Christmas

O’ Come All Ye Faithful

Let’s tear down the walls …
A Christmas carol adapted for solidarity with Bethlehem, 2004 version

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this mock-carol. Composed partly in jest, 20 years ago while Israel’s wall was rising in Bethlehem, I now find it too cynical for my present taste. Seeing Gail Valker McNulty 🕊️🌱’s adaptation of “O little town of Bethlehem,” however, I thought this old carol does add a historical perspective. Who would have thought that, 20 years later, people would still be rewriting Christmas carols in solidarity, and in a much more urgent way?

Handwritten by the author and digitally added to a photo of the Wall in Bethlehem. The Arabic words on the Wall read, “Freedom is a right.” (Photo by the author, Oct. 5, 2023).

O’ Come All Ye Faithful,
Let’s tear down the wa-lls
That imprison the lil’ town
Of Beth-le-hem.

Come out and protest;
Let your voice be he-ard

“No more aid to Is-ra-el!
“No more aid to Is-ra-el!
“No more aid to Is-ra-el,

“From our tax-es!”

Last Chris’mas, I went to
Bethlehem to pray,
But Israel’s soldiers put
A roadblock in my way.

“We don’t care if you are
Chris-tian or Mos-lem.

“You are a Palestin-ian!
“You are a Palestin-ian!
“You are a Palestin-ian!”

My rights were so denied.

Israel discriminates
Against Palestinians;
They treat us like animals
Lock us in a cage.

O where are you Je-sus,
Where are you to see this

(&) The Christian world don’t care…
The Christian world don’t care…
The Christian world don’t care

‘Bout Christ’s birth-place!

A view of Beit Sahur, where the shepherds lay in vigil on Christmas eve, from the Natural History Museum, Bethlehem, Palestine. (Photo by the author, Oct. 5, 2023).