In a sobering message from the Holy Land, the Latin Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, urged Catholics in the United States to acknowledge the little town of Bethlehem as it actually is this Christmas, not as it is depicted in song and tradition.
“Amid the nostalgia and ancient memories of the first Christmas in Bethlehem, there is today a long sustained religious romanticism,” he said. He called that Christmas-time romanticism “understandable…but not realistic.”
“When you celebrate Christmas, remember that in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, life is not a Christmas life. It is not the blessed life of the new redeemed humanity. The song of the Angels is far away.
“Christmas, every year reminds us that there is no peace on the earth, especially in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and that we have to make [peace] again,” he said in a greeting to a Pax Romana group based in New York.
Patriarch Sabbah: “When you celebrate Christmas, remember that in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, life is not a Christmas life. It is not the blessed life of the new redeemed humanity. The song of the Angels is far away.”
He said that in the occupied territories, “everywhere justice is lacking.”
“We know the pain. We taste the daily trauma. Sadly, we know that darkness yet hovers over the Holy Night. We must be the light of Christ,” Patriarch Sabbah said.
“With the focus on the Child Jesus, we must ask anew: What about the Children of Bethlehem, of Palestine? What about the required protection and human security for all God’s children?
“In the face of the [Israeli] occupation and insecurity, children suffer,” he said. “Natural innocence is stolen. Random violence and vulnerability robs mothers of peace for their children in Bethlehem and throughout the Holy Land.”
In an apparent reference to U.N. resolutions and the terms of the Oslo accords that once seemed to offer a two-state solution to the conflict in Israel-Palestine, Patriarch Sabbah said that all the hard decisions have already been made, and only the courage to see them through remain lacking. He called on political leaders in the United States and Israel to find that courage and urged the members of Pax Romana to press them to do so.
Patriarch Sabbah led the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem from 1987 until 2008, the first Palestinian-born patriarch in five centuries. In 2009, Patriach Sabbah, with other prominent Palestinian Christian leaders, authored the Kairos Palestine Document that described the Israeli occupation of the West Bank territories as a “sin against God and humanity.”
Church leaders hope to establish “a special Christian cultural and heritage zone to safeguard the integrity of the Christian Quarter in Old City Jerusalem and to ensure that its unique character and heritage are preserved.”
The survival of the ancient Christian community in Jerusalem’s Old City was the subject of another statement from Christian leaders in the Holy Land this week. On Dec. 13, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of the Holy Land, a group that includes leaders of Jerusalem’s Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches, urged the protection of Christians living in or visiting Jerusalem’s Christian quarter and the preservation of that endangered district.
The church leaders hope to establish “a special Christian cultural and heritage zone to safeguard the integrity of the Christian Quarter in Old City Jerusalem and to ensure that its unique character and heritage are preserved for the sake of well-being of the local community, our national life, and the wider world.” They complained that Christians have become the target “of frequent and sustained attacks by fringe radical groups” in a systematic attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land.
According to the church leaders, since 2012 there have been “countless incidents of physical and verbal assaults against priests and other clergy, attacks on Christian churches, with holy sites regularly vandalized and desecrated, and ongoing intimidation of local Christians who simply seek to worship freely and go about their daily lives.”
The patriarchs and church leaders charged that the “declared commitment” of Israeli national leaders to the survival of the Christian quarter “is betrayed by the failure of local politicians, officials and law enforcement agencies to curb the activities of radical groups who regularly intimidate local Christians, assault priests and clergy, and desecrate Holy Sites and church properties.”
The city’s Jewish quarter is already recognized and protected by Israeli law; the church leaders demanded a parallel status for the Christian quarter. Instead of that parallel treatment, they said “radical” settler groups continue to acquire strategic property in the Christian quarter, “with the aim of diminishing the Christian presence, often using underhanded dealings and intimidation tactics to evict residents from their homes, dramatically decreasing the Christian presence, and further disrupting the historic pilgrim routes between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.”
Patriarch Sabbah called Jerusalem a holy city where peace and solidarity should prevail but one that is instead riven by conflict and discord because of the actions of powerful political forces.
Although there was no official response from the Israeli government to the patriarchs’ statement, on Dec. 14 President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog visited the city of Nazareth and met the leaders of Christian churches at the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Mr. Herzog expressed the government’s commitment to the freedom of faith and worship of all the nation’s religious communities.
Addressing his audience in Arabic, the president called on “all our brothers and sisters of faith around the world, and especially in the Middle East—Christians, Muslims, Jews, Druze, and Circassians” to “always remember that we all pray to the same God and that we all want lives of peace and partnership based on understanding and fraternity.”
Only in this way, he said, “out of our deep shared faith in the Creator and…our faith in humankind, shall we manage to create for ourselves, for all of humanity, the good and promising future that we deserve.”
About 13,000 Christians live in Jerusalem, with about 6,000 in the Christian quarter of the Old City. Various civil prohibitions on the construction or expansion of homes for Christian and Muslim Arabs have been controversial, especially in comparison with the generous official treatment of property ownership claims by Jewish Israelis.
Researchers from Human Rights Watch charge that Israeli authorities have made it “virtually impossible in practice” for Palestinians in East Jerusalem and other West Bank communities under Israeli control to obtain building permits. Israeli authorities have at the same time razed thousands of Palestinian properties in these areas for lacking a permit.
Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter is already recognized and protected by Israeli law; the church leaders demanded a parallel status for the Christian quarter.
On Dec. 17 another prominent Catholic leader expressed frustration with another Israeli policy that seems to offer preferential treatment to Jewish visitors to Jerusalem. A Jewish “roots” program, Birthright, has been allowed to bring in participants despite a ban on other visitors. Allowing young Jews from abroad to come to Israel while not allowing Christian pilgrims and tourists during the Christmas season is discriminatory, Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to the Assembly of Catholic Bishops, wrote on his Facebook page.
As the Omicron Covid-19 variant began to spread late in November, Israel closed its borders to foreign travelers, extending the ban until at least Dec. 22. It has been allowing participants on the Birthright roots program to enter Israel, however.
“Such discrimination is illegal … and unethical,” Mr. Abunassar wrote. “Racist discrimination should never be accepted in any way! I urge the Israel authorities to treat all those who want to visit the country equally without any discrimination between one religion and another.”
In a statement released on Dec. 16, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “rejects and condemns” the “unfounded allegations of discrimination,” calling them “outrageous, false and dangerous.”
In his message to Pax Romana, Patriarch Sabbah called Jerusalem a holy city where peace and solidarity should prevail but one that is instead riven by conflict and discord because of the actions of powerful political forces.
“The great of the earth have made Jerusalem a city of discrimination between people…they are converting the holy places into places of war. Today Jerusalem is not in its natural status, the status of holiness as God wants it to be,” he said.
“The reality is this: Two peoples live in Jerusalem and the Holy Land—Palestine and Israel. Israel is dominant. Palestinians are submitted to the strong” and “the relation between both is a relation of death because it is a relation of dominant and dominated. It should be a relation between equals in order to be a relation of life and mutual love.”
With reporting from Catholic News Service
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