December 19, 2002

The Innocence of Curfew

[Bethlehem, West Bank] It's surreal that this is real. Totally quiet. Ghost town. Entire community. Entire town. Entire population. And this is normal life -- not a bad dream or a horrible movie. This is real to hundreds of thousands of people.

Curfew is not "life on hold." It's "life getting worse." With each day of curfew, families are just a bit worse off. How many months has Bethlehem been under curfew this year? Four? But it's not just four wasted months -- it's four months of decline. Curfew eats up your resources without allowing you to restore them. Each day of curfew is another day of unemployment. No work. No income. It's a nasty beast not so well disguised as an innocent but necessary military action. Curfew is not innocent, and it's not necessary.

The only sound on the street today is the blaring of an Israeli jeep megaphone announcing curfew. It wakes us up in the morning and tucks us in at night.

How do I know when there's curfew?
Right-click on this link, select "save target as" to download a movie (2.5Mbytes, .mpg) and clearly find out.

Scenes from Bethlehem.