Santa's Ghetto

The little town of Bethlehem has changed a lot in two thousand and eight years.

You won't feel as though you're walking through the pages of the Bible. The cradle of Christianity is a typical West Bank Palestinian town- dirty, disorganized, and blocked off from Israel Proper by a huge concrete monstrosity that the Israelis call "The Security Fence" and the Palestinians call "The Apartheid Wall".

Sometime after 9/11, Ariel Sharon spearheaded the building of a huge, snaking barrier- dozens of kilometres long- that would ring off Jerusalem and several huge settlement blocs from West Bank towns. The given reason: to stop suicide bombers from infiltrating Jewish areas.

It was immediately denounced as a "land grab". Most settlements reach deep into the West Bank- land that the Palestinians want for their future state. They protested that Israel, by physically separating these settlement lands from the West Bank, was taking one further step to annexing them for good.

Part of this wall now blockades Bethlehem from Jerusalem to the north. It runs along the outskirts of the town, an imposing, Orwellian length of concrete and barbed wire.

There are now two attractions in Bethlehem. One. The age-old Church of the Nativity, and Christmas Mass at Manger Square.

Two. Countless activists and artists have since made pilgrimages here to leave their mark on the Wall. The Palestinian side is covered with murals, stickers, quotes, and prayers- the graffiti of pride and protest, rage and revolution.

Today, I went down to read the writing on the wall. Here are some pictures.

Oh,one last thing. I've seen this Wall.

It is not a fucking fence.


Five fingers of the same hand. Brings a tear to a glass eye.


No parking allowed. Violaters will be towed.


The Palestinian Guernica.


Palestine vs. Israel. Round... 6? 7? 12? Who's even keeping track?


Happiest Place on Earth.


What. The. Fuck.


Stairway to Freedom and a giant termite knocking segments of the Wall down.


On either side of this mural were the names of all the Palestinian villages destroyed since 1948. It's a long list.


A series of murals, each depicting a Palestinian village or town destroyed or taken over by Israel since 1948. There were a couple of dozen along that stretch of road.


Where's Dick Cheney?


"This is for the broken confessions lost in translation." Whatever the fuck that means. What happened to "Give me liberty or give me death!", or "Workers of the world, unite!"?


"Another world is not only possible; she's on the way. Many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully, you can almost hear her breathing."- Arundhati Roy.


A Christmas tree ringed by the wall, surrounded by stumps. You can figure this one out on your own.


"Me? Tell a lie?"


I didn't get this till I went around the other side. There, in equally large lettering: "I am from Berlin."


Maybe they brought the local elementary school down one day. "Ok, kids. On today's field trip, we're going to decorate the symbol of our oppression!"


If you understand this, you are destined to be either my best man or my wife.


If only it were that easy.


Why we fight.


Nothing lasts forever.


Window to the outside world.


The entrance and exit to Bethlehem.

Peace be upon you.