LETTERS FROM PALESTINE

Christmas Carols for Palestine

Pamela Olson
1 December 2004

O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem,
Besieged we see thee lie.
We see in your uneasy sleep
the tanks and jets go by.

Destruction in the morning,
Arrest campaigns at night.
The hopes and prayers
of sixty years
are freedom, peace, and rights.


How silently, how silently
The soul of a child escapes.
Such violent and unneedful deaths
Cause thousands of heartbreaks.

She didn't see it coming,
The deadly sniper's strafe.
Kids shot in schools,
in cars, on roofs -
There's nowhere to be safe.


O City now in Palestine,
Your Christians have mostly left.
Between the Walls and checkpoints caught,
Who can endure the theft?

O thirty feet of concrete,
O razor wire and Jeeps,
And waiting for
three hours or more
To reach work, school, or family.


O ghostly town of Bethlehem,
in curfew we see thee lie.
Your streets are dead, the people dread
to wander lest they die.

The kids are going crazy
with cabin fev'r and fear,
'Cause if they go
play in the snow
They'll be shot down like deer.


O little town where Jesus' birth
Inspired the hearts of men.
What can we say to Jesus now?
His town is drowned in sin.

Illegal assassinations,
Civilians shot on sight,
From Gilo comes
the sound of guns
All through the blessed night.


Away in a Refugee Camp

Away in a refugee camp,
no kitchens or beds,
Palestinian children
lay down their sweet heads.

The stars in the sky
look down where they lay
And shine on their homelands
so fa-ar away.


Our towns lie in ruins
across Isra'el.
Israelis who live there
pretend they can't tell.

Our hills and our beaches
so long occupied;
Kids trapped in concrete camps
are fit to be tied.


We love thee, O Palestine,
our homes and our hearts.
We dream of the day when
our lives can restart.

In camps we have no rights,
From Israel we're barred.
We wait for the world to see
How we've been scarred.


O Come Little Children
(to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem)

O come little children,
O come one and all.
O come to the Church
Where He started it all.

It's been bombed and shot up,
and blood ran in streams
When Israel besieged it
to silence our screams.