I spent Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. It should have been a happy, colourful celebration, attended by people from all over the world. But Bethlehem is besieged.
To enter, we climb down from our comfortable bus and carry our suitcases past a massive steel barrier which lies across the road, under the watchful guns of young Israeli soldiers peering at us from a fortified watchtower. On either side of the barrier Palestinians wait to pick up their loved ones. No cars are allowed through. Everyone crosses on foot. A man wanting to get through by car to pick up his ill father is met with threats of ‘I’ll shoot you’ from an Israeli soldier.
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