Page 6 - Bethlehem
A few miles
south of Jerusalem
is Bethlehem - think in terms of the
distance from Memphis to Germantown. When I spent a summer in
Israel in 1971, one could hop a local bus in Jerusalem and be in
Bethlehem in 20 minutes. Now it is a difficult trip, tantamount
to crossing a major international border (Although much easier if you
are with an organized bus load of tourists.) Here is a picture of
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This was a major tourist
attraction, but there are now rather few tourists. The
Christian population of the Bethlehem area has fallen dramatically both
in the 1948 to 1967 period and since 1967.
Now, our purpose was not to go
collect "ain't-it-awful" stories. Some of the organizations we
visited did have, among their purposes, saying publicly "ain't it
awful?" But we were interested in groups trying to be
constructive.
What did we find?
One example: schools and educational programs. Let's take a
quick look at the Holy Child School, located in Bethlehem.
HOLY CHILD
This is a program in Bethlehem for children
suffering from what
we call Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder, although one has to point out that it is
more difficult when the Traumatic Stress isn't yet "Post", it is still
going on.
The school is run by an American Nun.
She has difficulty getting funding - as she puts it, most foreigners
assume she can get support from the US, and most American foundations
are reluctant to support what looks like a Catholic Church
project. But she does manage to keep the program going, even with
a need for a very high staff-to-student ratio.
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CONTENTS:
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Kfar Shalem
Page 3: Duheisha Refugee Camp
Page 4: Universities
Page 5: The Wall / Security Barrier
Page 6: Bethlehem
Next> Page 7: Efrat
Page 8: Hebron
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