Each Christmas pilgrims descend on the old city of Bethlehem. Arriving in the tens of thousands and from all over the world, Christian visitors to the Holy Land are greeted by the sound of bagpipes and the sights of whirling dervishes. There’s a carnival-like atmosphere in Manger Square with people singing and enjoying cotton candy and corn on the cob. Dozens of languages fill the air as people crowd around the Door of Humility, hoping for entrance to the centuries-old basilica that marks the traditional place where Jesus of Nazareth was born.

Latin Patriarch Fuad al-Tuwal presided at midnight Mass this year. Speaking in six languages, he asked pilgrims to take home with them a desire for peace in the Holy Land. He prayed for the respect between peoples that would make peace possible. Even as Christians from around the world gather in Bethlehem, freedom of travel to this place is denied to most who live in the Occupied Territories. Indeed, there’s a 25 foot wall between Bethlehem and neighboring Jerusalem.

Likud leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in 2000, only a few months after his party ratified their charter providing for settlement rights all the way to the Jordan River – expanding Israel to include permanently the entire West Bank. Palestinians reacted with violence at Sharon’s visit as they understood it as a symbol of his party’s intention to rebuild the ancient Temple on the site of the Dome of the Rock. Ever since the 2000 Intifada it’s been very difficult for Gaza Christians to make it to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas. This year only a few hundred were granted a travel visa to cross the 50 miles of Israeli land from the Hevel Aza Junction to the West Bank.

Despite multiple attempts at what is dubbed ‘a lasting peace’, life in the border regions of Israel and Palestine continues to be marked by cyclical outbursts of violence and retribution.

There is an old story about a group of American pilgrims in the Holy Land. Weighed down by cameras and guide books they moved quickly from one tourist site to the next. They oohed and aahed at the ancient churches and took in the ambience of walking down the narrow cobble-stone streets of Jerusalem. As they came to a small square in the middle of the Old City, one of the women in the group asked about a particular building off in the distance. It was difficult to know which one she was looking at but she pointed and said, “You see that old man there, I’m looking at the church just behind and to the left of him.”

“Oh yes,” responded the seasoned tour guide. “That is the problem here in the Holy Land. Like everyone here, you only see the buildings and the important sites. You’re not here to see the people. Peace will be ours when pilgrims and residents alike begin to ask, “Do you see that church over there? Who is that old man just in front of it? What is his name and what is his story?”