For the past 2,000 years, people have gathered in Bethlehem’s Manger Square to celebrate the birth of Jesus in his hometown. This year, like many in the past decade, will not be full of cheer for Bethlehem’s Christians because of the inescapable reality of Israel’s occupation.
With little room into which the city can expand, stifling unemployment and a severe economic crisis in the West Bank, Palestinians have struggled to maintain the Christmas spirit. This season should bring the economic boost of throngs of tourists eager to witness the celebrations in the city. The reality is many parts of the city are sealed off by the Israeli army and clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli soldiers have become daily events.
Bethlehem’s challenges are not solely due to the recent spiralling violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Rather, Bethlehem has been strangled by the growth of Israeli settlements. The city is now hemmed in on all sides by settlements, checkpoints and tall concrete walls.
Israel’s settlement project is seen as one of the major road blocks to peace by the international community, including the United States. This hasn’t stopped Israel’s ambassador to the US from sending out official holiday gift baskets filled with products sourced in Israeli settlements. The gift baskets were said to be an effort – albeit crass – to combat the boycott movement, but it appears to have achieved the opposite.
This month, Israeli journalist Uri Blau uncovered a vast network of money donations from US tax-exempt organisations to Israeli settlements. From 2009 to 2013, more than $220 million (Dh808 million) was sent from the United States in tax-exempt donations to schools, religious institutions and playgrounds in settlements. This is shocking news because it means that American taxpayers have been indirectly supporting the entrenchment of Israel’s occupation, in opposition to US foreign policy.
As Palestinians in Bethlehem endure another Christmas under occupation and Israel continues to steal the city’s land for new settlements, American lawmakers have a unique opportunity to send a strong message to Tel Aviv that the settlement project is unacceptable. Ending these tax-exempt donations would show an American committment to a lasting peace and the prospect for a happy Christmas for Palestinians sometime in the future.
