Rachel was the love of Jacob, and the mother of two of his sons, Joseph and Benjamin. The other ten sons of Jacob were born to his first wife, Leah, and to the servants of each of his wives. These sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, in the legends that were compiled into the book of Genesis.

In Genesis 35:16-19 Jacob and his family are fleeing from Laban, Rachel’s father, after an argument about the property that rightfully belonged to Jacob and his two wives. In this account Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin on the road leading into Ephrath (Bethlehem). To mark the spot Jacob erects "a pillar on her grave," and centuries later synagogues, and at one point a Crusader chapel, were also constructed along the road into Bethlehem.

The current structure on this site dates to the Ottoman period, and its dome was rebuilt in 1860 by the Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore. But the dome is not visible today, for the Tomb is encased within concrete walls and a machine gun nest sits on a platform above the Tomb.

I came to Rachel’s Tomb this morning with Hermina Damons, the Program Coordinator of the Ecumenical Accompaniment program in Palestine and Israel, who is South African, and another EA volunteer, Max Surjadinata, a retired UCC pastor who now lives in New York City. We rode in a taxi from Mt. Scopus, which took the road around the Old City on the east and south sides, and then traveled south down the main road to Bethlehem.

Rachel’s Tomb is only three blocks from the checkpoint on the northern side of Bethlehem, but taxis are not allowed to drive through the checkpoint. So, the taxi driver dropped us off where the walking path through the checkpoint begins, beside the road, and then returned to Jerusalem.

The Bethlehem Checkpoint

The Bethlehem checkpoint is ugly and intimidating. We walked down a path for almost a block, and then around a cinderblock fortification, which brought us to a covered walkway of sheet metal and cinderblock. People on foot trying to go to Bethlehem wait in line, about thirty feet from the small booth where one or two soldiers are seated. We stood and waited, as one of the soldiers indicated with a wave of his hand, that the next person in line was to go forward.

When I went forward, I showed the soldier my passport, which I had opened so he could see my photograph. After a glance at my face, he simply nodded and I went through. That meant turning to the right and going up a couple of steps, walking through a metal detector, and then stepping down and coming back to the covered pathway on the other side of the booth containing the soldiers, before walking another thirty feet to pass out of the checkpoint enclosure.

As people are trying to cross the checkpoint from both sides, those in line facing north are watching as people walking south come through. If the soldiers interrogate someone, everyone waiting in both lines can see what is happening, although it is impossible to hear the voices. While we were waiting in line we saw the soldiers turn away a family, a mother and her child, and an older woman who was probably the child’s grandmother. For whatever reason, they were not allowed to go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.

Once through the checkpoint, we walked the three blocks to Rachel’s Tomb. The eastern side of the street in the first block of what used to be the main street to Bethlehem is filled with fences, barbed wire, large slabs of concrete, and earthmoving equipment, which is being used to construct the 9 meter high Separation Wall that will soon be completed. On the western side of the street we could see a grove of olive trees, that appeared to be unattended, and the Separation Wall coming from the west across the hills all the way up to the street we were on.

A block south of the present checkpoint the monstrous, concrete walls being built from the east and the west almost meet, for only one lane of the street remains open. Passing between these high walls brought us into an area that continues to have shops on along the street, but almost all of these were shuttered and closed. To the left, the top of a four story building was covered with the dark netting the Israeli army uses wherever it has security posts and machine gun nests.

Palestinian taxis were parked along the western side of the road, and several drivers offered to take us around Bethlehem. Men selling jewelry appeared and crowded close to us, asking in English where we were from, and showing us their wares. Two small boys, who spoke only Arabic and should have been in school, tried to sell us packs of gum.

We soon came to where the street was completely blocked, which is the site of Rachel’s Tomb. It is a completely fortified environment, with massive concrete barriers not only across the road, but also around the small enclosure that covers the Tomb. Soldiers with automatic rifles stood guard, and there were additional security points above the Tomb and to the left on the hill that overlooks the Tomb.

Protesting the Wall

I have been in Rachel’s Tomb, which is a very unassuming, cramped room where mostly Jews now come to pray. But today we were not going there. We had come to stand in solidarity with a few residents of Bethlehem, who had gathered in front of a home across the street from Rachel’s Tomb. These Palestinians were protesting the Separation Wall that is about to be built alongside and around a three-story building, which houses shops on the ground floor and families in the upper two floors.

The building, which is owned by the Anustas family, faces the street that used to go into Bethlehem, and is perhaps 35 to 40 feet high. The Wall to be constructed around building on three sides will be about 6 feet away the south side, and no more than 10 feet away on the west side (along the edge of the street).

The wall will cut off the building from the street, which will be on the western side of the wall, and from the buildings and the rest of Bethlehem to the south. The building and its families will be caught between the main Separation Wall two blocks to the north and the section of the Wall dipping south in order to surround and protect the Jewish visitors to Rachel’s Tomb.

I took a few photographs of the building, the street, and the protesters, who had gathered that morning, and these are available at http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/photos.rachel.htm. But the view to the west from in front of the building, where we stood, is about to be replaced by a concrete wall almost as high as the building itself.

The event itself didn’t last long. A few men held the Palestinian flag, photographs were taken, and several leaders from Bethlehem made brief statements. A young woman from the Anustas family explained where the Wall would be located, and several of men gave examples of how the building of the Separation Wall throughout the neighborhood had devastated their community and destroyed their livelihoods.

A statement of protest was read, and we sang a few songs to mark the end of what had been a thriving neighborhood. A reporter from Reuters was present to record the event, but Israeli soldiers removed two Palestinian reporters, who had come to cover the story. Many of the Palestinian residents participating in the protest were women members of one of the sponsoring organizations, but there were also men and a few young boys. A couple of other "internationals" were present, in addition to 5 participants from the Ecumenical Accompaniment program.

A Request for Solidarity

A formal statement in English was distributed, which reads as follows: "The Women’s Group of Arab Educational Institute, affiliated to Pax Christi International, in cooperation with the Holy Land Trust, WIAM (an Arabic word meaning "cordial relationships," which is also known as the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center) and the Bethlehem representatives of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine/Israel are requesting on behalf of the extended family of Ms. Christina Anustas and her neighbors in the Rachel’s Tomb/Bilal Mosque quarter your attention to what will happen, if the Bethlehem separation wall is built and will surround the homes near the quarter."

"In the case of the Anustas house, the current plan for the wall is that it will be built within 2 meters of the building on the front and on the back. On one side it will reach a height of 9 meters effectively blocking the light and air circulation. The 14 people living there now including 9 children will be in a virtual prison. With the soldiers already in front of the Tomb and in the military barracks behind the Anustas house, the family members are all suffering from anxiety, not to mention the emotional, economic and social effects on the children."

"In addition to the suffering of this particular family, the entire block has already experienced the end of what had been their business activities and the value of their real estate. What had been the lively main street into the center of Bethlehem now resembles a ghost town with the only activity being the occasional tour bus that drives directly to the entrance of the Tomb."

"The bleak future of this neighborhood is symbolic of the entire future of the people of Bethlehem. Unless there is community, national and international solidarity with people undergoing this kind of oppression, the situation will become steadily worse. It will have a negative effect on the present and future peace process talks between Israeli and Palestinian people."

During the 45 minutes that we stood in front of the Anustas home, three large tourist buses speed from the checkpoint past us to Rachel’s Tomb, where passengers got off the bus and immediately entered the small fortress enclosing the Tomb. Each of these buses then turned around, and once again raised a cloud of dust as it was driven back to the checkpoint to park in greater safety, until those visiting the Tomb were ready to be transported back to Israel. When I approached the Tomb to take pictures, I was waved away by an Israeli soldier who shouted, "No photographs."

What to Do?

There may be a Reuters report of the small protest, and some of the internationals present may write something, as I am doing. But in the midst of the controversy within Israel over the government’s decision to relocate more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza, who do not want to go, the problems of this neighborhood in Bethlehem will sadly go unnoticed.

In fact, the Israeli government is working furiously to complete the Separation Wall and also to expand many of its settlements on the West Bank in the next few months, because it knows the Bush administration will "look the other way" until the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is successfully completed.

There is going to be a major battle within Israel over the removal of settlers from Gaza, and those who oppose this action are threatening civil disobedience throughout the country and even violence. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knows that under these circumstances the Bush administration will not push his government to live up to its agreement not to further expand the settlements on the West Bank.

Advocates for an end to the Occupation of Palestine by Israel are demonstrating against the Separation Wall, where it takes land from Palestinians, and against the unjust closure of checkpoints, which make travel around Jerusalem and many other cities extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible. But in the next few months, at least, their voices will not be heard by the international community, and certainly not in America.

Some of the residents of Bethlehem who came to the protest by Rachel’s Tomb were resigned to the Separation Wall being built through their neighborhood. On man, who said he was an engineer living near by, argued: "We should fight now in the courts for compensation for our loss of business. It is too late to oppose the Wall. It is going to be built." But other residents of Bethlehem argued that Palestinians should continue to protest the construction of the Wall.

Based on her experience in the South African struggle to end apartheid, Hermina said that accepting compensation would mean giving up their struggle against the Separation Wall. "If you accept money for your troubles, then the Israelis will say you have no right to object to the Wall." But those who were arguing for compensation claimed they couldn’t continue to live in Bethlehem, unless they received some money to offset their loss of income due to the Occupation and especially the construction of the Separation Wall.

As we left to have and began to walk to a Chinese restaurant, which was only a block up the hill, a soldier with an automatic rifle came out of the security installation above the Anustas home and told us we weren’t allowed to go that way. We could see that there was a barricade ahead of us at the top of the hill, but there was also a space to the side that was large enough for pedestrians to walk through. To the right of the street was the Israeli security installation.

When we said we were only walking up to the restaurant to have lunch, the soldier said his commander had told him to stop us, because no one was allowed to pass through the barricade. In broken English he explained he would be happy to let us through, but his commander had ordered him to stop us. A young, slight man of 19 or 20, he was almost pleading with us not to push the issue. So, we said we didn’t want to cause trouble for him, and we walked back down the hill, and then the half mile it then took to go around by other streets in order to reach the restaurant.

The unnecessarily long walk was only a minor inconvenience, but it reminded us again of the constant interventions by soldiers into the lives of the residents of Bethlehem. How sad it is that walking the street here, to visit a friend’s house or to go to a restaurant for lunch, is seen by Israeli officials as a threatening act, which requires a military response.

In the gospel of Matthew, after Herod tries to kill the newborn Jesus by sending soldiers to Bethlehem to slaughter all the young boys, we read a passage about Rachel. "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." (Mt. 2:17) The gospel account is quoting Jeremiah 31:15, where the prophet is remembering the slaughter of Judeans by Babylonian armies, when they conquered Jerusalem and deported its leading families to exile in Babylon.

Rachel’s Tomb is a place of mourning, for all the Jews and their ancestors who have been killed in and around Jerusalem. But it is also, today, a place of mourning for many Palestinians, who are oppressed by the barriers, checkpoints and soldiers enforcing the Israeli Occupation.

Bob Traer, 31 March 2005

I am writing as a participant in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, which is sponsored by the World Council of Churches. The views expressed above are personal and do not necessarily represent the World Council of Churches. If you wish to publish or disseminate this letter beyond personal friends, please contact the EAPPI Communications Officer (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission to do so. Thank you.

For photos taken during the events described above, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/photos.rachel.htm. 

For other Letters from Jerusalem, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/lj.letters.2005.htm. 

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