6: Praying at the Wall in Bethlehem
By Skip Schiel

Photos: Prayer at the Wall, the rosary & solitary prayer, Bethlehem , October 2004

Two responses to the wall: praying the rosary in the Roman Catholic tradition, and offering prayer singly. The nun is from an Italian order stationed near the Wall in Bethlehem , the man kneeling is a South African bishop, Langa ka Siboto, with the Ecumenical Accompaniers project.

Last weekend, a South African Friend, Jeremy Routledge, invited me to visit his team of Accompaniers in Sawahreh, a small village east of Jerusalem, and then to travel the short (in distance) long (with checkpoints and other Israeli blockages) route to Bethlehem. Oh, we visited the Church of the Nativity, of course, and lounged in Manger Square , and dropped by the Milk Grotto (where Mary was to have leaked breast milk while feeding the infant Jesus). But the standout event for me was praying at the Wall with friends.

I say “pray” with reservations. Never one to whole-heartedly believe that prayer of the spoken sort has any power, nor one to deny its possibilities, I subscribe to a different sort of prayer--photography. Praying with my camera. Thru the light revealed to my camera and my eye.

It was sunset, I was tired, I'd heard this section of the Wall and the planned checkpoint would be "the most sophisticated checkpoint in the entire West Bank ." And that this section of the Wall would protect the Tomb of Rachel, now off-limits to all but Jewish people who are bused between Bethlehem and Jerusalem . Local Palestinians believe this Wall will encircle a new Israeli settlement eventually to be built, adding to the 20 now ringing the city on hilltops. It will be the first in town, a stone's throw from where Christ is believed to have been born.

Prayer indeed, much prayer is needed--of all kinds, mixed to action--in response to the continuing and more and more total Occupation.

Ecumenical Accompaniers--

http://www.eappi.org/

Rachel's Tomb--

http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/ncarticle/233/

http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/mediaobjectivity/Reuters_Ruins_Rachels_Tomb.asp

Bethlehem settlements--

http://www.bethlehem-city.org/The_District/settlements.htm

--The Wall in Bethlehem

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2191.shtml