The Walled Off Hotel, Bethlehem Photo: Gerald Schömbs on Unsplash
Occupational hazards: Michael Goodwin remembers Palestine
‘Would the magi be able to travel from afar this Epiphany?’
My SatNav doesn’t give an option to estimate the time to travel by donkey. But by foot it would take thirty-three hours to walk from Nazareth in modern -day Israel to Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The challenges of living under Roman occupation may have felt familiar to modern-day Palestinians. But the modern-day Mary and Joseph, as Jews, do not need to apply for permits to travel in the same way that Palestinians do – they will be waved through the roadblocks and flying checkpoints that are part of the everyday experience for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley.
At the moment, because of the pandemic, the little town of Bethlehem does indeed lie still under a more dreamlike sleep, with a seventy per cent reduction in the tourist trade. But the reality of the separation barrier, the growth of settlements, regular military incursions, and the poverty of the refugee camps, haven’t disappeared. At least there would be room at the inn for them as all the tourists have gone this year, but the shepherds might not be in their fields – the movement of the shepherds I met at Khan al Ahmar is greatly curtailed. As modern-day Mary and Joseph travel through the fields of olive trees around Bethlehem, they may notice that the increased number of settlements has squeezed the land available. Palestinians have had an even more difficult harvest this year, without an international monitoring presence because of Covid restrictions.
Would the magi be able to travel from afar this Epiphany? It feels to me that there has been a dearth of international wisdom, so the cynic might conclude that the wise men might just talk about bringing their gifts. They might claim that restricted access into the promised land, and close monitoring at Allenby Bridge from Jordan, makes movement difficult. Anyway, Israel can deny entry, as it has to other international observers in recent years.
So, no stable, no shepherds, no kings. Would modern-day Mary and Joseph still need to flee with their newborn child? Right now UN human rights experts are calling for an independent investigation into the killing of a fifteen-year-old boy by Israeli security forces at a West Bank protest this month, saying they are deeply troubled by the overall lack of accountability for the killings of Palestinian children. Over the past three years, ninety-three children have been killed by Israeli forces. It might not be safe, but in fact, Mary and Joseph can’t in any case flee to Egypt as the border through Gaza is closed.
Perhaps we should look to the angels and their hopes for the coming of that Prince of Peace.
Michael was an ecumenical accompanier in the occupied Palestinian territories for three months in 2019, but writes here in a personal capacity – his views do not necessarily reflect those of the World Council of Churches or the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.
