I made my first trip to Bethlehem, the lyrical town that filled my Christmas imagination. After visiting The Church of the Nativity I was met with the reality of life that faces Palestinians every day. The place where the Prince of Peace was born is plagued with the wall. The Christmas Card picture in my mind is shredded with the reality of the oppression that faces Palestinians every day.
I walk down as street divided by the despicable wall. I am invited to the store of Claire Anastas. This dear lady tells of the days and nights that her family’s home and business was in the middle of no man’s land during the Intifada. Many nights after the family had gone to bed there would be a loud banging at the door. Claire would try to get to the door before it was busted down. The Israeli soldiers would burst in and take over the house crowding the family into an vulnerable place. Meanwhile the soldier take up protected positions in the battle that raged. Claire’s family would huddle together and pray for God’s protection. She remembers many times the Lord heard their desperate prayers.
One day her children went off to school, when they returned the front of their house and store looked straight into the wall, that was built by the Israeli’s. Any sovereign nations has the right to build a wall, but not on occupied land.
This family, these people are my brothers and sisters. We share a common faith. Yet the country that I love and call home blindly supports a nation that perpetrates this injustice in the name of God. With whom should we stand in solidarity, a nation that imprisons and humiliates the people dwelling in the land or a government that illegally grabs land and subjects hundreds of thousands of people to poverty? Should I turn my eye from this cruelty because the nation of Israel is seen as the fulfillment of a prophecy pointing to the return of Christ?
All my life I have been taught that Jesus was coming again soon. One of the ways we knew He was coming soon was because Israel was being restored. The natural inclination is to support Israel as God’s chosen people and I do. I support the ideals of a people who would be chosen to demonstrate the reality of God in this world.
I pray for Israel because her soul is diseased. The wounds that she once suffered she now inflicts.
I pray that in Bethlehem, at the place of incarnation, the place where God became flesh, the peace and justice of God would prevail.
I pray that the walls of fear, prejudice and pride would be taken down. I pray this for the sake of my brothers and sisters in Christ and I pray this for my brothers and sisters who still await their Messiah.
“O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.”
If you would like to see the gifts from Claire’s store you may visit http://www.anastas-bethlehem.com
Claire showed me a manger set that I plan to order. The manger scene is a common western looking scene, but in front of the manger is a wall. The wall is removable. Until you remove the wall you cannot see the glory of the nativity.
New Hope 
Matt,
I thought your observation of the Israeli government’s treatment of Bethlehem was right on target. In addition, I would suggest that the chosen people and their leaders read the following scripture from the Book of Ezekiel:
21 “You will divide this land among the tribes of Israel. 22 You will divide it as family property for yourselves and for the foreigners who live and have children among you. You are to treat these foreigners the same as people born in Israel; they are to share the land with the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the foreigner lives, you will give him some land,” says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 47:21-23)
To paraphrase Pastor Fawn’s observation of this situation, “I kept thinking that the abused child has become the abuser.”