O little town of Bethlehem
A wall thee now divides
Above thy concertina wire
The silent stars go by
Beyond the wall the soldiers
Aim rifles toward the sky
Militias roaming streets inside
Ignore the baby’s cry

The settlements and suicides
Injustice, greed and hate,
O little town, you seem to drown
In tears for your hapless fate
But hear the choir of angels
Their great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Dead dogma burdens Bethlehem
With grudges from the past
Muslims, Jews, and Christians, too
Say their claims are the last
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

The baby’s voice is calling us
To Bethlehem again,
Where walls divide may grace abide
Forgiveness enter in
The morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises ring, for Love we sing
And peace to all on earth!

Just for a day
let peace abide.
Just for a day,
let the ancient land called holy
soaked in blood, be quiet.
 
Just for a day
let peace abide.
Bring them away
from Bethlehem and Jerusalem,
from Nazareth and Nablus,
from Damascus, Riyadh and Amman.
 
Just for a day
let peace abide.
Bring them away from violence
slouching toward Annapolis;
unclench fists, open hardened hearts,
shatter foolish pride,
encourage risk takers -
Israelis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Muslims ¬ with the holiness that births newness.
 
Just for a day
let peace abide.
Let the ancient land called holy
soaked in blood, be quiet.
For in your gaze a single day is a thousand years.

———–
Annapolis summit. 2007

I just returned from Israel and the West Bank. Is there any hope left for peace with Israel and the Palestinians? Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post suggests that the last vestige of any remaining hope may life in the Annapolis Summit scheduled for early December. I agree with him. But, as always, the stakes are very high with both Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert putting their lives on the line for this chance at a two-state solution. Once a hawk, Olmert is now calling for everything to be on the table. Abbas, for his part, has affirmed Israel’s right to exist and his willingness to negotiate for peace, something the hard line Hamas opposition and other extremists continues to refuse. On the Israeli side, there is a Jewish minority opposed to any negotiations. This is a fringe element in Israeli society. During my visit, the great majority of Israeli citizens and Palestinians are ready to make a deal that will end the violence, provide a state for Palestinians and ensure Israel’s existence. That is the only road left for peace. Still Hamas refuses and Diehl suggests that this current effort at peacemaking may result in a surge of violence as it has in the past. Olmert himself has evoked the memory of Yitzak Rabin as he seeks to bring about a peace that he calls “the legacy I will leave.”

What will have to happen is a cessation of violence, including what Diehl refers to a Palestinian “militias” harassing the population. While I was in Jericho I met with Bassem Eid, a Palestinian and the Director of the Independent Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, whose purpose is to monitor and report human rights abuses by Palestinians. He founded the agency in 1996 because no one was paying any attention to the human rights abuses among the Palestinians, particularly in the intifada of 1994. The most recent report of his agency, which is available on the web, is a narrative of abuse that is virtually unknown in the West.  See it here: http://www.phrmg.org/

Consequently, Bassem is not a popular person among his own people and especially the Hamas leadership who consider him a collaborator with the enemy for speaking truthfully, particularly about the intimidation and persecution of Christians in the Gaza strip. His story is one that deserves to be told.

He reported that 75% of the Palestinians want the current intifada to stop immediately. While Hamas continues to agitate for violence against Israelis, the moderate Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza have no solid leadership to provide an alternative vision. There is a huge internal conflict between Hamas and more moderate Palestinians, of which Eid is one along with some of the Fatah leadeship including Abbas. According to Eid, Yassar Arafat was a complete failure for the Palestinian people. For Eid, the primary question now is whether they will learn anything from his mistakes. Peace with Israel and a Palestinian state hang in the balance with the answer to that question.

In Gaza, Hamas is ruling by intimidation and continues to violate the human rights of the people there, in particular the few Christians still living there who are considered enemies by Hamas, solely on the basis of their religion. For Christians, they must either obey a hard Islamic rule imposed by Hamas or leave the area. Anyone who is not Muslim is considered godless and treated as such.  Bassem Eid says this must come to an end if there is to be peace in the Middle East.

In all honesty, there is nothing in Bassem Eid’s story that is connected to the ancient story of Zacheus other than the town, the trees and a man unpopular among his own people. But I just couldn’t keep Zacheus out of my imagination as I sat in Jericho listening to a truth-teller who may be nearing the status of outcast among his people.