Israel's War on Christmas?

The Israeli Defense Forces and Border Police have taken the next step in making travel to the occupied West Bank impossible for foreign tourists.

Ma’an News reports that Israeli authorities have now banned foreign passport-holders from traveling to Jerusalem on Palestinian buses.

According to Ma’an and this writer’s memory, prior to this week’s ban we foreigners had the option of traveling to Jerusalem through the tunnel bus or the bus from the security/apartheid wall’s checkpoint right outside of Bethlehem.

Now, just in time for Bethlehem’s holiday tourist season, the Israelis have unilaterally and permanently banned foreigners from riding the bus that would bring them back from one of the holiest sites in Christianity. The Christmas holiday is not only one of the most important holidays for the city of Bethlehem, but also for Palestine as a whole.

The new Israeli action comes on the heels of this summer’s institution of a new passport stamp for foreigners suspected of wanting to travel to occupied Palestine.

With the new stamp, Border Police can now label any foreigner they suspect will visit Palestine with a “Palestine Areas Only” visa. No proof is needed of the traveler’s actual intentions, and no consideration is given to those with tickets and hotel reservations inside Israel. (The ironic part of these new PA-only stamps is that if the IDF actually restricted travel to areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority, travelers without teleportation powers would not be physically able to leave the border police post. See map for reference.)

Such restrictions are a shame, as many of these travelers plan to top off their Holy Land vacation with a trip to Tel Aviv or Haifa, where they can enjoy the dynamic and fun-loving population of Israel’s beautiful coastal plain.

As time goes by, each year brings travel to the area closer to a bureaucratic impossibility. These days, you can even find your laptop arbitrarily shot by the IDF.

What are Palestinian Christians doing this holiday season to bring attention to the deteriorating situation? Stay tuned to the Casbah for analysis.

UPDATE: Rather than just a chain of actions easily perceivable as constituting a war against the holiday, one Israeli group has launched an actual war on Christmas. Truly a responsible campaign in a country which controls the holy cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.