From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Merry Christmas, David
-----Original Message----- From: R Scott Kennedy <[email protected]> Sent: Dec 24, 2003 9:34 PM To: Scott Kennedy <[email protected]> Subject: Merry Christmas from Bethlehem Benjamin Kennedy, born and raised in Santa Cruz, is a graduate of Santa Cruz High School. He is living in Bethlehem and working as a volunteer at the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem. Ben plans to continue his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2004. Benjamin Kennedy <[email protected]> Merry Christmas from Bethlehem by Benjamin Kennedy This year I will spend my first Christmas away from my family. Up to this point, all 23 of my previous Christmas celebrations have been spent in the warm embrace of my family. This year I have the opportunity to spend Christmas in Bethlehem, the place where it all got started. I have been living and working here in Bethlehem for the past two months. Even though my younger sister has joined me and will be celebrating Christmas with in Bethlehem, the experience of these last two months leaves me feeling very far from home. The Christmas season has only served to highlight and amplify these feelings. In the past, the celebrations of Christmas have naturally focused on the town of Bethlehem. The scripture readings, the hymns, the carols, even the wrapping paper all create an image of Bethlehem in the time of the coming of Jesus. This picture for me was always very clear. The star, the manger, the wise men, and so on -- the mental picture was formed in my mind at a very young age. This picture, while familiar and reassuring, was always lacking a basis in reality. The Biblical world seemed so far away from my daily life, and I was always aware of the nature of the image I had created in my head. My time in Bethlehem has replaced this idealized and romantic image with one based in the cold hard reality of the modern world. The continued occupation of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel is the dominant and overwhelming feature of life in Bethlehem. The brutality and repression of the occupation alter every aspect of life. Sometimes it is manifested in violent and dramatic clashes. But most often it is seen in smaller more gradual ways. Either way, the major result of the Israeli occupation is the destruction of Palestinian lives. Living under occupation and experiencing just a fraction of what Palestinians have been experiencing virtually continuously since 1967 have permanently changed the image of Christmas in my mind. I know I will never be able to forget the things I have seen and heard over the past two months. They will always be associated with Bethlehem and therefore Christmas in general. Christmas was a big event when I was a child and children have always been the focus of the celebration of Christmas in my family. As I have grown up, my role has changed from a participant to more of an observer. But still my strongest association with the feelings of Christmas will be as a child. I would like to share two specific experiences I have had in Bethlehem that illustrate what life is like for Palestinian children living under the occupation. These two specific experiences serve to highlight just what an unbearable price the children of Bethlehem and the rest of the occupied territories have paid, simply for being Palestinians. As I walk in the morning through town to my volunteer job, reminders of the price of the occupation of Bethlehem surround me. On nearly every building of the town posters of the Palestinian 'Martyrs' are pasted on the wall. These posters are made to commemorate the deaths of all the Palestinians that have died in the fight against the occupation. They are a feature of every Palestinian town. Some are rather threatening pictures depicting fighters posing with rifles and machine guns before their deaths. But I find others are more striking. These are the posters honoring the civilians who have been killed during the occupation. On my way to work, the face I see the most is that of Christine Saada. Christine was a ten year old girl who died on March 27, 2003, two days after Israeli soldiers opened fire on her family's car, mortally wounding her and injuring her mother, father and sister. To me, Christine Saada is just that smiling girl in those posters. I have read about her and seen her parents in the media, but she is still defined mainly by the haunting image of her posters. To the small tight knit community of Bethlehem, however, she was a friend, classmate, sister and daughter. Christine is just one of the 494 Palestinian children killed since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 (www.rememberthesechildren.org). The other experience that has focused my attention on the plight of the Children of Palestine came from another ten year old, but in a much different way. Tarek Zoughbi is the eldest son of the friends I'm living with. Tarek is an amazing boy, bright, energetic, always ready to dance and constantly looking out for his little brothers and older sister. Tarek, his siblings and their mother, who is an American, have just returned from living for a year in the United States. Tarek and I had just finished watching a movie on the satellite TV when an advertisement for the next show came on. The advertisement was for the American movie 'Heat,' starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Tarek immediately sat up and exclaimed, 'Ohh!! I want to see that movie!! It looks great!!!' Despite the fact that Heat is one of my favorite movies, in consideration of the R rating and the tremendous amount of violence throughout, I said, 'Tarek, that movie is pretty serious. There is a lot of violence and I don?t think it is the best movie for you to watch. Maybe we can find something else' For a moment I was satisfied with my very 'parental' response. Then Tarek quickly replied, 'That stuff doesn't work here. I know a boy who was shot by the soldiers. He was a friend of mine. It is part of our life.' I was at a complete loss. How could I argue with that? I looked at his mother and she just shrugged her shoulders. The violence that I watch on TV in the States is a very real part of every day life for every child living in the Palestinian occupied territories. The boy that was killed was a friend from around the neighborhood who was killed by Israeli soldiers during an invasion into Bethlehem. Tarek and I watched the movie until bed time, happily sharing the couch. It is frequently stated in the US that Palestinians teach their children to hate Israelis. A Palestinian friend of mine pointed out to me once that, 'No Palestinian child has ever needed to be taught to hate Israelis. They see with their own eyes what the Israelis are doing to their families and friends.' In a meeting at the cultural center at the Deheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, the director put it another way, 'I knew how to throw stones at the soldiers who came into the camp before I knew how to read.' The occupation is the crucible in which the core principles and values of these children are being forged. Even the most committed and ever-present parents struggle against the environment their children grow up in. Every Palestinian community has suffered a great deal under the occupation. Despite the terrible pain and suffering inflicted on Bethlehem the last years, in the bizarre and irrational world that is life in Palestine under the Occupation, the City has been relatively lucky. Many other towns and areas have suffered more than Bethlehem, if such calculations are actually possible. In Jenin, the parents of a friend of my sister and I were involved in programs to try and reach out to the youth of the community. The mother said that: 'The boys from seventh to eighth to ninth grade have gone crazy. There is no other word for it. They are absolutely out of control. They have no interests other than guns and violence. They have stopped going to school. They wait for the Israelis to come into town and chase after the tanks to throw rocks. It is beyond despair and anger. They really are crazy. It is hard not to think that this whole generation is finished. Just gone.' These are the feelings that are expressed in the inhumane and indefensible terrorist attacks on Israel. After a few days here, the question in one?s mind changes from: Why are there so many attacks on Israel? To, Why aren?t there more attacks on Israel? The situation in the occupied territories is really that bad. The solution becomes very simple: End the Occupation! So, as you celebrate Christmas this year, I implore you to focus some attention and concern on the population of Bethlehem. The Israeli occupation is a gross and indefensible violation of the Human Rights of the Palestinian people. The challenge to myself and all Americans is that this abuse is directly supported and encouraged by the actions of our government. Despite this fact, every Palestinian person I have encountered on this trip has been happy to see and eager to engage me as a friend. As a Palestinian man said to a friend and I as he walked by with his little girl in Ramallah, ?It gives us hope that you would come here, and see the situation that we live in.? It is in this spirit of humanity, compassion and understanding, that I have the privilege and honor to extend to you the Christmas wishes of the Palestinian people of Bethlehem: End the Occupation!! Merry Christmas!! Peace on Earth!! Benjamin Kennedy, born and raised in Santa Cruz, is a graduate of Santa Cruz High School. He is living in Bethlehem and working as a volunteer at the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem. Ben plans to continue his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2004. Benjamin Kennedy <[email protected]> ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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