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Story of the day:
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OLIVEWOOD May-26-2004 (720 words) With photos. xxxn
Palestinian carving custom follows exodus of Christian population
By Gary Morton
Catholic News Service
NEWARK, Del. (CNS) -- Butros Qumseya dreams of a Holy Land in which Palestinian Christians help bridge the bitter divide between Jews and Muslims. He dreams of returning home to Beit Sahour -- the Town of Shepherds, about a mile east of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem -- and not having to worry about bombs or helicopters harming his children as they play.
He dreams of resuming his teaching position at Terra Sancta High School in Jerusalem. He had to give up that job when he could not be sure he could get to school each day after Israeli soldiers threatened to close Palestinian access to Jerusalem at a moment's notice.
Qumseya believes Palestinian Christians hold the key to making his dreams come true. "For peace in the Middle East we are the cornerstone," the 49-year-old Qumseya said in an interview with The Dialog, Wilmington diocesan newspaper, at Holy Angels Church in Newark.
"We are the bridge between Muslim and Jewish," he added. "We believe that Jesus wants us to live together, to love each other."
As president of the Holy Land Christians Society, Qumseya tries to raise awareness of the plight of the small Palestinian Christian population, which is now less than 2 percent of the area's population. As founder and representative of a union of Holy Land craftsmen, Qumseya has traveled to churches along the East Coast over the past two years, offering Holy Land-made olivewood rosaries, crosses, creche sets, busts, statues and depictions of the Last Supper.
The fact that he must leave his homeland to peddle the detailed woodcarvings illustrates the tough times confronting Palestinian Christians.
The olivewood itself is both a literal and symbolic link between the roots of Christianity and the future of the Middle East, Qumseya said. "We still have olive trees from the Roman era."
The olive tree, he added, is "a symbol of peace. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, the people greeted him with the branch of olives. It is a source of life also."
The artisans who carve the olivewood do not kill the trees, he said, but use dead wood pruned from the trees and dried for at least six months. After the wood dries, the artists cut it into different sizes depending on the article they intend to create, then shape it into basic forms.
Specialists then take over, one detailing the body, clothing, hands and fingers before another works on facial details. "You can tell different carvers through the face," Qumseya said, noting that each carver has a distinct style.
Palestinians learned woodcarving from Italian carvers whom Franciscan friars brought to the Holy Land in the 15th century. The craft quickly became indigenous to Palestinian Christians, passed from generation to generation.
"It has become a tradition," Qumseya said. "It is art and history." But as tourism decreases and the number of Palestinian Christians living in the Holy Land dwindles, olivewood carving may become a dying tradition.
Five years ago, he said, "there were 100 to 150 buses full of tourists every day that came to visit Bethlehem and the holy shrines. But when the violence started in 1999, 2000, there were no more visitors. Everything stopped."
Tourism, he said, accounted for 60 percent to 70 percent of Bethlehem's economy.
At one time Christians accounted for 30 percent of the Holy Land's population, Qumseya said; today they make up only 1.8 percent, and that figure is dropping. "In the last two years emigration has picked up again," he said, coinciding with increased violence in the conflict.
"During the first intifada (starting in 1987) the occupation was different," Qumseya said. "There were peaceful demonstrations. Christian Palestinians joined with Muslim Palestinians in protesting."
Today, he said, the situation has changed. As he looked toward his 12-year-old son, Yousef, Qumseya referred to suicide bomb attacks by Palestinian Muslims. "I can't ask myself or my son to sacrifice himself, to kill himself. We don't believe that. This situation is very, very difficult (because) both groups are so hard-line."
His family would have preferred to stay in the Holy Land, Qumseya said. "I have my brothers there, and my mother. My wife has her brothers, she has her mother. My kids, they have their friends, too. They want to go back. But the situation is still difficult."
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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