O Little Town of Bethlehem

On Tuesday, I went to Bethlehem! We had to pass through the Separation Wall, whose construction is very controversial, and then we went to Bethlehem University, where we toured the campus and talked to the students. I found out that the students totally condone the Palestinian terrorism, because they feel it is just reciprocation for what the Israelis have done to them. While they profess to be for peace, when they actually talk about what’s going on, it seems like they’d rather keep fighting than just take one for the team and try to negotiate for peace. It’s frustrating because although they were biased (who isn’t here?) they were probably right about Israel provoking them to action. However, how juvenile is it to react to the provocation? It’s like trying to police third-graders; you can make them stop getting back at each other, but it won’t be due to their own logic. It will be because you made them stop. I think that’s the only way that there can ever be peace here. If the US just puts both sides in “timeout” until they behave, then they will have to be civil to each other and then peace talks can start from there. It was really interesting hearing all of the students’ experiences though; one girl has to travel from Hebron to Bethlehem every day. This trip would usually take half an hour, but with all of the checkpoints she has to pass through, it takes two hours. A lot of passing the checkpoints has to do with the soldier’s moods, too; some days it’s easy to get through and other days you can be detained for 5 hours. I can’t understand their mentality though; they say they’re used to the checkpoints and that they would never move. If it was that hard for me to get to places, I would definitely move. It makes me grateful for the freedom I have as an American; I can really travel almost anywhere I want to without being harassed. Another thing that I found kind of depressing about the Palestinians was their total lack of optimism. They kept a hole in one of the walls of their building to remember when the Israelis sent 4 missiles into the university when it was shut down during the Second Intifada in 2002. They say that the missiles were just shot there to provoke them since they weren’t housing any wanted Palestinians. They’re just so negative about the past that it seems like they can’t look forward to the future, and it’s really frustrating to be an onlooker listening to them complain about how they’ve been wronged. I know they have been, but so have the Israelis. Both sides like to play the victim, which makes it difficult to differentiate between lies and truth on either side. I just hate it because if they would work for peace they could so easily achieve it, but it seems like both sides would rather sit and complain (and beat up on each other).

Going into the Church of the Nativity. The door has gotten progressively smaller since it was first built to keep animals, especially people on horseback, out of the church.
Later we went to Manger Square and saw the Church of the Nativity. It was so cool to finally see because before I came here I watched a documentary about Bethlehem and saw the church and learned about its history, and then I saw it!

This is where Jesus was supposedly born.

This was a cross hanging that covered a part of the church. I thought it was a little disturbing since there was a skull and crossbones in the bottom of the cross.

This was in a cave under the church. This light was a little weird too because the hands looked real in the light.

This is a courtyard outside the Church of the Nativity. It's really pretty.