Reporters traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem every December are getting oh so trite. The latest been-there-done-that journalism comes from the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool, who retraces the footsteps of Joseph and Mary Stephen Farrell, Matthew Price and Rory McCarthy.
If this road trip follows previous scripts, Maqbool will critically highlight Israel’s security fence, checkpoints and barriers without acknowledging that those very measures keep him and other pilgrims safe from suicide bombers, drive by shootings, etc.
More original would be to contrast the freedom Nazareth’s Christians enjoy under Israeli rule with the repression Bethlehem’s shrinking Christian community endures under the PA.
And wouldn’t it be refreshing if – instead of quoting the first available Palestinian inconvenienced by security measures – Maqbool met Palestinian Christians like Abd Al-Nasser Al-Najjar or Hanna Saniora, who aren’t afraid to buck trends and speak out?
