Mitri Raheb, ‘Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble’, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8006-3653-8, 157 pp.रेविएव बी सम.

Mitri Raheb, ‘Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble’, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8006-3653-8, 157 pp.

The Author, Rev. Mitri Raheb is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. The current book under review is his second, the first being an articulation of his theological convictions based on personal experiences, ‘I am a Palestinian Christian’ (Fortress Press, 1995). The present book deals with the Author’s experiences during the 2002 Israeli siege of Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity in Madbaseh Square, adjoining Manger Square in the centre of the old town. He records the extreme and wanton destruction suffered by his institution, the Lutheran Church and its affiliated organs in Bethlehem. The book is styled in an inspirational fashion, with emotive pictures between chapters, all to ensure that the spirit of hope and recovery must triumph in the midst of destruction, subjugation and mindless prejudice. The first chapter of the book acts as a sort of introduction that also acts as a conclusion as well as the Author telescopes us through the entire episode of the destruction of his buildings and institutions and their extraordinary regeneration within a year or so. As he so fittingly states, ‘the compound has again been a beacon of hope during times of despair’ (p. 16).

The second chapter gives us a blow-by-blow description of the incredible risks taken by the pastor in confronting the Israeli troops that were destroying his house and Church buildings, that fateful Thursday, April 4th, 2002. We’re held almost spell bound as the Author with an uncanny talent for detail manages to take us through his confrontation with the troops, in the process revealing some of the misconceptions that the average Israeli soldier has about Palestinians and Arabs in general. He quotes one soldier as snarling at him that “Arabic in the ugliest language in the world” (p.22). In the next chapter, the Author describes an incident that would never otherwise be reported, as far as Palestinian-Israeli news in concerned. Apparently one of the militants that had taken refuge within the Church of the Nativity, a member of the HAMAS group called Muhammad fell ill and was taken care of by one of the Franciscan friars within the Church, a priest by the name of Father Amjad. This incident took place right when the Israeli and indeed much of the world media, that often does nothing better than toe the Israeli line, was reporting that the priests within the Church were being held captive by the militants against their will. Rev. Raheb also reminds us that many ordinary Palestinian civilians were also caught up in the Church, again in contravention of the popularly held view that all the people who had sought refuge in the Church were militants and terrorists.

In his next two chapters, the Author describes how Church life was conducted during the four months period when Bethlehem and indeed much of the West Bank cities were under curfew in 2002. He describes the extraordinarily humiliating and cruel behaviour of the Israeli soldiers who made people caught during curfew hours to take off their clothes and walk home naked, in addition to the thousands of shekels worth of fines as well as the brutal interrogations, beatings, detention and even torture that they would have to experience (p.47).

In chapter six, the Author describes how he himself once, along with his mother took refuge within the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, his hometown. This occurred during the June 1967 Israeli invasion of the West Bank of Jordan. The Nativity church has had a long history of being a place of refuge in times of trouble, running back hundreds of years. As a Church dedicated to the memory of the mother of Christ, St. Mary, the Church has a special significance for the local Muslim community as well. During Ottoman times, Muslim pilgrims would often visit the Church and the monks were committed as per the requirements of the ‘status quo’, that all-embracing code of conduct as far as the Christian institutions of the Holy Land were concerned, to look after all their needs. Father Mitri describes his life till the fateful day in 2002, all lived under the baleful glare of the Israeli occupation. It’s no wonder that he titles this chapter, ‘ The land that swallows its children’.

Chapter seven describes a routine faced by countless Palestinians innumerable times in their lives, namely the delay and the roadblocks created by Israeli planners to disrupt Palestinian life as much as possible. In the Author’s case, it resulted in the death of his own father-in-law, who suffering from a serious heart attack was denied permission to enter Jerusalem to go to hospital on the flimsiest of excuses, and when finally he was able to make his entry, it was just too late.

Chapter eight while ostensibly dealing with the difficulties faced by the Author to get a driving license or even drive in occupied Palestine, actually conveys the message of the almost total blockade under which most Palestinians in the west Bank labour at the moment. Conditions seem even worse than apartheid South Africa in some instances. Chapter nine describes the painful and racist experience of being denied permission to leave the country to visit the US despite having all paper work in order, just for the sole reason of being a Palestinian. Chapter ten reads rather like a sermon, as the Author tries to analyse why the Palestinian people have to suffer as they do, bearing the brunt, not only of their own sins, but also those of other people like the Europeans, the Israelis, other Arab nations and the Americans. In the midst of all this suffering, the Author feels that the only way is to persevere, until (in the Author’s words), ‘Israel and the world muster the courage to take their share (of guilt)’.

The Author goes on to describe an incident that was often highlighted in the world media and consequently familiar to all Palestine watchers, during the first Intifada, namely almost daily shootings versus tank duels that used to take place between the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala and the Israeli settlement of Gilo across the valley from them. Mitri narrates in very touching terms, the human misery that must result from these incidents as well as the grand march for peace sponsored by the residents of the two towns to reclaim their streets for peace again. Mitri’s book is full of interesting anecdotes and incidents. Witness his analysis of why a group of Palestinian painters, Christian as well Muslim, but mainly Muslim, when asked to draw their perceptions of Christ from a Palestinian perspective, should, with just one exception draw Christ crucified, despite the absence of this incident from the life of Christ in Islamic historiography. His striking conclusion is that the best way to present the modern Palestinian experience at the hands of the Israelis is to draw Christ crucified. Mitri tries to explain why his institution in Bethlehem has such a large number of well qualified and trained staff, who actually had no business to be wasting their life’s in such a thankless place as the Jerusalem-Bethlehem-Ramallah triangle. He puts this down solely to commitment and the desire to do some good where it’s most needed.

Mitri ends the books with some sound advise to his fellow Christians in Europe and America. He exhorts them to stop being spectators and instead to start being actors in trying to convince they’re respective governments to stop funding the military government of Israel and instead to invest in peace-building initiatives. In the midst of this, he insists on the importance of hope, both from the Palestinian as well as Israeli point of view. Without hope of a better tomorrow there is no future for the region. The alternative is too bloody to contemplate. Again as Christians, Mitri feels that ‘we are actors on Christ’s behalf’ (p. 156). The book ends with a very colourful and emotive description of the concept of Christian hope. To quote again, ‘if we plant a tree today, there will be shade for the children to play in, there will be oil to heal the wounds, and there will be olive branches to wave when peace arrives. (p. 157). A striking vision for the as yet, seemingly unattainable future.