Merry Christmas to all(?)

December 25, 2005

“Christmas has been shot.”
“O ghostly town of Bethlehem,
in curfew do you lie,
Your streets are dead, the people dread
to wander lest they die.
No pilgrims visit your hallowed square,
for Christians have been banned;
A crueller plight upon this night,
has never on Earth been planned.”
–from Carols for Palestine–
Bethlehem is a prison…
Bethlehem Christians cling to hope…
Christmas hope in the West [...]

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International Nonviolence Conference

December 6, 2005

I wish I was going to be in Bethlehem this Christmas because Holy Land Trust (the organization I worked with this summer) is hosting an International Nonviolence Conference entitled “Celebrating Nonviolent Resistance.” It is going to be in Bethlehem, Palestine this December 27-30th. Some of the speakers will be:

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen): President of the [...]

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Freedom of Movement

August 1, 2005

Moving around and in and out of the West Bank is so easy for us Americans. We got to the point at the main checkpoint in Bethlehem where we sometimes didn’t even need to pull out our passports, and if we did, it was just so that they would see that it said UNITED STATES [...]

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Bethlehem

June 23, 2005

Kids playing soccer. Apparently they have closed the checkpoint that we entered less than a week ago - there is now a huge wall in front of it. These kids live a few blocks from the entrance to Bethlehem.

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Walking in the footsteps of Jesus (and his sandals)

June 23, 2005

It’s fun to know you’re walking around the birthplace of Jesus. It’s also fun to wear Jesus sandals. This is my first pair - my uncle had a pair and I always thought they were so cool. So, here they are. My Jesus sandals…bought in the Old City of Jerusalem.

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Opal, Tony and Internships…

June 22, 2005

I have too much to write tonight, and I don’t have time to write it. But, last night I walked from Bethlehem to Beit Sahour after getting a tour of the Nativity Church (on accident) and being told that a silver and opal necklace was really worth $150 US dollars and that I definitely needed [...]

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Bethlehem Mayoral Address

June 21, 2005

If anyone is interested, below, you can find the text for the Bethlehem Mayor’s address to the Palestine Summer Encounter program:
The Mayoral Address to PSE 2005
June 19th 2005
Bethlehem Mayor, Dr. Victor Batarseh
On behalf of our municipal council, it gives me a great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to each and everyone of you and [...]

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Frustration…

June 20, 2005

I’ve been sitting in the basement in an office by myself at the Bethlehem Peace Center for the past 3 hours. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. The Marketing Director showed me around the place, which is very cool, and then we went down to his office and he said, “So, [...]

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Bethlehem Bloggers

June 19, 2005

Here is a link to the Bethlehem Bloggers. The above picture is from their website, but the “Welcome to the Ghetto” and then the link underneath it is actually written on the “wall” when you first entire Bethlehem from Jerusalem. They write about news from Bethlehem, particularly demonstrations and activism stuff. Also, the Holy Land [...]

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Orientation - The First Full day

June 19, 2005

[George Rishmawi, the Mayor of Bethlehem Dr. Victor Batarseh and Sami Awad]
Today the entire group met at the Bethlehem Hotel for our first full day of orientation. We were greeted and welcomed first, by the newly-elected Mayor of Bethlehem, Dr. Victor Batarseh. We learned about the culture, stuff about our host families, some of what [...]

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