Separation Wall at Bethany
As we approach the Christmas season, a moment to reflect on the modern-day sadness of Bethlehem which is surrounded by this very forbidding wall, with the coming and going of Palestinians to the rest of Israel rigorously controlled at military checkpoints. These two pictures show the wall at Bethany where its starkness and the hostility it breeds are shown vividly.
Bethlehem Embattled
Bethlehem,
You gave birth to earth’s true hope;
Yet now you are enclosed
By hostile wall and strangling gates,
And quotas, fierce imposed.
May Angel hosts, not barred by walls,
Proclaim their song anew,
‘Let love and concord flood the earth,
through the peace of our Lord, a Palestine
Jew'.
Other poems with a similar theme can be found at Path to Jerusalem and Reflection On The Golan heights
Other poems with a similar theme can be found at Path to Jerusalem and Reflection On The Golan heights