uprising
would last for several years.
Palestinian Peace
Offensive, 1974 – Present
The PLO's insistence on destroying the
Israeli entity in the 1960s and early
1970s gave way gradually to a more
pragmatic approach, more in tune with
the changes in the balance of world
power. Eventually, it came to endorse a
two-state solution on the historical
soil of Palestine. The beginning of this
shift became evident in the aftermath of
the October 1973 War and the start of
Israeli‑Egyptian peace negotiations. In
June 1974 the Palestine National Council
(PNC) called for the establishment of a
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in
any part of the occupied areas evacuated
by Israel.
Likewise, Palestinian leadership and the
PNC seized the opportunity of the
unprecedented massive national Intifada
in December 1987 to declare Palestinian
Independence on 15 November 1988. The
Declaration states that despite the
unjust U.N. Resolution 181 (1947) which
divided Palestine into two states, Arab
and Jewish, the same resolution " still
provides these conditions of
international legitimacy that ensure the
right of the Palestinian Arab People to
sovereignty".
Palestinian national identity was
clearly defined in the 1988 Declaration.
It states that Palestine "is an Arab
state, an integral and indivisible part
of the Arab nation .. in heritage and
civilization". It is the state of
Palestinians everywhere where they enjoy
" their collective national and cultural
identity”" under a parliamentary
democratic political system which
guarantees freedom of religious
convictions and “non‑discrimination in
public rights of men or women, on
grounds of race, religion, colour or
sex”.
Palestinian peace offensive took another
turn when a mutual recognition between
Israel and the PLO took place in
September 1993 as a prelude to the Oslo
Accords of 1993. Likewise, Palestinians
became an integral part of the pan-Arab
peace offensive of March 2002
(reiterated in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
and 2007) which calls for recognition
and normalization of relations with
Israel on the condition that Israel
agrees to withdraw from all Arab
occupied areas (Palestinian, Syran and
Lebanese), and to recognize a sovereign
Palestinian state with Arab East
Jerusalem as its capital, and to help
solve justly the Palestinian refugee
problem taking into consideration UN
General Assembly Resolution 194.
Islamic Trend In Palestine
The PLO's peace initiative for a
two‑state solution and PLO's espousal of
a secular ideology are not to the liking
of many Palestinians who refuse to
accept the reality of the state of
Israel. Those espousing political Islam
among Palestinians such as Hamas
and Jihad reject the
secular‑orientation of Palestinian
national identity. Islamic identity is
of more importance among these groups
that have been playing a greater role in
Palestinian society since the outbreak
of the Intifada in 1987. They consider
Palestine a Muslim land and the
Palestinian problem a Muslim problem of
concern to the Muslim world. The
priority of Hamas and Jihad followers is
the transformation of Palestine into a
Shari‘ah based Islamic society as a
first step followeing the total
liberation of the land from the Jewish
state. In this group's vision of
society, religion and politics are
integral parts of each other with the
Qur'an and the Sunna of the Prophet and
the resulting Shari‘ah (Islamic code)
serving as a guide to people in all
aspects of life.
This trend toward political Islam in
Palestinian society is an integral part
of Islamic resurgence in the Arab world
since the Arab defeat in 1967 and the
emergence of the Islamic revolution in
Iran in 1979. It has drawn much of its
strength from the pathetic state of the
Arabs in their historical confrontation
with Israel and from the unmitigated
failures of the Arab regimes and the PLO
to build viable societies and social
justice.
Whether political Islam in Palestine
which commands tens of thousands of
followers will succeed in challenging
the secular-orientation of Palestinian
national identity remains to be seen.
However, the PLO's success of failure in
fulfilling the Palestinian quest for
self‑determination and a Palestinian
state, coupled with the establishment of
an economically viabile society,
including the impending final
negotiations on sensitive issues such as
Jerusalem, refugees and settlements,
will to a certain degree decide the
outcome of the challenge.
Challenges to Bethlehem's Cultural
Identity
The biggest threat to Bethlehem's Arab
cultural identity in the third
millennium is the steady emigration of
its indigenous Christian Arab
population. In 1922, 89% of Bethlehem's
population was Christian. Today,
Christians form less than one third of
the population. I hope Palestinians,
Muslims and Christians alike, will rise
to the challenge of fighting this
chronic disease in the body of the
nation. This problem existed all along
and was discussed in private
conversations but no person bothered to
talk about it publicly except for a few
voices. In other words, it was kept in
the closet until Al-Liqa Center for
Religious and Heritage Studies in the
Holy Land, Bethlehem/ Jerusalem held a
unique conference in 1990. The
conference raised awareness among
Palestinians and encouraged everyone
including the church to talk about this
problem. However, seventeen (17) years
have passed and the problem had not been
solved.
The "Emigration compound" which
aggravates the problem continues
unchallenged until this minute. The
compound includes the following:
a) Israeli
strangulation of Palestinians
psychologically, economically and
politically through expropriations of
lands bypass roads, separation walls,
military checkpoints etc... The Oslo
process did not slow down this
strangulation. In many ways it has
became even more painful. Palestinians
are treated like caged animals in their
ghettos, so called areas (A)and (B), and
are stripped of a basic human need, that
is, the freedom of mobility. Not
everyone can withstand this pressure.
Some die, others join the resistance,
while others, both Muslims and
Christians, emigrate in search of a
better world where they can realize
their individual dreams.
b) The development of Palestinian Arab
family networks in the Palestinian
Diaspora centers in Latin America, North
America, and Australia which have been
proliferating since early in the
century. This is a prime factor which is
causing most of emigration damage at
this period. It is easier to emigrate if
one has relatives who can get him/her a
visitor's visa or an immigrant visa and
who can help to insure him/her a
livelihood. The problem of emigration in
Bethlehem since the turn of this century
is seen in the disappearance of tens of
names of Palestinian Bethlehem families
from the local register as a result of
family reunification in the Palestinian
diaspora. A sample of the names of these
families from Bethlehem is only partial:
Jidi, Dakarrat, Mueallim, Kommandaric, Abu Fheilah, Talamas,
Samean, Tarud, Dahbura, 'Abis, Zanun,
Abu Jarur, Sabbagh, Sahuriyah, Hreizi,
Abu Hirmas, Afaanah, Nquli, Bsiseh,
Kaffyeh, etc.. These and other tens of
Bethlehem families now prosper in the
Diaspora.
c) With the resurgence of Islam and the
Islamic way in the Bethlehem community
since the 1967 defeat and rise of the
Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, a
negative reaction, that of anxiety and
fear, took place in the Christian Arab
community. As a result, there are two
trends in the Christian Arab community
of Bethlehem: First, there is a
majority trend which sees the local
Christian as an integral part of the
Arab majority and Palestinian Arab
collective identity, which is deeply
rooted in the lands of Palestine. For in
the final analysis there is no ethnic
difference between a Muslim Arab and
Christian Arab, for both have the same
language, history and aspirations. On
the other hand on the fringes of
Palestinian society, there are zealots,
both Christians and Muslims. On the
Christian Arab side there are some fears
and anxieties resulting from the rise of
Islamic fundamentalists in the community
and the nation. Some exploit these fears
and anxieties by constantly telling the
individual that he/she is a member of a
religious minority as seen in this
statement: "one of the factors which
motivate the Christians to emigrate is
the reality of the numerical minority.
So, if the group is small, the burdens
increase by emigration and those who
stay may find it difficult to carry the
burden". Notice that there is no mention
here of the nation or fellow citizens of
the other faiths who can support each
other to stem the bleeding of
emigration. This "minority mentality" is
clearly destructive and leads only to
alienation of the individual from
his/her fellow Palestinians and from the
land of Palestine and only invigorates
the phenomenon of emigration.
Conclusion
Many a Western journalist
have visited and are visiting Bethlehem
and the Holy land and, surprisingly,
foremost in their mind is the state of
Christian- Muslim relations in
Bethlehem. The pre-occupation with this
issue is very difficult for the native
Christians or Muslims to understand.
However, we natives keep reminding these
journalists that in every society in the
world there are fringes that include
extremists and zealots. And Palestinian
society is no exception.
On the contrary, Christian-Muslim
relations in Bethlehem and in Palestine
have been exemplary throughout
Palestinian’s modern history. One only
needs to keep in mind that the
Palestinian nationalist movement since
its inception at the turn of the century
and until this minute is firmly based on
Christian-Muslim solidarity which is an
essential ingredient in Palestinian
collective identity.
Hopefully, in the early
decades of the third Millennium a just
and a comprehensive peace will prevail
in the Holy Land. And even though many
non refugee Palestinians of the Diaspora
will not return to Palestine to settle
permanently, some will opt to invest in
the local and national economies. These
developments will certainly be the best
insurance against the phenomenon of
emigration, and the gradual
disappearance of a vital component of
Arab presence in Palestine.
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