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A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place Joshua Hammer Free Press, 287 pages, $24.00

In 1948, when the nation of Israel came into being, Palestinian Christians numbered about 110,000 in the West Bank and Gaza. Today, writes Newsweek Jerusalem bureau chief Joshua Hammer, the number is about 50,000. According to a recent Newsweek article, about 30,000 of those live in or near Bethlehem, a traditionally Christian city just six miles south of the Old City of Jerusalem. Therefore, as goes Bethlehem, so goes Palestinian Christianity.

These are not unfamiliar facts to CHRISTIANITY TODAY readers. CT has reported on the results of Palestinian Christian emigration under pressure for many years. For example, in a 1998 article, Bishara Awad, the president of Bethlehem Bible College, called the Christian presence "precarious" and wrote that the percentage of Palestinian Christians had dropped from 17% in 1900 to 2% of the Arab population in the Holy Land. Both the numbers and the percentages are alarming. But they do not tell a story. They leave us wondering what has happened and what is happening. If you want to know the story, read Joshua Hammer's new book A Season in Bethlehem, as well as his Newsweek article and Newsweek's online interview.

Here is the picture in broad strokes: For centuries, Bethlehem was a largely Christian city. Despite their minority status among Arabs in the Holy Land, Christians in Bethlehem and neighboring Christian enclaves have had a relatively cordial and calm existence vis-à-vis their Muslim neighbors. Indeed, from the arrival of the Muslim Caliph Umar in 637 until the persecution of Christians began under Caliph al-Hakim in 1009, relations between the Christian and Muslim populations were friendly. In more recent centuries, Bethlehem has been dominated by seven Christian tribes and one Muslim tribe. Neighboring Beit Jala has been (at least since the 16th century) occupied by five Christian tribes drawn to the hillside village by its proximity to the holy sites of Bethlehem.

This harmonious existence changed once again in the 19th century when Ottoman rulers began pressing Palestinian Christians into service as porters and servants for the Turkish army. Many emigrated to Latin America in order to escape this forced servitude. Another chapter unfolded after the British liberated Palestine from Turkish rule in 1917-18: The British forcibly disarmed the Ta'amra, a violent Bedouin tribe, and forced them to give up their nomadic existence for village life. Most settled in nearby Za'atara', while some members of the tribe settled in Bethlehem proper. It is this group of families that formed the core of what became the most troublesome group of militants in the Bethlehem area.

Hammer recounts how in recent years younger members of this group were radicalized by some of the more brutal aspects of Israeli occupation. He says the current al-Aqsa uprising was "fueled by young men … ripped out of schools as teenagers, beaten and made to languish in Israeli jails for years, then tossed back onto the streets to brood and wait for the opportunity to get even." As a good journalist, Hammer must acknowledge these contributing factors, but he also takes note of the "pattern of corruption and contempt for the rule of law" in the Palestinian Authority, which in turn creates an atmosphere in which "young toughs" can be hired as security guards and enforcers who operate outside the legal system.

For much of A Season in Bethlehem, Hammer focuses on the Abayats, one of the Ta'amra families, and shows how a thuggish family that lived by crime and random violence was turned into "the well-organized shock troops of the al-Aqsa intifada." Hammer duly records the radicalizing factors that turned these thugs into revolutionaries without ever suggesting that their violence should in any way be considered justified.

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December 2003, Vol. 47, No. 12