Merry Christmas to All in Bethlehem, the City of Peace

posted on: Dec 25, 2019

By: Leila Diab/Arab America Contributing Writer

During this Christmas and holiday season 2019, the contagious spirit of peace, love, and joy to world humanity is one of the holiest nights for all supreme worshippers; especially, in the little town of Bethlehem where the Palestinian town has been blocked in by a maze of a wondering high wall that separates children and families from social, economic, and educational prowess and the sanctity of life’s cultural celebrations and religious freedom.

 According to historians, the little town of Bethlehem lies 10 kilometers south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2^nd-4^th century AD, people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born.

In the holiday spirit of Christmas and in the New Year 2020, families create delicious Arab sweets of ‘mamoul’ cookies with dates or nuts, ‘kanafa,’ roasted leg of lamb, and servings of rice with sautéed pine nuts sprinkled on top. Of course, rice is never the same without homemade yogurt.  Christmas and New Year 2020 celebrations are also the time to invite friends to join them and together they share gifts of giving food, water, and presents to the children in refugee camps, orphanages, and hospitals. In addition, many celebrations of ‘debke’ dancing and singing fill the air with the joy and blessings of human dignity.

This holiday season should be a very special time of year to acknowledge that as the Arab saying goes, ‘one hand does not clap without the other.’ In reality, the Christmas, New Year 2020 holiday season is a global extension of preserving humanity, human dignity (Karama), human universal rights, respect, and honorable decrees of forgiveness to eclipse the righteous path of human salvation.

This Christmas season, as the biblical scriptures state, Jesus saw the light of hope and forgiveness for those who decimated human values and life.  Albeit, this Christmas should be cast in the theme as ‘there is no law without justice.’ Peace, freedom, justice, love is the year 2020’s mantra of human survivors of traumatic and prophetic life experiences.

Christmas and the holiday season is a time of giving, forgiving, and working hand in hand to make this world a serene and better place for humankind to live in pillars of harmony with nature and diverse cultures on this earth. And just like the little stars in Bethlehem that shine bright on the birth this Christmas day,  it is the universal hope that united generations worldwide will rise and become blessed peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.

For Palestinians, Bethlehem 2019 is still holding on to the hope that the UN Resolution on Bethlehem 2000 is implemented, in the city of Peace (see below) and comes into fruition on Christmas day and into the New Year 2020.

Merry Christmas to all in the city of peace, a city that demands and beckons a city without walls and without borders to live in peace and equality. And, wishing everyone a happy new beginning for justice and peace in the world, and may all the heavenly stars shine brightly on everyone in the New Year 2020!

RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Bethlehem 2000

The General Assembly,

Recalling the fact that the Palestinian city of Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and one of the most historic and significant sites on earth,

Noting that the world will celebrate in Bethlehem, a city of peace, the onset of the new millennium in a global vision of hope for all peoples,

Stressing the monumental importance of the event for the Palestinian people, for the peoples of the region and for the international community as a whole, as it comprises significant religious, historical and cultural dimensions,

Aware of the Bethlehem 2000 project as a multifaceted undertaking for the commemoration of the event, which will begin at Christmas, 1999, and conclude at Easter, 2001,

Aware also of the needed assistance with regard to the above-mentioned project, and expressing appreciation for the steps taken towards increasing the engagement and participation of the international community, including donor countries, and organizations of the United Nations system, in particular, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, as well as the European Commission, religious institutions and others,

Expressing the need for immediate change in the situation on the ground in the vicinity of Bethlehem, especially with regard to ensuring freedom of movement,

Stressing the need for ensuring free and unhindered access to the holy places in Bethlehem to the faithful of all religions and the citizens of all nationalities,

Expressing the hope for rapid progress in the Middle East peace process and the achievement of the final settlement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides within the agreed time, so that the millennium may be celebrated most appropriately in an atmosphere of peace and reconciliation,

1. Welcomes the impending arrival of this global, historic celebration in Bethlehem of the birth of Jesus Christ and the onset of the third millennium as a symbol of the shared hope for peace among all peoples of the world;
2. Expresses support for the Bethlehem 2000 project and commends the efforts undertaken by the Palestinian Authority in this regard;
3. Notes with appreciation the assistance was given by the international community in support of the Bethlehem 2000 project, and calls for increased assistance and engagement by the international community as a whole, including private sector participation, to ensure the success of the Bethlehem 2000 project and the fruition of this monumental commemoration;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to mobilize the pertinent organizations and agencies of the United Nations system to increase their efforts to ensure the success of the Bethlehem 2000 project;
5. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fourth session the item entitled Bethlehem 2000 so that the General Assembly may have a renewed opportunity to reaffirm its further support for the event immediately prior to the occasion of its commemoration.

61st Plenary Meeting

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