Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

From the monthly Newsletter of the Diocese of Jerusalem

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The Land of the Holy One has seen new violence in the last days and weeks. A planned visit to Gaza from our Partner Diocese - the Diocese of Massachusetts - this coming Saturday was made impossible by Israeli authorities, much to the disappointment of our staff at Al Ahli Hospital, whose lives are endangered daily due to Israeli air attacks and who are thirsting to see world wide compassion, action and support.

Once again we wish to call for your attention and care. Your brothers and sisters in Christ - the Palestinian Chistians of the Land of the Holy One - urgently need your prayers and even more so your engagement in order to remain hopeful and vital in their witness to our Lord.

We would like to introduce you to quite a different way of showing your solidarity to the local Christians. By presenting to you ideas of Christmas gifts made by local Christians, we wish to invite you to encourage the local Christian community by supporting their local economy. Some products are made in Institutions of the Diocese, others are made by local Christians in Bethlehem and other places.

What else can you do? You can help the local Christians to sell their products (embroidery, olive wood carved work, etc.) in your country around advent time this year.

Suggestion I
They can send you a parcel (or many parcels) with their work, and you can sell them in your parishes. The proceeds will go directly back to the local Christians.

Suggestion II
You can invite a local Christian to your parishes, your Christmas markets or celebrations to sell their beautiful work and tell their story. (But be aware that often they cannot afford the expensive journey or the costs for food and accomodation. They might not even get the permission to leave Israel / Palestine.)

Olive wood carvings from Bethlehem and other places

According to the webpage of the Town of Bethlehem the art of olive wood carving has existed since the 4th century. The first products were rosaries consisting of perles made olive seeds. Since then olive wood carvings have been an important source of income for the Christians of the Holy Land, and especially the Bethlehem area.

The economic situation in Bethlehem and in the Palestinian territories in general is alarming. Up to (and sometimes more than) 60 % of the population is unemployed. More than half of the Palestinian people live under the poverty line - they have to live with less than two dollars a day, which is not enough to buy even two litters of milk. The unstable situation keeps pilgrims and tourists - on whom both Israelis and Palestinians highly depend economically - away from the country. This is one major reason for the growing emmigration of the native (Palestinian) Christians.

Within and around Bethlehem about thirty Christian carvers families have lost their source of income almost entirely. But this is not the only burden: On its way to Bethlehem, the olive wood, which comes from the Northern West Bank, has to cross various Israeli checkpoints. At each checkpoint the olive wood has to be taken down from one tractor and loaded onto another tractor, for so-called security reasons. This costs nerves and makes the wood much more expensive. The costs for transport of olive wood from the Northern West Bank to Bethlehem increased from 400 Schekel to 2 000 Schekel in the last few years.

Furthermore, the Israeli army has uprooted thousands of trees for settlement and wall construction. The Palestinian organization PARC estimates the loss of olive trees in the first 4 years of the Intifada at 400.000 trees. 'In a few years there will not be sufficient olive wood,' says Jack, an olive wood carever from Bethlehem. He himself has 'lost' 400 out of his 600 trees, since they ended up behind the separation barrier near a settlement. 'For the Israelis I am absent and therefore without rights.'

But the carvers from Bethlehem do not give up, but instead look for alternative ways. They send their carved work to Europe and come to Germany (and in the future hopefully to Britain) to sell their artistic work, if they get the permission of the Israeli government. If people do not come to them, they come to the people and bring their beautiful work - nativity scenes, sheep, camels, Christmas tree decoration, candle holders, etc. - and many stories from their lives with them.

Embroidery

Embroidery has a long tradition in Palestine. The various patterns have their meaning and significance, as well as a story behind them and their importance in Palestinian folklore. Every area and village used to have their own pattern, so that people were able to recognize immediately which area a person came from.

Silks for embroidery are red and black. Green is permissable as a possible substitute for black and in practice one often sees pink and other colours inserted, but always in the part of the pattern which should be black. The mass of the pattern is always red. The natural silks used to come from Damascus but they are not in production anymore. Nowadays, DMC and other synthetic silks are used instead because they are readily available, are much cheaper and require less skill to work with han the raw, uneven hanks of Damscus silk, out of which the embroiderer had to form a suitable thread with their own hands.

The cross stitch is widely used throughout Palestine. In Hebron and other places the running stitch and the half cross stitch are also used, but in Ramallah if an embroiderer fails to cross her stitch, it would have been taken for granted that she has fallen into the sin of sloth.

Whoever looks at the illustrated examples will certainly recognise and admire them, but will probably be struck with their variety as much as with their originality. Palestinian villages have indeed a goodly heritage in patterns.

But where do the patterns come from? Some suggest that they were inroduced into the country by the Crusaders. We should dismiss, however, the stories of the Crusaders as these patterns are a common repertory of the Mediterranean tradition.

This will become more apparent when we discuss them in detail and are able to point out how some designs go back to early Islamic textiles and others go further still to Coptic tapestries. An argument often used to support the Crusader theory is that embroidery in Palestine is mostly made by Christians. Certainly most of the embroidery sold to Europeans was made in the Christian centers of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah. But this may be because these communities were more enterprising in this specific field. The evidence, however, shows that there were many Moslem villages in Palestine in which embroidery was made and worn.

Vocational Training Sheltered Workshop

About 22 participants attend the Sheltered Workshop at the Jerusalem Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children, out of which some are visually impaired and others are physically disabled. All are referred to the Center through the Social Welfare Office of East Jerusalem. They are distributed over different training areas in accordance with their need and expectations, with the aim of utilizing their abilities, supporting their self esteem and providing them with a source of financial support.

They are trained by skilled professionals in cane and straw work and simple carpentry and produce wonderful work. It is unoubtedly a little miracle to see baskets develop through the hands of a blind person, who never sees with his own eyes what he produces, but feels it with his entire being.

'Bethlehem imprisoned by the Wall' - Christmas Cards

This year one of our staff members has designed two Christmas cards. They are and expression of the current situation in Bethlehem. The Wall that threatens to close around Bethlehem, imprisons the citizens of Bethlehem more and more. The cards are meant to express the fear of many indigenous people here never to be able to reach Bethlehem again within their own life time. Especially the local people from Jerusalem, Gaza and the Galilee do not know, whether they will be able to ever set foot on Bethlehem soil again once the Wall has been closed completely. Therefore, for many local Christians Christmas has a bitter and sad taste. The question remains unanswered where God is in all this. Is He waiting outside the gates of Bethlehem, unable to enter like the local Christians? The cards reflect on this thought. The first card shows Maria and her newly born son Jesus in front of a closed Bethlehem. Imprisoned by the Wall, Bethlehem seems beyond reach. Only the contours of the city can be seen in the grey of the Wall.

The second card show an Arabic calligraphy with the words 'Birth of Jesus' in the shape of a tear - God's tear. Bethlehem appears in the belly of the calligraphy, again imprisoned by the Wall.

But both cards do not only symbolize the difficult situation, but also hope. Thus Maria and her child show inner peace and comfort. The message of love, embodied in this special birth, brings new hope. The second card shows Bethlehem as a colorful city, above which the joyful message of Jesus' birth becomes visible in the shape of a playful Arabic Calligraphy reaching out to heaven. The card costs US $ 1,80 (without envelope / + postal costs). The proceeds go to people in need in Israel / Palestine.

Since June 2002 the Israeli government has been building the 'separation barrier' between Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. According to the governmental website it is to be a temporary measure to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel. However, the Israeli human rights organization B?tselem" doubts that argument and views the barrier - which some call Apartheid wall - as a further attempt to confiscate even more Palestinian land. Near Bethlehem alone the barrier takes 18.000 acres of Palestinian land away. It separates 380 land owners from their olive groves and properties. The barrier around Bethlehem consists mainly of 26-foot-tall concrete walls with watch posts every 218 yards. If this wall is not stopped, the birthplace of Jesus will be confined to 7 square miles. If the Israeli plans for Bethlehem are allowed to proceed, the 'open-air-prison' @ Bethlehem will only be accessible through three gates. 'How can any peace process succeed if this is allowed to happen?' ask the International Center of Bethlehem and ARIJ in their common brochure 'O Little Town of Bethlehem.' 'As God's children we are all part of the Body of Christ. But Bethlehem is being cut off from the Body,' states the brochure.

Will the world once again only watch?

Your solidarity is needed - now! Have courage to act and let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened. (Luke 2:15)

With our prayers and best wishes,
The Diocese of Jerusalem

If you would like to order any of these products or for more information and additional photos, please contact us under development@j-diocese.com.