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Snow and FreedomJanuary 2013BethlehemToine van Teeffelen

Bijannen [wow], says Mary looking out of the window. It is white outside. Talj,talj [snow, snow], sings the Lebanese Fayrouz on the radio in her famousChristmas song. We are invited to the shop on the other side of the street fora cup of coffee in the snow. There is the excited sound of youth and childrenplaying on the streets everywhere.

We go together with our friend direction downtown. Take it easy man, sayssomebody when I slip and hit the ground. Mary makes almost 100 photos ina few hours. From each and every corner things look different. Indeed, weare looking at the world with new eyes. Pure and beautiful, says our friend,who previously showed her family abroad the snowscape around her houseby way of a roaming I Pod. Jara and I suddenly see in an emerging snowmanthe form of a Virgin Mary with child. Jara creates the artistic work. Later inthe day, the photo becomes an instant local hit on Facebook.

There are in fact many snowmen around. We hear the joke that the numberof Palestinians has multiplied by two after the birth of so many snowmen. (Inthe past a high Palestinian birthrate was regarded a weapon in thedemographic struggle with Israel).

I suddenly remember how in 2002 the Israeli army stopped a long curfewafter the snow arrived, and withdrew to Rachels Tomb in the north ofBethlehem. We were allowed to leave the house and taste the freedom.Indeed, the snow brings up a real feeling of freedom.

The Beit Sahouris, from the lower, eastern side of Bethlehem warn thepeople in high and snowy Beit Jala: Beit Jala, take care, here we come!Walking through the narrow Madbasseh Street in Bethlehem center, youththrow bullet-like snowballs from the high roofs down. Some cover their faceswith kefiyahs against the cold. A snowball Intifada. The adjnabi [foreigner] isallowed to pass.

The last few days gave us heavy weather with much wind and rain, whichalmost automatically means that electricity, TV and Internet are regularly cutoff. In the evening we play on the floor a cosy game together in candle light.A break from each of us separately on the computer, I Pod, Facebook or PlayStation.

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Still we are in the Christmas season, so the snow did not come too late. Wehave three Christmasses in Bethlehem. At the moment we find ourselvesbetween the second and the third. Tamer and I are slightly tired of theseason. Me, because of hearing three weeks Christmas music from the radioand the shops. Tamer, because he is with the scouts and each time has to go

out to march in the streets of Bethlehem. Why do I need to join this march?[the Orthodox] he asks, since we are Catholics?

On New Years Eve he joins the large human sign, Free for All formed bythe bodies of hundreds of scouts, in front of the Wall at Rachels Tomb. He ischosen to answer the questions of the foreign TV present. What is peace?Peace is freedom, love and dignity.

Much to the point, that action. In North Bethlehem we see at the moment abroad advancing front of settlements, of which the walled-in Tomb of Rachelis the outpost. Seven hundred hectare belonging to 182 Palestinian

landowners in the northern Bethlehem area have been made inaccessible. Asthe lands are not used anymore (because closed off), an Israeli law isapplicable which says that uncultivated land can after a few years bealtered into absentee property. Subsequently it can be transformed intostate land. Adterwards, the land goes, presumably, to the settlements.

There are yet three more fronts. The Gilo settlement to the north of Beit Jalawill be enriched with a South Gilo consisting of 1200 apartments. HarHoma will be expanded to the south-east with a few hundred apartmentsmore on land that previously belonged to Beit Sahour.

Finally, a large new settlement is planned between Gilo and Har Homa,named Givat Hamatos, consisting of some 2600 apartments. Thus a new ringaround the south of Jerusalem emerges. The row of settlements will furthercut Bethlehem from Jerusalem, that is, from its Arab quarters, like BeitSafafa.

We even do not talk about the west, east and south of the Bethlehem area.When you like to have a state, says Israel to the Palestinians, you can get itin New York in the UN, not on the ground.

What to do? A cultural Intifada, I lately heard. Expressing ones freedom,

singing about it, what else can you do. The Bethlehem Sumud Choir singsagainst the Walls around the Tomb of Rachel. In December they made amusic DVD, The Birth of Jesus between the Walls. They sing, act theChristmas story, tell their own stories from posters on the Wall. Its is theirfrontline, seemingly an empty gesture vis--vis all the violence of thebulldozers, cement and illegal laws.

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Adding insult to injury, a Likud Knesseth member wants to pay half a milliondollar to Palestinian families when leaving the West Bank.

Lets rather not leave it, this prison.

http://www.palestine-family.net/index.php?nav=5-15&cid=6&did=8542&pageflip=1

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