wfn.org | 2000 Years after Christ's Birth,Bethlehem's Shepherds Are Dwindling

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

6-January-2000 
00008 
 
    2000 Years after Christ's Birth, 
    Bethlehem's Shepherds Are Dwindling 
 
    by Ross Dunn 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
BETHLEHEM - About 2000 years ago in fields near Bethlehem, angels were said 
to have told shepherds of the birth of Jesus.  A few shepherds can still be 
found there today, wandering with their flocks across the sparsely covered 
grass slopes much as their predecessors did in biblical times, but their 
numbers are dwindling. 
 
    Most shepherds have given up the hard life and moved into modern homes 
adjoining the fields, where they work strictly on a part-time basis. 
Should the angels return, they would be likely to find many of the 
shepherds inside their homes next to an electric heater, watching 
television. 
 
    Only a few shepherds still watch their flocks by night, gazing up at 
the stars as their forefathers did, looking for good or bad omens and 
attempting to divine the future. 
 
    "Now technology has changed all that.  People are less interested in 
the stars.  I have radio, video, television and a satellite dish which 
picks up all 30 channels," Elisa Banoura, 67, a Palestinian Christian, told 
ENI.  "They supply me with all the weather reports and news I need." 
 
    He typifies the modern-day shepherd now living on the outskirts of 
Bethlehem.  He keeps only seven animals  - sheep and goats - in a small 
room at the rear of his house, seldom letting them roam out of his 
backyard.  He feeds them until they are ready to be slaughtered and sells 
them for about $170 each. 
 
    The high cost of feedstuffs renders his vocation uneconomic, he says, 
making it a true labour of love to keep alive a family tradition dating 
back 500 years.  Banoura, who is also a retired science teacher, is the 
last of a long line of shepherds.  All of his children have decided 
to enter other professions, such as law and medicine, rather than to keep 
to family tradition. 
 
    Another shepherd, Ahmed Abyyiat, 60, a Muslim, was born and has lived 
all his life in Beit Sahour, also known as the "Shepherds' Field."  A 
member of the Taamrah tribe, he has been wandering the hills around 
Bethlehem since the age of seven. 
 
    His bed is a raised steel platform in an open field.  He spends his 
nights covered in wool blankets, next to the wooden enclosure of his flock. 
There is a small stone shelter nearby, to provide protection in case of 
rain. 
 
    Waking before sunrise, he opens the gate for the sheep and goats and 
begins searching for grazing areas.  The vegetation is often sparse.  For 
most of the year the hills are brown and barren in appearance, as they have 
been for centuries.  But they have served as home and a life support system 
for Abyyiat and his forefathers, nomadic tribesmen. 
 
    He has about 100 sheep and some goats.  All of them have names and they 
understand him when he calls out.  "As we walk, I sing and recite poetry, 
in which I delight, although I have never learned to read or write," he 
said. 
 
    He started learning his profession at the age of seven from his father, 
who learnt it from his father. "In my youth, one could stroll freely, 
without limits.  You did not need anyone's permission or stop and think, 
`Is this my land, or does it belong to someone else,'" he said. 
 
    This was before 1967, when the West Bank was occupied by Israel.  "This 
is sad for someone like me who is descended from a long line of shepherds, 
going back at least a century and probably even longer; I have always 
considered myself Palestinian," he said. 
 
    Most of the West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation but 
Bethlehem itself has been allowed limited Palestinian self-rule.  Abyyiat 
noted that Jesus, who is recognised in the Koran as being of the holiest 
prophets, came from Bethlehem.  But, he said: "I am a Muslim, and we have 
different beliefs about him.  And no, I do not know the Christian story 
about his birth." 
 
    It was news to him that angels were meant to have appeared before the 
shepherds in biblical times to announce the coming of Jesus into the world. 
 
    "All those who can read and follow the Koran closely know that there 
were many miracles in the life of Jesus," he said.  Ahmed devotes some time 
to prayer, but most hours are taken up with work. 
 
    "I am grateful that some of my sons help me in the fields but I know 
that not one of them will be a shepherd.  The country is getting smaller 
and the food for the sheep more expensive.  We are not making real profits 
any longer.  I can see that we are a dying breed.  In my area now there are 
only about 20 shepherds, so you can see how we are facing the threat of 
extinction." 

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