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Remember Christianity's Birthplace
By Barbara LeClerq
Special to The Kansas City Star, 12/27/03
As Americans celebrate this Christmas season, few realize what
has become of the Little Town of Bethlehem.
Recently, with others, I visited Bethlehem to assist Christmas Lutheran Church.
Four years earlier, I had gone for the same reason. I was again impressed with
the vibrancy of the people, but dismayed by what had taken place in the
interval.
During Israeli incursions of 2002, historic buildings were damaged; records and
artifacts at many churches were destroyed; the walls of the Lutheran school were
bulldozed and the town's cultural center was shelled.
We were the only guests in three years in a small hotel. Bethlehem is better off
than most places in the West Bank and Gaza, where 60 percent of the population
makes less than $2 a day. But even in Bethlehem, the grinding poverty is getting
worse.
I observed that the common hardships of the Israeli military occupation have if
anything strengthened the good relations between Christians and Muslims. When
they see the encroaching settlements on surrounding hills and the new Israeli
separation wall that is dividing old Bethlehem, people there recognize the
hopelessness of their circumstances yet maintain a remarkable faith that God
will help them somehow.
One sad aspect of my trip was not seeing Harold Fischer. Four years earlier I
had donated my mother's wheelchair to his clinic in Bethlehem.
A German physician who had made Palestine his home, Fischer was killed by
Israeli soldiers when rushing to treat a wounded child in the street. His death
preceded shootings of Palestinian medical workers, as reported by Amnesty
International and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Bethlehem is a historically Christian town. Since the beginning of the 20th
century, the Christian population of the Holy Land has dropped from a quarter of
the population to less than 2 percent. The Christian exodus is caused by the
Israeli occupation, which brutalizes Muslims as well.
Outsiders often fail to appreciate the harshness of the occupation. This is
particularly true in the United States where balanced news coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the norm and many Christians are unaware
that Christian Palestinians are descendents of the world's oldest Christian
community.
It is ironic that in this season when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of
Peace, Christian Americans give little thought to the reality of what goes on in
the cradle of their faith.
Barbara LeClerq was a military officer for eight years and later lived and
taught in the Middle East. She lives in Overland Park.
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