“O Little Town of Bethlehem”: Grieving the Ongoing Slaughter of Palestinians

Christmas Eve is just two weeks from today, and the popular Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” will be sung in many Christian churches that evening. So, this is a fitting time to think about the ongoing plight of the Palestinians in Bethlehem—as well as in Gaza and the entire West Bank. 

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written by Phillips Brooks. In the decades following his ordination as an Episcopal priest in 1860, Brooks (1835~1893) became whom many considered the greatest preacher of his day. While still a young man, he delivered a eulogy for slain President Lincoln in April 1865.

Later that year, Brooks traveled across the Atlantic to Europe and then made a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. On Christmas Eve, he assisted at a service in the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. Three years later he wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem" for the children of his church.*¹ 

In 2015, 150 years after Brooks visited Bethlehem, I visited there for the first (and only) time. I took the short taxi ride from the south side of Jerusalem to the West Bank wall (or “separation barrier”). That structure, often called the “Wall of Apartheid" by Palestinians, was completed in 2006.

With my U.S. passport, I was able to pass through the wall with no problem. After observing what I could there, I then took another taxi to the main tourist sites in old Bethlehem. I was rather unimpressed, though, by the Church of the Nativity and the commercialism of the surrounding environment.*²

 I soon decided to go to the central shopping area of the city where I walked up and down the streets, observing ordinary Palestinians going about their daily activities. I quickly noticed the considerable difference between them and the Israelis I had seen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Despite their close geographical proximity, they seemed to be living in a different, much earlier, time period. And most of them were not free to exit Bethlehem and travel to Jerusalem. They were mostly prisoners confined to their own “little town” of fewer than 30,000 people.

That and my experiences the next day traveling in East Jerusalem and the West Bank territories sparked the drafting of “The Plight of the Palestinians,” my 6/30/15 blog post, which I encourage you to read (again) by clicking here.

The plight of the Palestinians is far, far worse today than it was in 2015. That is true for the West Bank, but extremely, and increasingly, worse for Gaza now, 430 days after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

It is also bad again this year in Bethlehem. A recent article posted by Reuters is headlined, “Another bleak Christmas in Bethlehem….” The article includes an image (similar to the one above) of the creche created last year by the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem to depict the sickening rubble in Gaza.

And now, the situation there is so much worse. Just last week, Amnesty International concluded that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. Sadly, in the coming year, things may get even worse for both Gaza and the West Bank.

President-elect Trump has named Mike Huckabee as his choice for the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Last month, a Religious Dispatches post (see here), stated that Huckabee is a stalwart Christian Zionist who has made over 100 trips to Israel.

According to that article, “Huckabee has aligned consistently with the hawkish Israeli Right and its agenda of permanent occupation, expansion, and Jewish supremacy in Palestine.” 

The first verse of Brooks’s carol ends, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in you tonight.” In Bethlehem now, the fears of most people are undoubtedly stronger than their hopes—and around the world, many of us grieve the ongoing slaughter of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Then, the last verse concludes with the words “peace to all on earth,” which the angels sang on that first Christmas.*³ May God help us all to strive more diligently to make peace to all a reality in Bethlehem, Gaza, and everywhere across the globe!

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*¹ Click here if you would like to hear the carol being nicely sung. Also, here is a link to an informative piece, including several images, about Brooks written by the New England Historical Society.

*² A short time after his mother Helena visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 325–326 A.D., Constantine commissioned the construction of a church on the site traditionally considered the birthplace of Jesus.

*³ The wording of the original carol was updated in The New Century Hymnal (1995), cited above.

Note: “To Bethlehem” is a powerful new poem that begins “O little Town of Bethlehem / forgive us for the lie / our churches tell - that all is well / as Christmas Eve draws nigh.”  I encourage you to read the entire poem by clicking here. 

Standing for Peace in a Time of War

It has now been nearly 11 weeks since the deadly rocket attack on Israel that began the Israel-Hamas war. Most of the military destruction has occurred in Gaza, and most deaths have been of Palestinians who were not directly a part of Hamas, an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, its official name.  

The destruction and death toll in Gaza has been horrendous. Make no mistake about it: the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was an evil event. Wantonly killing more than 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, cannot be characterized differently.

But I also see Israel’s revengeful attacks on Gaza as even more evil, for far more innocent lives have been taken. The latest figures indicate that around 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces military. How much greater that is than “an eye for an eye”!

A large percentage of Palestinian deaths are of women and children, and as children (and others) dying of starvation and disease will increase in the days/weeks ahead, Palestinian casualties will continue to rise to ever more distressing numbers.

The U.S. government has clearly supported Israel from its beginning in 1948, and this support is even more distressing to me now.

As a U.S. citizen, I am highly displeased with the stance of the federal government. The U.S. has given Israel more than $260 billion of aid since World War II, more than to any other nation. In October, the Administration asked Congress to provide $14.3 billion of emergency aid to Israel.

I have been quite disappointed in President Biden’s public stance on support for Israel—but not as much as Thinking Friend Mike Greer, who on Dec. 15 posted his strong views on this blogsite:

Biden's role in the creation of a hell on earth in Gaza leaves me with little hope for the Democratic party here. I am wondering if he does not have a case of moral dementia . . . .

But I don’t think Biden’s position is any different from what any other President’s would be, including Hillary Clinton (who could well have been nearing the end of her seventh year as President if it had not been for her inexplicable loss in 2016).

Near Election Day in 2016 when I thought Clinton’s election was assured, I wrote “an open letter to Madame President.” Among other things, I implored her to ease up on her support for Israel in order to lessen the injustice being done to the Palestinians.

There are, though, voices for non-violence and peace, even among Palestinians. Despite all the violence that has been unleashed on Gaza by Israel since October 7, I am heartened by those who are still advocating peaceful responses.

Just last week, I learned about Ali Abu Awwad, a prominent Palestinian peace activist and proponent of nonviolence.*

Awwad (b. 1972) took part in the First Intifada as a teenager and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison. During the four years before he was released, he read the writings of Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK Jr. and embraced their commitment to non-violence.

In 2016 he co-founded Taghyeer (the Arabic word for change), a Palestinian national movement promoting nonviolence to achieve and guarantee a nonviolent solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

On the other side, there is Jewish Voice for Peace in the U.S. Since its founding in 1996, it has been working for “a world where all people—from the U.S. to Palestine—live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.” (see here).

Also, Amanda Gelender, a Jewish American anti-Zionist writer, has also recently stressed (here) that “Israel’s massacre of Palestine is an assault on the Jewish faith.”**

So, in this war of Israel’s Defense Force against Hamas which, broadly speaking, is seen as a Jewish war against Palestinians, which side am I on? Without hesitation, I am on the side of those standing for peace and justice.

*****

Merry Christmas to all as people around the world celebrate the birth of one prophesied to be the Prince of Peace. 

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 * The theme of the January 2024 issue of Sojourners is “Nonviolence in a Time of War.” Their interview with Awwad is titled “Nonviolence in the Face of War.”

** Amanda Gelender is now based in the Netherlands. She has been a part of the Palestinian solidarity movement since 2006. Her Dec. 7 article begins, “I am a Jewish person who opposes the settler colonial state of Israel. This is not despite my Judaism, but because of it.”

Are There Bible Prophecies about Contemporary Events?

"Gaza will writhe in agony.”

“Gaza shall be abandoned.”

These are two ominous prophecies about Gaza found in the Old Testament (in Zechariah 9:5 and Zephaniah 2:4). Some claim that what has happened in Gaza over the past ten years, or last year, was a fulfillment of those prophecies.

But those who make such claims disregard what else is found in those two verses. Zechariah 9:5 also says, “Ashkelon won’t be inhabited.” And Zephaniah 2:4 declares, “. . . and Ashkelon [will certainly be] destroyed.”

As I wrote in my previous blog article, on the way to the Gaza Strip last month I passed through the outskirts of Ashkelon. While there was some rather minimal damage from Hamas-fired rockets last summer, it still seems to be a thriving city. Here is a picture of Ashkelon used by Reuters this month:

The prophecies mentioned above were fulfilled long, long ago. It is not in the least legitimate to see the destruction of modern Gaza as fulfillment of Biblical prophecies—or as military action that should be supported by the U.S.

Those who claim that biblical prophecies are being fulfilled at the present time are very selective in the verses they use and they tend to completely ignore the historical context of when and where the words were first spoken or written.

Earlier this month a friend sent me an email with the words “The Most Disturbing Documentary of 2015” on the subject line. It was a link to a video, which you can access here. (The transcript and some pictures are found at SurviveTheEndDays.com/tl/.)

The “documentary” begins with these words:

. . . Obama and the leaders of our church have a secret sinister pact to hide from the public the most terrible warning encrypted inside our Holy Bible . . . . because according to the final chapters of the Bible Obama will not finish his second term. He is the 44^th and last President of the US.

Based on Daniel 11:36-40, the video asserts, “Vladimir Putin is undoubtedly the king of the north that will guide Russia in the end times.” Further, President Obama, “was born either in Hawaii or Kenya,” south of Jerusalem. That and other clues “prove that Obama is the king of the south as the prophecies foretold.” And these two kings will fight it out before January 2017.

But just as I predicted that the world was not going to end in May 2011 (see here), I now predict that the prophecy about the demise of the U.S. before the next presidential Inauguration Day is mistaken. (If I am wrong, send me an email any time after Jan. 20, 2017.)

Well, this video/transcript and many similar Bible prophesies that can be found on Internet might well be the work of what some people might call the “crazies.” But some Christian authors and politicians who are more “mainstream” hold similar views.

Joel Rosenberg, a New York Times bestselling author of ten novels (whom I referred to in the 5/2011 article), has long linked Iran to end-of-the-world prophecies. It is noteworthy that he has influenced some national politicians. In March of last year Rosenberg and Rick Santorum co-authored a piece about Iran for CNN.com.

Tony Perkins, head of Family Research Council and an ardent supporter of Israel, has announced that FRC will be conducting a tour of Israel this fall, and it will include Rosenberg, Santorum, and Bobby Jindal.

But here is a word to the wise: beware of linking Biblical prophecies to contemporary events.

Gazing at Gaza

About a month ago, on June 22, I got in my trusty little rental car parked at trendy Dizengoff Center in the bustling city of Tel Aviv, drove a few blocks west, and then soon after seeing the Mediterranean Sea straight ahead turned left and pretty much drove due south for about an hour all the way to the Erez Crossing on the north border of the Gaza Strip.

On the way to Gaza, I buzzed through the outskirts of Ashdod and Ashkelon, two of the five main Philistine cities mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Gaza was also one of those five cities that were constantly warring with the Israelites and the Kingdom of Judah.

Gaza is mentioned 22 times in the Bible. It was the city where Samson was imprisoned after he was tricked by Delilah and captured by the Philistines and where he died when he caused the pagan temple to crumble. According to biblical accounts, Gaza came under Israelite rule during the reign of King David in the early 11th century BC.

When I arrived at Erez Crossing, I parked, went through a couple of security gates to the passport control window, and boldly asked for permission to enter Gaza. But as it turned out, it takes a permit requested by the U.S. Consulate for U.S. citizens to enter Gaza. Thus I didn’t get to go in as I wanted to.

So, soon after heading back north, I took the first road to the west and drove toward the Mediterranean Sea again, hoping to get a good view of Gaza. At the crest of a small hill, I was able to see tall buildings on the horizon.

As you see in the picture, not very far from the green area in front of me as I looked south, there was a brown area with tall, grey buildings at the top of the hill in the distance. I was clearly gazing at Gaza.

Less than a year before, on July 8, 2014, Israel began a major offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The air raids and ground force of the Israeli army against the Gaza militants who were launching bombs into Israel lasted for 50 days.

Both sides suffered damage and casualties—but certainly not equally. According to a U.N. report, there were 2,205 Gazans killed, including 1,483 civilians. By stark contrast, there were 71 Israeli deaths, including only five civilians.

Driving through various parts of Tel Aviv, I saw no evidence whatsoever of damage done by rockets launched toward Israel from Gaza. But this 7/7/15 picture from Gaza shows clearly the sad lingering effects from the conflict there.

Mark LeVine, a professor of Middle Eastern History at University of California, Irvine, recently referred to the Gaza Strip as “the world’s largest open air prison.” And he writes in opposition to the war cycle, which legitimizes violence against the Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Children of Gaza” by Jen Marlowe, a noted journalist, is a poignant article in the July 20/27 issue of The Nation. She refers to the Israeli attacks in February and December 2008 and in March and November 2012 along with last year’s “Operation Protective Edge” as being “permanent war” in Gaza.

When Marlowe asked a Gazan family what could bring them hope, here is part of what they said: “Open the gates. End the siege. . . . Be permitted to visit Al Aqsa [the holy Muslim mosque in Jerusalem]. Have rights like other people.”

Should that be too much for them to ask—or for us to pray for?

In Memory of Rachel Corrie, 1979-2003

You may not have remembered her name, but perhaps you recall hearing about the young American woman who was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. Her life story is told in a one-woman play titled “My Name is Rachel Corrie” (2008), and more fully in the book “Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie,” also published in 2008.

This is Passion Week, and as we Christians recall the death of Jesus Christ it is also fitting to consider the sacrificial death of this young woman ten years ago, even though hers does not have the same universal significance as Jesus’ death.

Rachel Corrie was born in Olympia, Wash., in April 1979, and when she was still 23 she joined other foreign nationals working in Gaza as volunteers for the International Solidarity Movement. And there she was killed on March 16, 2003, ten years ago this month.

Rachel was interested in helping other people from the time she was a girl. For example, she gave a speech about world hunger when she was in the fifth grade. (That speech can be viewed on YouTube.)

In January 2003, Rachel arrived in Rafah, Gaza, located in the very southern part of the Gaza Strip. When she arrived there it was a city of some 140,000 people, 60% of whom were refugees. About two weeks later (on Feb. 7) she wrote how the Israeli Army was building a 14-meter-high wall between Rafah and the Gaza-Egypt border.

Soon after observing the situation in Gaza, Rachel speaks out against “perpetuating the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a balanced conflict.” “Rather,” she insists, it is “a largely unarmed people against the fourth most powerful military in the world.”

“Let Me Stand Alone” documents how (on Feb. 27) Rachel declares in an email to her mother, “The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance” (p. 273).

A little later she writes, “I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide, and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature” (p. 276).

In “Razing Rafah, Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip,” Human Rights Watch notes that in the four years after September 2000, over 2,500 Palestinian homes were demolished in Gaza. About 2/3 of those were in Rafah.

Rachel was trying to keep just one of those houses from being demolished, the home of the Nasrallah family, comprised of two brothers, their wives, and five young children. On March 16, 2003, as she was trying to keep the Nasrallahs’ house from being destroyed, Rachel was run over and killed by a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, a vehicle specially built to demolish houses.

Her death was the first of many Westerners who were killed in Gaza in the spring of 2003. Since the war had just started in Iraq, though, few Americans were paying much attention to Gaza.

The Iraq War officially ended at the end of 2011. But the struggle of the Palestinian people to live unmolested in their own homes in their own land goes on. Unfortunately, most USAmericans seem to side with the Israelis rather than with the Palestinian people who have been treated so unjustly since 1947.

Let’s pray that the President’s visit to Israel last week will help to relieve the tension between Palestine and Israel and that it at least sowed some seed that will eventually grow to help improve the living conditions for people like those for whom Rachel Corrie died.