The annual Christmas festivities in Bethlehem’s manger square have been canceled, because the
organizers have deemed it inappropriate to celebrate when Palestinians all over the West Bank
and Gaza are being killed.  The current 60% unemployment rate in the area is making it nearly
impossible for Christians and Muslims to buy what they need for Christmas and Ramadan feasts
and gifts.
 
Since the beginning of the new Intifada, or Uprising, in early October, the town of Bethlehem and
the adjoining, predominantly Christian, villages of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala have suffered from
repeated bombings by the Israeli military.  Many Beit Jalan  families facing the Israeli settlement
of Gilo and Beit Sahourian families whose houses are next to a military camp have fled their
homes.  Additionally, the military has sealed off even the side roads into the area, which is leading
to the economic strangulation of the three towns.

ACTIONS
1.  Christian Peacemaker Teams, which has helped to serve as a violence deterring presence in the West Bank city of Hebron for the last five years, is calling on the churches of North America to show solidarity with the Christian and Muslim residents of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala
by sitting in darkness and silence for five minutes during their annual Christmas services.  Ask the
members of your congregation to pray for the families living in the war zone that encompasses
Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour and for an end to the Israeli military occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza.

2. Write your legislators and President Clinton (see sample letter below), notifying them that their congregations will be remembering the struggles of people living under the Israeli occupation in the three villages during their Christmas services.  You may refer to the work of Christian
Peacemaker Teams, which is in the process of setting up a new project in a neighborhood in Beit
Jala which has been repeatedly bombed.  Note that CPT’s presence in Hebron has helped to
reduce violence there, and request that all Palestinians and Israelis receive more comprehensive
international protection.

President, Bill Clinton,
president@whitehouse.gov
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW Washington DC 20500
Tel. 202-456-1414

Senator
Congressional Directory http://congress.org/congdir.html
(Simply put in your zip code to get the e-mail for your two Senators)
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC  20510
Toll Free to the Capital Switchboard
1-800-504-0031 or 1-888-723-5246

Representative________
Congressional Directory http://congress.org/congdir.html
(Simply put in your zip code to get the e-mail for your Congressperson)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515
Toll Free to the Capital Switchboard
1-800-504-0031 or 1-888-723-5246

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear __________,

As Christians and Muslims in North America prepare to celebrate Christmas and Ramadan, the
Christians and Muslims of  the Bethlehem area are suffering repeated bombings of their
neighborhoods from the Israeli military—an action that Amnesty International has deemed a
grossly excessive response to shooting toward the Israeli settlement of Gilo.  (The gunmen who
are doing the shooting with light weaponry are not residents of the neighborhoods experiencing
the worst shelling.)

Additionally, the closure on the villages imposed by the Israeli military has resulted in a 60%
unemployment rate in the area.  Because of this situation, Christmas festivities in Bethlehem’s
Manger Square have been canceled.

Christian Peacemaker Teams, which has helped to serve as a violence deterring presence in the
West Bank city of Hebron for the last five years, will be setting up a similar project in Beit Jala in
the next week.

As a sign that they do not count their lives as more valuable than Palestinian or Israeli lives,
Canadian and American CPTers have moved into a neighborhood that has been a target of
repeated shelling by the Israeli military.  We are asking you to support the sending of unarmed
international observers into the Occupied Territories to demonstrate that you believe that
Palestinian lives are worth the same as Israeli and American lives.

In our church, we will be spending five minutes of darkness and silence during our Christmas
service this year in solidarity with those suffering in the Bethlehem area.  We will pray that the
hearts and minds of  Israeli politicians—as well as yours—will be changed to finally support the
end of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Sincerely,