The Land Where Jesus Walked…

By Maxine Moore, Ph.D.

WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM

On the map, the Green Line marks the original 1949 boundary after the war between Israel and its neighbors.

It cordoned off what was called the "West Bank" (of the River Jordan).

The solid red lines are where a 25-foot high concrete barricade was built in the early days of the 21st century. The dotted red and purple lines are where wall construction is continuing.

The Separation Barrier includes razor wire, electric fencing, eight-foot trenches, electronic ground sensors, thermal and video cameras, and unmanned surveillance aircraft.

It was distressing to learn that, when completed, the 460 mile "apartheid" wall is expected to insure the exodus of at least half of the West Bank Palestinians (But without money, where can they go?). The wall cuts through heavily populated areas, such that families have been separated, thousands of acres of farming land and water sources have been confiscated, and students and workers encounter all sorts of problems and delays at road blockades. Merchants, who have not lost business due to banned access to their stores, must have all their merchandise controlled and taxed by Israeli authorities at checkpoints. Tourists and pilgrims cannot stay in Bethlehem, but must return to Israeli areas in the same day.

Walls and war and hatred. Many moons ago when I was teaching English at an American university in Beirut, my morning commutes on lovely umbrellapined roads with upscale Tuscanstyle apartments on the dreamy-blue Mediterranean, also skirted the walls of a grim prison-like zone. It was explained to me that the Sabra and Shatila "camps" were the "answer" of Lebanese authorities to the problem of Moslem Palestinians who had come as poor refugees from Israel and (unlike Christian Palestinians) never allowed citizenship. In 1982 when Israel was at war with the PLO in Lebanon and

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