Jan 4, 2009

Bethlehem / – Demonstrations took place throughout East Jerusalem and the West Bank today, with the Bethlehem governorate hosting mass marches after morning church services.

In the city some 300 people took to the streets upon completion of prayers in the Church of Nativity. Father Samuel Fahim delivered a sermon focusing on justice in the holy land before hundreds of people descended on Manger Square.

The Roman Catholic pastor said that injustice still prevails after Jesus Christ was targeted 2,000 years ago. "The Palestinian people are crucified everyday by the Israeli enemy."

Sun overtook winter clouds for part of Sunday as thousands took to the streets in protest of the Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed at least 500 Palestinians in just over a week.

Under black flags of mourning and the red, white, green and black of Palestine, local Christians and Muslims in Manger Square and the streets of Bethlehem called for a "final end to the Israeli occupiers." Father Fahim announced public "dismay and condemnation over what is happening in the Gaza Strip which is sustaining terrible massacres against the defenseless Palestinian people." He prayed, "We ask the Lord to protect the citizens in the Gaza Strip and return life to normal, and to bring a just peace to the region instead of war."

Bethlehem’s Mayor Dr. Victor Batarseh joined the Mass and the march saying, "What is happening is a massacre in the Gaza Strip, it is a war of genocide and state terrorism aimed against the entire Palestinian people." The mayor asked, as so many have, that the "international community of nations and the European Union move to stop this horrible massacre in Gaza and to all of the Palestinian people."

Another Bethlehem resident, Issa Qaraqa’ of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that the "Palestinian people will not allow the Israeli enemy to continue the carnage." He said that the Israeli "scheme has already been dashed to pieces against the Palestinian steadfastness."

A demonstration began in Bethlehem’s Dheisha Refugee Camp later this afternoon, bringing hundreds of people into the streets in protest of the ongoing Israeli attacks.