On 23rd of December 2013, Bethlehem Unwrapped festival opened with the unveiling of a 8m high life size replica of the separation wall that has been built by Israel in the West Bank. It has been constructed over 8 days in the church yard of St James’ near Piccadilly Circus in central London in a bid to bring some reality of what it is like to live in Bethlehem in 2013.

St. James’ Church in central London unveiled an eight-meter-high replica of the Israeli-built concrete wall that entirely surrounds the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

It is an effort to bring to London some of the reality of what it is like to live in Bethlehem in 2013.

The wall deliberately obscures the facade of the historic St. James’ Church “because that is what has happened to Bethlehem’s holy sites and historic places.”

“This Christmas we’ve built a huge wall across the front of our church. We’d really like you to come and see it because it’s what the people of Bethlehem are experiencing today,” explains Reverend Lucy Winkett, rector of the church, in the brief video above.

The wall is part of the “Bethlehem Unwrapped” festival, which features a week of events, starting on 29 December, including music by Reem Kelani and Nigel Kennedy, comedy with Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel, as well as films and panels.

Source: Intifada Palestine

Walled in by Zionism

Israeli soldiers take position beside the Israeli separation wall at the Qalandiya Checkpoint, the West Bank. (Photo: UPI / Debbie Hill)

The Israelis claim that the monstrous Wall, also known as the apartheid Wall, is to protect its citizens from terrorist attack. But in reality it is carefully routed to bite deep into Palestinian territory in order to steal choice agricultural land and water resources, as well as to seize strategic landscape and communication features and disconnect Palestinian communities from their livelihoods and from each other.

Source: Intifada Palestine