For many of us, our image of Bethlehem is a peaceful little rural/pastoral village, awash with Shepards and sheep. The Bethlehem that we imagine is the one we see on the front of Christmas cards or the one we read about in the bible. Today, however, the real Bethlehem is very different. While it is a town of incredible beauty, it is also a city under siege and occupation.

Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Christ, is also part of Occupied Palestine.

As part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the 170,000 residents of Bethlehem and its surrounding district – both Christian and Muslim – suffer each day under the brutal and illegal Israeli occupation. In Bethlehem, the town of the Christ’s birth, there is no freedom of movement, there are checkpoints and curfews and there are constant invasions by the Israeli military. In addition, there is an ugly concrete wall, 8 metres high (28 feet) – three times the height of the Berlin Wall, topped with watchtowers and snipers nests which is dividing families and communities, stealing land and water resources.

The illegal wall, now three quarters built, along with Israeli only by-pass roads which service 27 Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law and whose building and expansion contravenes the Oslo Agreement signed by Israel has created an apartheid situation which has resulted in:

* Bethlehem residents being cut off from 70% of their agricultural land;

* Collapse of the city’s economy with 55% of the Palestinian residents of Bethlehem district being now unemployed and the vital tourism industry decimated;

* Creating a poverty rate of 60% amongst Bethlehem district residents – both Christian and Muslim, with many residents forced to live on less than US $2 per day;

* Preventing freedom of movement of Bethlehem’s Christians and Muslims, including preventing their access to sites of worship in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and;

* Severing many villages in the Bethlehem district in two, preventing families living in the same village from being able to visit or see each other.

JOIN US THIS CHRISTMAS AND SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE

DISMANTLE THE APARTHIED WALL & ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS!

END THE SIEGE OF GAZA!

ISRAELI TROOPS OUT – END THE OCCUPATION NOW!

Organised by Justice for Palestine

December 2008