There is hope that for the first time in many years that Christmas will be celebrated this year in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, in peace and security. Last Thursday, Israel ended its 28-year occupation of the town and the Palestinian flag flew for the first time over the Church of the Nativity … a sign that will gladden the hearts of many Palestinian Christians. The occupation, which continues on other parts of the West Bank, caused security concerns for many Christians around the world who visited or wanted to visit Bethlehem at this important time in the Christian calendar. Manger Square, where 50,000 will gather today, was the scene of many Israeli-Palestinian clashes during the occupation. Now, it is hoped, these security concerns will disappear and it will be a foretaste of what may come to pass in Jerusalem itself for all three religions which regard the city as special.
That hope will be heightened by the presence of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the Christmas celebrations.
Bethlehem has a significant proportion of Palestinian Christians. They amount to about 30 per cent of its 30,000 residents, down from a majority in 1948 and about 90 per cent at the turn of the century. About 2.5 per cent of the Palestinians overall are Christian. Some Palestinian Christians are apprehensive, of course. They have seen how extremism, fanaticism and the intifada caused tourists to stay away, business to fall and Muslims buy up what were once Christian holdings. Earlier harmony and goodwill between people of different religions were lost.
It will be a blessing if this Christmas can begin a cycle of peace and religious tolerance in the Middle East and if some of the tension in Israel over the progress of peace talks can be eased in the wake of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Mr Rabin was taking a modern, pragmatic line to achieve peace and recognition for Israel in return for land. That approach was denounced by religious fanatics who demanded Israel occupy all of what they say is the divine promise. They engendered the climate of hate that culminated in Mr Rabin’s murder. They denied their true faith. Christianity and Islam have their fanatics, too. The true message of all three religions should be one of tolerance and peace. That may be symbolised today in Bethlehem.
As worshippers gather in the Church of the Nativity under a Palestinian flag and in Manger Square it would do dwell on the absurdity of religious and historic claims to land.
The biblical promise has many interpretations. It suits fanatics, of course, to take the most extreme one … that of the golden age of King David … and claim for Israel large tracts of land that no sensible person in modern times would countenance, given the spread of peoples since then. How far does one go back? What convenient point in history does one pick?
Bethlehem’s population, for example, has had huge fluctuations in the levels of Jewish, Islamic and Christian population.
Peace and religious tolerance in the Holy Land this Christmas and in the future must become the aim of all leaders. It is time for both political and religious fanatics to be isolated. Christians on this day will join that hope.