The West Bank pt.3- Bethlehem & The Shepherd's Fields

On the road north to Bethlehem from Hebron we passed the Al Arov refugee camp and the Jewish settlement of Efrata, one of the largest in the West Bank. These sights highlighted two of the major issues remaining between Israelis and Palestinians. The refugee camps are poorer than even the towns in the West Bank, having high unemployment and little hope. Many of the people (or their family) either abandoned their homes in Israel proper when Israel declared itself a sovereign nation in 1948 or when Israel took control of the West Bak after the Six Day War in 1967. Many of these camps are recruiting grounds for fundamentalists, who can used the depressed conditions in these camps as a rally point for their cause. Sam told me that many people on the West Bank, including those in refugee camps went into Israel proper everyday to work. The most amazing thing he relayed to me is that in order to work exit the West Bank for work, candidates must be over 30 and married. This is something I had never heard and was amazed at this policy. It's really oppressive, but it does eliminate the demographic that suicide bombers and terrorist usually come from- young, angry, immature, men who see no future for themselves.

The settlement of Efrata is large, and I could see the place where construction was ready to begin. The problem with the Palestinians receiving the West Bank and Gaza as a place for their own country is that there are hundreds of Jewish settlements dotting the area. Most of the settlements have their own bypass roads and heavy security. The settlers inside these towns religious fundamentalists, believing that they must settle the West Bank so that it remains part of Israel. This is not a political argument for them- they believe that this land was given to the Jews by God. The Israeli government for many years encouraged these settlements, then after receiving international criticism, turned a blind eye to them. In recent years, the government has been much more restrictive in allowing new settlements to be founded, but the existing one have continued to grow. After seeing these in person, I still wonder how a Palestinian state is ever supposed to work. I can see a scenario where the Israeli government forces these settlers from their homes- that would lead to widespread rioting by the most powerful & vocal minority the country has. It's also hard seeing the Palestinians happy with a land that is divided geographically by all of the lands and roads these settlements have- there would be no geographic cohesion to it.

We made our way into Bethlehem. I'd seen heavy tourist traffic in Jerusalem, but Bethlehem was bursting at the seams. The song says 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' and it couldn't be more wrong. I'm sure it's meant to refer to the time of Jesus, but today Bethlehem is a large, fast moving, heavily-touristed place. The above picture is some of the famous street art done by UK artist Banksy. There were a couple of different paintings, the most famous of which are in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, adjacent to Bethlehem.

Our stop in Bethlehem was at Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity. The church claims to be the oldest continuously used Christian church in the world. The spot is, for the most part, recognized as the actual spot where Jesus was born, since the Roman Emporer Hadrian has a shrine built to a pagan god here to distract attention away from this spot by Christian pilgrims. It was Constantine's mother, the same woman responsible for the building of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, who had the first Christian church built here in 339 AD.

Tourists flocking the Grotto of the Nativity

The star marks the spot of Jesus' birth

The area where Jesus was laid after being born

The main attraction here, of course, is The Grotto of the Nativity. There was a huge line of tourists lines up to make their way down the stairs and visit the cave where Jesus was born. There was also a section of the cave where Jesus was first laid, which was set up as it's own separate shrine. I'm usually pretty synical about these places, but it was amazing to see the masses who has flocked here because of devotion. Many in the crowd were so touched by the experience that they left the grotto in tears.

The church itself was massive. It contained evidence of many different periods, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, and most recently Greek Orthodox. Particularly interesting were the Byzantine era mosaics.

Next door to The Church of the Nativity was The Franciscan Church of St. Catherine's. This church was beautiful and airy inside, quite a conrast from the dark and brooding Church of the Nativity next door. My guide, Sam, was married in this church.

Below St. Catherine's was the Cave of St. Jerome, where he first translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. The cave also contained the tomb of St Jerome and some beautiful stained glass.

Upon exiting St. Catherine's we were able to look up and see bullet holes on the side of The Church of the Nativity from the 2002 siege that took place there. The Israeli Defense Force raided Bethlehem looking for 200 Palestinian militants, who fled to the church and for 39 days, in a widely covered incident, held monks and some innocent civilians captive. The siege ended somewhat peacefully, with the militants releasing the captives in exchange for being deported to Jordan or Gaza instead of being released. I was told that many of the militants, especially the ones taken to Gaza, have since been killed in raids and air strikes, and many of the other were later arrested by the IDF for other crimes.

On our way to our last stop at the Shepherd's Fields, Sam and I stopped for a lunch of turkey shawarma and Palestinian beer.

The Shepherd's Fields were a little underwhelming. The area around the fields have been so built up, and the site itself was so touristy, that it was impossible to imagine the scene of 'The multitude of angles" appearing to the lonely shepherd's to announce Jesus' birth. The site did contain a church with some beautiful paintings of the story.

The single most striking feature of the shepherd's fields was the electrified fence that has been built right through it. It was a fitting way to end the day. It perfectly summarized my feelings about the West Bank, a land seperate and divided. Controlled by one side, but holy to many. My hopes are for some sort of lasting peace in the future that both parties can live with, although nothing I saw on that day would give me the impression that's possible.

One last note, I mentioned in the first part of this article that I had carried my passport in my front pocket all day, expecting to have to show it a number of times. The actual number it was checked- zero. Maybe that's some progress....

Sam & I at Shepherd's Fields