    Walls of Hypocrisy, Walls of Fear

    By Ian Buckley

    Once it was Bit ilu Lahmu, the temple of the Sumerian corn god Lathmu,
    founded over 4000 years ago and thus one of the oldest settlements in
    the world. Later it was the holy City of Bethlehem, scene of the
    nativity of Jesus, a sacred site of Christianity. But, most oddly,
    Christians do not seem overly concerned about a recent 'Christmas
    present' for ancient Bethlehem. This is the huge occupation wall, 25
    feet high, which seals off the municipality from Jerusalem.

    Nor is Jerusalem itself in any better state, since the Wall is beginning
    to slice like a scythe of sharp concrete through the southern part of
    that city as well. Indeed, Con Couglin was prescient enough to comment
    several years ago that: 'To look at Jerusalem today is to view the
    ruthless triumph of Zionism over the spiritual capital of the world'.1

    Ruthless triumph of Zionism over the world more like, or - to display
    greater exactitude - over the United States of America in particular.
    Bethlehem is immured, and who pays the hard cash for its walling off? In
    large part, it's the clappy-happy pseudo Christians of the US, working
    hard in their part-time low wage jobs, when they're not squeezing their
    oversized behinds into the pews at some 'Crystal Cathedral' or other.

    Fancy an exercise in futility? Noble-hearted futility, but still
    futility? The exercise is as follows: try writing to prominent churchmen
    about this outrage. Be as eloquent and polite as you like, but I doubt
    that you will receive many - if any - replies. There are a few possible
    exceptions - Archbishop Tutu springs to mind. On this issue, he's an
    honourable man, and should be recorded here as such.

    But his fellow Archbishops and Bishops of the Anglican Communion are
    among the least likely of all to speak up for now stricken 'little town
    of Bethlehem'.

    As Duo Doloroso put it :

      O Little Town of Bethlehem,
      in fear we see thee lie,
      We hear thee weep in fitful sleep,
      as tanks and planes go by,
      And in thy shattered streets is shown,
      the Palestinian plight.
      The hopes and fears of all the years,
      are dashed for thee tonight

    What was it that the most famous - if temporary - inhabitant of
    Bethlehem once said? On the outside they try to look righteous, but on
    the inside they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

    Granted this level of ecclesial leadership, is it any wonder that the
    places of worship in their own custody are often desolate and locked, or
    turned into warehouses and private residences? Very often, those who
    have acquired 'respectability' and position they don't want to lose
    finish up by losing their consciences. Media hirelings who report a
    suicide bomb in Netanya while ignoring the sinking of a Palestinian
    fishing boat by shelling are of the same mentality too.2

    I have seen Palestine when it was still Palestinian, if only at second
    hand, and around this time of year. Coloured moving images on a screen,
    with a slight sepia tone, already a fair number of years old, watched by
    young schoolchildren. Misty light on the reeds of the Jordan as it
    enters the Sea of Galilee; gnarled olive trees and gnarled shepherd. The
    same place, but a world away from Wall, barbed wire, checkpoints and
    sniper towers. Still, a people that makes a spirited fight against
    oppression cannot ever really be defeated, whatever the odds, whatever
    the suffering.

    But, though it is all done more subtly, maybe the levels of subjugation
    in the United States, Britain and Western Europe are just as great.
    Communitarian thinking has declined: the old mass industries of the
    miners, steel workers and dockers have fallen by the wayside. It is each
    man against the next, all walled off into atomised units of economic
    man. The leaders of these countries - the aspirational elite - resemble
    nothing as much as servants of the 'master of all merchants', otherwise
    the prince of this world.3 Unlike the Muslim countries that are on the
    neo-con hit-list, Western societies are doing a fairly good job of
    destroying themselves with drugs and alcohol. It makes a kind of
    perverse sense: those that don't destroy themselves, have to be attacked
    from outside.

    To put an end to this global dictatorship of money and war requires
    nothing less than a worldwide Intifada. But in the Western world, due to
    the more subtle and diffuse nature of the oppressing power, this
    Intifada must take the form of a battle of minds, words and thought.

    It’s time to break down the walls of hypocrisy, the walls of fear.

     1 A Golden Basin Full Of Scorpions : The Quest For Modern Jerusalem

    2 Those who are now filing into shelters for the homeless in London -
      ever-increasing thousands of them in Bliar's Britain - are better men
      and women than they.

    3 See Countess Cathleen by W.B.Yeats