Mayor of Beit Sahour', Hani Hayek Speech

Through an opening in the Wall and through a hot Judean desert I came to meet with you, to break the silence, and to tell you the story of Occupied Palestine. It is the story of the shepherds and the kings, who if they came today, would not have access to the crib where our Lord was born.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am honored to be with you today to share with you my story. It is the story of over 5 million Palestinians who are living under the same conditions.

A few months ago we sadly marked the 40th anniversary that Palestine became occupied -- 40 years of injustice, 40 years of living without human rights, 40 years of appealing to the world that Palestine is still occupied and still cries out for its freedom. For these 40 years we have been appealing to all nations and peoples, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even Buddhists, to end the injustice.

I come from the historic city Beit Sahour, known as the “Town of the Shepherds’ Field”, where the Angels appeared to the Shepherds and where they first announced the birth of Jesus Christ and sang “Glory to God in the Highest, on Earth Peace, Good Will toward Men”. Beit Sahour is a major Christian town in the Holy Land in the Bethlehem area. An area that has become one of the largest open-air prisons on earth!

We are witnessing a silent involuntary transfer, what amounts to a slow ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from their ancestral homeland to neighbouring or distant countries, or to confined areas within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The ongoing construction of the Separation Wall, the relentless expansion of the Israeli settlements in the Bethlehem area, the annexation of these illegal settlements built on Palestinian land, to what the Israeli authorities call the Greater Jerusalem, imposes severe hardships on our people. It imperils, and indeed calls into question, the future of Christianity in Jesus' own hometown.

The Wall is not being built on the “Green Line” the official, internationally recognized border between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Wall stretches deep inside Palestinian land. As a result of the Wall, Palestinian agricultural lands are confiscated, water resources are annexed, freedom of movement by Palestinians is severely restricted, separating families and whole communities from each other. Even worse, Palestinians are separated from their schools, healthcare facilities, and places of work, depriving thousands of Palestinians from the ability to earn a living.  It is estimated that approximately 47.6% of the Occupied West Bank (that contains approximately 88% of the Israeli illegal settlers) will be de facto annexed by Israel, thereby ensuring that Israel’s illegal settler colonies will not only remain but also can continue to expand in the future.

It is a sad fact that for the first time in history, Bethlehem and Jerusalem are separated from each other by a wall. Five miles is the distance between the two cities.

If Israel were truly interested in its security, it would abide by international law and numerous UN and international resolutions demanding the withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territories it has occupied militarily since 1967. If Israel wishes to build a wall, it can build it on its own side of the Green Line rather than on Palestinian land.

Two years ago, we had the first municipal elections in 29 years in Palestine. They were also held in Beit Sahour, Bethlehem and Beit Jala. These three cities were once known as the “Christian Triangle”. I have been blessed and honored to become the first elected mayor of Beit Sahour, the Town of the Shepherds’ Field. It is one of the last Palestinian towns with a Christian majority. I have a dream: to make the Town of the Shepherds’ Field a secure haven and home for all Christians in the Holy Land, to preserve this community from emigrating, and to stop the suffering of the Palestinians, Christians and non-Christians alike.

According to our municipal records, so far 214 families, that is 1265 people have already left, most of them going to the United States. This number comprises 10% of the Christian population of Beit Sahour. The “new” promised land of the people of my town is now Flint, Michigan. And I know that many of our youth are waiting for any opportunity to leave. I am almost certain that those who have left, will never come back again.

I believe that if things stay as they are, in 15 years there will be almost no Christians in the Holy Land!!! This is be a critical concern for me, and should be for you too, as well as for every Christian around the world. Imagine the land of Jesus without a living Church any more…

Let us all resolve to work together to sustain the living Church in Palestine, in Bethlehem, and in the Town of the Shepherds’ Field. Jesus grieves seeing his relatives abandoning his house.

My concern is not about structures and stones. It is all about people whom I call the “Living Stones”. We Palestinian Christians must stay to tell everyone about the glory of God, and by staying be the peacemakers in the Middle East.

We cannot do much about those who have already emigrated. We try our best to encourage and convince them to return. But given the record of the Israeli injustices, they know very well that their basic human rights will not be respected or even their most basic human needs met. In addition to concerns about safety and an uncertain future, the Palestinian Christians emigrate because of the harsh measures and policies of the Israeli military authorities. Their very livelihood is imperiled. The livelihood of most Christians in the Bethlehem area depend in one way or another on tourism. It provides jobs in hotels, in guiding tours, souvenir shops, and restaurants, etc.

Unfortunately, not many pilgrims are coming to Bethlehem, the most sacred place of the Holy Land, anymore. Even those who come, do not stay, eat or shop there. They are instructed by their Israeli tour guides to visit the Church, get back on the bus and leave. Most often they do not even have the opportunity to meet with local Christians who would love to meet with them and tell them first hand how Christians live and preserve this sacred place. My message to you is this: please come visit the “Living Stones”, the people, not only the stone-buildings. Jesus did not come to make stones holy, but he came for us, to sanctify his people. We as Christians make the place holy. We need to sustain a living Church not structures of cold stones.

I implore you all most sincerely to come, to bring your families and friends with you to the Holy Land, visit us, stay with us in Bethlehem, visit the sacred shrines and meet with the Christians there.

While the number of pilgrims and tourists has become steadily smaller, there is a good initiative underway among some of the youth, supported by some Christian organizations, to travel overseas to seek alternate markets for the beautiful handcrafts from Bethlehem. To be honest with you, without the income generated from the sales of these handcrafts, made from olive wood by our Christian artisans, the number of those who emigrated would be triple of what it is today! I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you personally, that have helped us by buying these beautiful objects. Please keep up your support.

Before I end my talk, I would like to brief you about the situation of our municipality and the major activities underway to help our people to stay.

Our municipality faces difficult challenges in the current political environment. We are getting almost none of the funds to which we are entitled. The funds are held by the Israeli authorities! We apply to all international organizations and agencies that we can to get grants to support our projects and to develop the infrastructure of our city. Likewise, we seek scholarships for our students for higher education.

One of the major projects that I am interested to tell you about involves the OSH GHORAB Area. Osh Ghorab is part of Beit Sahour that was occupied by the Israeli military for 40 years as a military base. Just last year the military withdrew from it so I decided to build the first large park in Beit Sahour and the Bethlehem area in this area: a green space where families and children can walk and play. Since our towns are very crowded and have no parks, the park seemed a necessity for our community.

This is something that you may think about: My dream is to see our children running and playing as your children do here. My dream is to give our children a break from the shocking experiences they experience daily. My dream is to bring back a smile to their youthful faces.

Sisters and Brothers in Christ, my faith becomes stronger and my hope is renewed when I see people such as you coming from all over the USA to learn of the plight of the your fellow Christians in the Holy Land and to discuss ways in which you can help us not lose hope, that we are not condemned to an unjust future.

Thank you.