O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above the deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight. 

Christians have to take Christmas in Bethlehem seriously, because on that holy night and in this very place, God chose to be very concrete, to take flesh, and to take our world very seriously.2  

As the world prepares for Christmas Eve with joy and celebration, a sense of painful silence haunts the birthplace of Jesus; an empty Manger Square in Bethlehem echoes with vague images of the past, when the bustling of both locals and tourists reminded everyone of the true meaning of Christmas. This year the warmth of celebration in Bethlehem is replaced with the stillness of death, the agony of shattered lives, the memory of lost children, and the pain of injustice; Bethlehem is silent again.3 

For Christ is born of Mary;
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.

O morning stars together,
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to all on earth. 

Our recent history as Palestinians is a story of violence, misery, and oppression:  thirty-six years of Israeli occupation, four years of uprising from 1987 to 1991, the Gulf War in 1991. During these years, we often were under house arrest because of curfews imposed on our cities.  Many young Palestinians were shot, wounded, and killed.  Others, including church members, were arrested and imprisoned.  In spite of all that, we had hope.  We continued to hope that one day justice would prevail.  We had a vision that, one day, Israelis and Palestinians would be able to live together in peace.  However, during the last few years, since 2002, this hope has evaporated almost completely.  Israeli tanks surrounded Palestinian towns and villages. Over two million of our people were put under house arrest for months.  Apache helicopters were used to fire on Palestinian neighborhoods.  Many West Bank cities have been filled with the sounds of missiles and tanks bombing neighborhoods, as well as the screams of little children scared to death.4 

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.

No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in. 

And while Christians all over the world sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem," Israel makes sure that this town stays as little as possible, as little as two square miles, surrounded with thirty-mile-long walls, fences, and trenches with no future expansion possibilities whatsoever. At Christmas we don't need to ignore this reality, forget it or beautify it, but we have to face it, as we do every day.  We know what it means to tens of thousands of our people, how it cuts them off from their fields, medical services, and schools.  We're worried about our children and future generations, who will grow up seeing nothing around them but high concrete walls, ugly trenches, and security fences.  We're worried that they might eventually live with walls in their minds, forgetting that the sky is the limit.5 

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel! 

The real challenge today for Palestinians in general, and for Christian Palestinians in particular, is this:  How can we hope in a context of despair and hold on to our vision in times of bitter conflict and war?  This is so important, for, as the Bible says, without a vision, the people perish. * Hope doesn't mean that things are in any way improving or that all we have to do is to sit back, wait, and watch.  Waiting, being passive and feeling optimistic about the future∗these are false hope.  True hope is active:  it is all about developing a strategy for action, for work, for getting engaged and involved.6   

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above the deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight. 

From the hometown of Christ, we have no other message on the day when we celebrate his life:  "For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us."  We wish ourselves nothing less than for the transforming power of the incarnation to strengthen all of us in our commitment to breaking down walls, making peace, and building bridges.7 

Excerpts from Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Desperation and Hope from the Holy Land by Mitri Raheb are copyright © 2004 Augsburg Fortress, and used here with permission of the publisher. 

O Little Town of Bethlehem, by Phillips Brooks, is in the public domain.