Bethlehem, A Town Where Love Story Had Flourished

Bethlehem remains a little town until today, despite a great story occurred in the town about 2,000 years ago when the Christ was born.

As a biography, this book is telling about Bethlehem from the very ancient era, told by Nicholas Blincoe – an English author – who is living there after married with Leila Sansour who born to an old Palestinian Roman Catholic family.

Reading the history of Bethlehem in this book became interesting since Blincoe did not tell only by reference books of history but he walked through his experience in every corner of the town then wrote it.

The story begins with a Christmas pudding that Blincoe brought as a gift to his girl-friend’s parents in December 1994. From the pudding Blincoe told about ingredients inside it, the origin where the ingredients came from, how it was brought to the Bethlehem, who brought it until almost all of its became common plants that are growing in garden of every house in Bethlehem today.

The history of his pudding told the history of ancient Spice Route, the clash of cultures --farmers and nomads-- then Roman era and Islamic age, the Crusades and Ottoman rule, and so on.

Bethlehem is a town where a lot of stories created. From the stone age to the bronze age, then the iron age, the classical age when God chose the town for baby Jesus’ birth place and keep following through from an era to another era.

One of the important spots in Bethlehem is the Church of the Nativity, which is frequently be used as a place of important occasions. In a Christmas time in 1995, Blincoe attended a reception for Suha Arafat – a flamboyant Christian, the wife of Yasser Arafat --the then new president of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The next morning, Arafat gave a speech from the roof of the Church of the Nativity to announce his return from exile.

Bethlehem has population of two hundred and ten thousand people of which about 25 percent is Christians.

The life of tolerance in Bethlehem is actually quite well developed. Muslims and Christians live together. There is a tradition that reaffirmed by PA that mayor of Bethlehem must be a Christian (Anton Salman is the mayor of Bethlehem today).

Since thousand years the town has been making-up the history –culture, power and politics, war and peace, hate and love—all mixed until today, yet Bethlehem remains a little town, lay down in West Bank, Palestine.

Although Bethlehem located only 10 km distance from Jerusalem, the generation has grown up that has rarely –and even never—visited Jerusalem, a city which becomes a central of conflict for decades. Apparently, hostility remains alive between the two nations.

Perhaps the Israelis and Palestinians should remember the love story of Boaz and Ruth --An Israeli and a Moabite-- and need to carve it on their heart.

***

Serpong, 10 Jul 2021

Titus J.