Final "postcards" from Bethlehem

Here are the remaining pictures I want to share from those I took during my three days off in Bethlehem...

A very friendly family climbing the stairs to go shopping

Fruit in the main market

Typical shopping street

Corn vendor. It was delicious!

Star on Star Street. Syrian Orthodox Church atop steps.

Alley art

Traditional wedding dress in Old Bethlehem Museum.
Note gold coins in headdress.

Cooking utensils in recreated kitchen in Old Bethlehem Museum.
Note white "fridge" hanging from ceiling.

Photos of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The pole is on busy Paul VI Street

When leaving Bethlehem, I walked through Checkpoint 300, which took about 15 minutes even though there were no crowds at the time. I set the metal detector off after removing all that I thought might cause it to beep, and as I pondered what else to remove, the men behind me, anxious to move on through, said "just show them your passport." I was loath to take special privilege as an international, but I did not want to hold the men up, so I did it, and was waved through despite the beep. A Palestinian woman behind me did not have that option. When the machine beeped on her, she had to go back and take off her boots.

Blue entrance along the separation barrier to Checkpoint 300

The Bethlehem EAPPI team told me that this checkpoint serves more people with fewer metal detectors and more delays than Qualandiya Checkpoint, the one our Jerusalem team monitors. They do one more monitoring visit per week at Checkpoint 300 than we do at Qalandiya. They also visit refugee camps, which are sometimes the scene of confrontations with authorities, and they are making contact with 17 Palestinian villages, some of which say they cope with with raw sewage dumped on them by Israeli settlements. Most visitors to Bethlehem are sadly unaware of the reality of the occupation.