Easter Cancelled in Palestine: Jesus Fatally Shot Shortly After Resurrection

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358737.post-46623970238170554212008-03-23T08:20:00.000-07:002008-03-23T13:27:16.077-07:00Easter Cancelled in Palestine: Jesus Fatally Shot Shortly After Resurrection<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_V2XIAEyaC6A/R-Z4XL4A1rI/AAAAAAAAAB8/yQ_xt0Hxo_I/s1600-h/EASTER.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_V2XIAEyaC6A/R-Z4XL4A1rI/AAAAAAAAAB8/yQ_xt0Hxo_I/s400/EASTER.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180960761056384690" border="0" /></a> In keeping with tradition, Easter has yet again been cancelled in Palestine. Jesus of Nazareth somehow secured a permit to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, provided he enter on a donkey. Jesus applied in June of 2007 for a permit to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 2008. The past two years of cancellations had made him determined to be prepared this year. Due to his inability to provide proof of his Jewish heritage, <a href="http://www.kabobfest.com/2007/04/easter-cancelled-in-palestine.html">he was thus banned from entering Jerusalem for the past two years</a>. And so it seemed as though this year would be different; Good Friday processions and the Sunday resurrection occurred as planned. However, hours after the resurrection at dawn on Sunday, Jesus was fatally shot as he walked with his disciples toward a military checkpoint dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Chaim Sugarman reports from the ground that a new military order <a href="http://www.imemc.org/article/53620">authorizing IDF troops to use lethal force against unarmed protesters</a> was announced last week. The IDF is prevented from using lethal force against groups of protesters that include Israelis and internationals. Unfortunately, as Jesus had been down in Hell since Friday, he was unaware of the new requirement to have a non-indigenous escort when approaching the Apartheid Wall if you want to stay alive. Sugarman further reported that at a post resurrection/shooting Easter brunch to which he was privy, the disciples mentioned a plan in the works to move the Easter celebration altogether out of Palestine. "There are hardly any Christians left in Palestine. The only Christians able to celebrate in Jerusalem are from the US and Europe now- why keep making them come here?" The disciples were referring to the mass exodus of Christians from Palestine. According to Dr. Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University, 37% of Christian Palestinians fled in 1948 with the original refugees, and 20% of the remaining population emigrated between 1967-1994. Now, due to the <a href="http://www.hcef.org/index.cfm/id/30/p/1.cfm">hardship imposed by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza</a>, and especially the imposition of the Wall around Bethlehem, many more left between 2000 and 2004. For more on <a href="http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.php?ID=178">Christians in Palestine</a>. For equally serious, more personal sidenotes from the past holy week: <ul><li>Unlike the children's processions on Palm Sunday in many Palestinian areas in northern Israel, Bethlehem on that day was quiet but for the funeral tent in Manger Square of the four who were assassinated days before.</li> <li>The Bethlehem terminal through the wall to Jerusalem (and certainly not only this one) should have international observers. When I entered Bethlehem with family members on Palm Sunday, a female soldier was shouting over a loudspeaker in Hebrew, interspersed with seconds of blaring Nancy Ajram music. When we left, a male soldier was shouting at us in Hebrew, and three young women dressed up for church were standing and waiting for passage to pray in Jerusalem while a soldier, who had taken their purses, sat at a glass-enclosed desk ignoring them for over an hour.</li> <li>Judging from our company in the terminal to Bethlehem, the main purpose is to allow Palestinian workers through within working hours, and to return to their lives under military occupation at night. This provides Israel with very cheap labor, while Israeli citizens never have to see their living conditions. The same goes for nearly the entirety of the Wall in the north of the West Bank- passage is closed to all except for laborers, and there are many.</li> <li>The Bethlehem terminal through the wall has the distinct feel of a place you would hold cattle, complete with metal grate corridors and walkways above.</li></ul> Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09902338848408979253noreply@blogger.com