Bethlehem, Wed 24.12.08, Morning

11.00 AM to 13.00  PM, Bethlehem:  we stood on the road leading from Jerusalem to the checkpoint on a freezing morning, and except for us there was nobody standing at the side of the road.   On the other hand,  the border-police were patrolling back and forth in a car and also on a “tractoron”  in order to be sure that the road stayed clear of cars and pedestrians.   So who did travel ?   Visitors on their way to visit the grave of our mother Rachel.    

The checkpoint was almost empty, and before the arrival of the Patriarch  and his party the checkpoint was closed to all Palestinians. The Patriarch was in a car belonging to the civil administration, with a huge Israeli flag and a smaller one with the insignia of the civil administration – so that we should not forget even for one moment who rules here.    Mounted-policemen rode behind the car on magnificent horses, all of them with flags.   What was missing ?  A flag of the church !  Palestinian boy-scouts had hung their large green flag on one of the accompanying cars, and on the same one were two smaller flags : was it the  flag of the church ?   No way !  It was the flag of the Palestinian authority !   The policemen demanded that the driver should take down the Palestinian flag, and only then allowed the convoy to proceed to Bethlehem.   As in previous years, the gate in the town wall was opened, and on the Palestinian side the Patriarch’s hosts and the scouts’ orchestras were there to welcome them.    At the end of the procession, we left the checkpoint in the freezing weather.