Celebration Festive excitement made it to the tiny West Bank village of Jifna when Santa Claus - and a traveling Christmas puppet show - visited the local Catholic school. The BBC News website joined the community as it celebrated what some say is the best Christmas since 2000, when the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began.

Restrictions Jifna is a village of about 1,200 people. With Palestinian Christians making up an estimated three quarters of its population, it is one of the few places in the overwhelmingly Muslim West Bank to have a Christian majority. Although Jifna has never experienced the level of violence seen in other parts of the West Bank, its residents suffer from travel restrictions and economic hardship. They live near the city of Ramallah, which has seen some heavy fighting.

Excitement The Christmas performance began with blaring dance music and disco lights. Imad Atallah (right) from the Operation Palestinian Children and Youth (OPCY) team says that, despite long days travelling around the West Bank, he never gets jaded because of the excitement that greets them. "Each time is like the first," he says.

Festive spirit "During the intifada, there was no Christmas," says youth worker Khader Anton Abu Khalil (left). "Christmas to the children is gifts, outings, Santa and getting chocolate and money, but people were unemployed and everything was closed. "Now, if you look at the faces, they're all laughing. They feel it is Christmas."

Learning traditions The mischievous puppet boy Marwan (right) is one of the team's favorite characters. He is convinced Christmas is a celebration of Santa Claus' birthday, but learns about Jesus' birth from Santa when he finds him to sing Happy Birthday. The aim is to educate Palestinian Christian children about their religious tradition. In this area it becomes a cultural label from birth.

Clowning about Although the Christmas program is for Palestinian Christians, much of the team's work is among Muslims. Many West Bank Palestinians say Christians and Muslims live "like brothers". However, team leader Diana Saman says she has visited villages where children have never met Christians. "The fact that they see us... that breaks a lot of barriers," she says.

New experience The children were soon dancing along to the team's songs. Ms Saman says some younger West Bank children are initially scared by the puppets because there is so little children's entertainment available. In one place, when they tried to do actions to music the children "just froze". "They had never had anything like this before," she says.

Nativity joy No child's Christmas is complete without a nativity and there was great enthusiasm among the girls when brightly colored angel wings were provided. Mary, clad in a Muslim-style headscarf, did a sterling job with a cardboard box for a manger. This is despite the plastic baby Jesus' head being barely attached to his body.

Confrontations Politics is never far away here. These boys' first reaction to the camera was to pose with their Palestinian scarves. Youth worker Mr. Abu Khalil says that although the worst days of the intifada are behind them, there are still confrontations between Israeli soldiers and stone-throwing youths, often close to the school playground. "The younger children get terrified," he says.

Aggression "Of course the intifada has affected the children's behavior," says Mr. Abu Khalil. "The most common game is 'soldiers and Arabs' where they hold sticks as guns and throw stones. "Even small kids, when they see a jeep coming, hold stones to protect themselves. "The children are aggressive with each other. Most of this generation is aggressive."

Mother's hope Jifna mother Mary Salameh says that although things are better, Israeli travel restrictions mean there are still few places she can take her children aged 10, 12 and 15. "We hope to see Bethlehem," she says. "I've never been able to take them there." This is despite Jesus' birthplace being physically only about 90 minutes drive away.

Gifts for Christmas Finally, amid much good-natured commotion, Santa Claus appeared. He distributed packs containing practical items such as towels and toothbrushes, together with sweets and a video CD of Christmas cartoons. One boy brandished a sponge, giggling, as he walked away with friends into the early evening darkness.

Word and pictures by the BBC's Heather Sharp.

The good news that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “wants the Israeli government to explain restrictions on Palestinian-Americans travelling on US passports in Israel and the Palestinian territories” spread like wildfire in the occupied Palestinian territories. Rice has apparently listened to something from the Palestinian side.

Maybe she saw the ads that the Palestinian grassroots Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry into the occupied lands had placed in all the local papers during her most recent visit — a photograph of her and President Mahmoud Abbas with the caption “Wish we could be there to help you!”, meaning that Americans, and Palestinian-Americans especially, are being denied entry into the occupied Palestinian territories, and so are also denied the opportunity to play a role in the peace making she was seeking.

But elation must be tempered with caution, because the experience of Palestinians with the Israeli government from whom Rice is asking “an explanation” is never straightforward. The Israeli government’s response so far is as follows: “We are aware of this issue, and we are looking into it at senior levels,” an Israeli official said yesterday. “We are waiting to receive additional information from the administration.”

It sounds reasonable and measured. It’s as though these officials were talking about a computer glitch: “We are aware of the problem; we are looking into it.” One is being led to believe that it is “an administrative” issue that has nothing to do with the government — some kind of bureaucratic misunderstanding.

If the Israeli government really wants to be helpful, it would gather the following specific information from “the administration” at its borders: how many foreign passport holders, including Americans, have been denied entry to the occupied Palestinian territories yesterday? How many since June of 2006? How many since 2000? How many family unification applications is the Israeli administration sitting on? What nationalities are involved?

These are important questions, since that’s what journalists and politicians have been asking the grassroots Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to provide. How many?

For various reasons, it has been difficult for the campaign to come by comprehensive figures. In addition to posting an entry denial form on its website (www.righttoenter.ps) and the cases it has documented as a result of word-of-mouth referrals, the campaign is now looking into organising a grassroots Allenby Watch volunteer cadre to be stationed daily on the Jordanian side of the King Hussein Bridge simply to document the daily denials, as people are sent back to Jordan from the Israeli border.

The watch would be similar to Machsom Watch, a voluntary group of Israeli women who have been conducting daily observations at military checkpoints to monitor human rights abuses.

People, of course, are also being denied entry at Sheikh Hussein border crossing and at Ben Gurion Airport. It would be so much easier if the Israeli government found out such “additional information” from its administration and handed it over to the press and to the US State Department, wouldn’t it?

The legitimate Palestinian fear is that the Israeli side would obfuscate the probe that Rice has called for. During her last visit, Rice asked Israel “to ease some travel restrictions on Palestinians and open certain crossings to help people go about their daily duties”.

She was referring to the siege of Gaza and restrictions on Palestinian travel, not to the systematic denial of entry of foreign passport holders into the West Bank.

The knee-jerk reaction of “security” is not even plausible in the latter case. Israel’s “security” measures, like so many that takes against the Palestinians, are disproportionate and the suffering they entail tremendous. Often, Israeli military action is not motivated by security, but by a desire for brutal collective punishment, as has been evident in Gaza since June 25 when the Israeli soldier was captured.

Rice’s probe has not started with a big bang, as evidenced by the following excerpt from the US Department of State press briefing of October 12:

Question: One other thing, then. She [Condoleezza Rice at American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP)] made some reference to travel by Palestinian Americans having difficulty I suppose getting to either Israel or the territories. Can you elaborate on that at all?

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack: Yeah. There have been some cases, more than a handful, where there have been some difficulties [for] people that previously have been able to freely cross between Israeli areas and Palestinian areas [and] aren’t able to do so.

Question: US citizens?

McCormack: Yes. Well, they may be

Question: Or whatever.

McCormack: Yeah, maybe dual citizens. Regardless, they hold US passports as American citizens, so it doesn’t make a difference.

Question: Right.

McCormack: And this was brought to the attention of the secretary, and it’s something that she’s looking into and she’s going to raise with Israeli officials.

Question: Has she reached any temporary conclusions? Is it some discrimination or is it based on thin suspicions of terrorism? Is it

McCormack: You know, I think

Question: Is it generic bigotry? What is it?

McCormack: I’m not going to try to, you know, characterise and broad-brush, Barry. I think that each — obviously, each individual case will be different. But the fact is there’s more than a handful of these cases, and it is something that has got her attention. We’re talking about American citizens here.

Question: Passport holders?

McCormack: Yeah.

Question: Thank you.

It’s been clear from the start that the reason behind the visa denial policy about which the Israeli government is now collecting “additional information” from its administration was motivated politically.

The policy is meant to put pressure on the Hamas-led government and to punish Palestinians generally, as the majority of foreign passport holders who are denied entry have family connections in the occupied Palestinian territories and they and their families are very, very unhappy. Another end Israel means to achieve through this policy is to isolate the West Bank in various ways: there are, thus, few internationals in the West Bank to witnesses Israeli aggressions, and little or no international expertise to develop education, business, health or government.

If all this would come out in Rice’s probe, perhaps the US would pressure Israel to ease these restrictions not just for its nationals but also for all internationals (and especially Palestinian expatriate nationals) who wish to visit or reside in the occupied territories for legitimate reasons.

Israel is implementing an undeclared policy of denying foreign nationals entry/re-entry into the occupied Palestinian territories in order to achieve the following political objectives: isolate the Palestinians, continue its control over demographics in favour of the Jewish population, and punish the Palestinians personally and developmentally because of the January election results.

Israel’s security claims regarding this policy are false. In many cases, this policy amounts to deportation. Many of those now being denied entry are, in fact, residents of the occupied territories (for family or work reasons). They had achieved this residency status legally (in some cases for decades on end) by relying on a system that Israel allowed in order to avoid giving out permanent or temporary residency status in the occupied territories. Such people are unable to apply for a permit to reenter through the Israeli consulates in various countries.

Until June 2006, this system allowed foreign nationals to enter on a three-month tourist visa. There were visa denials then as well (the case of Jordanians has always been especially severe), but they were not applied as systematically as they are now to holders of non-Arab nationalities. As the visa expiration date neared, such temporary visa holders resorted to exiting and re-entering the occupied territories, thus gaining an extension.

When Israel started implementing this policy at the borders (the announcement in Ma’ariv that gave the first alert was on June 22, 2006), many of the people who had been following this system for years were caught unawares.

Foreign nationals who are denied entry (whether they are coming in for the first time or are re-entering) are being told that they must get a permit. However, when they contact the Israeli consulates in their countries, people quickly discover that there is no such thing to be had. Nationals of various countries who have been denied entry have complained to the consulates of their countries in Israel, but these consulates, though sympathetic, have not been able to do anything.

It is possible for foreign nationals working with an international organisation registered with the Israeli ministry of social affairs to obtain a B-type visa if the organisation applies on their behalf two months in advance.

It is possible for foreign nationals whose visas have not yet expired (i.e., who are residing in the occupied territories legally on some sort of visa) to apply for renewal “up to four times” through the Palestinian ministry of civil affairs (which acts as the conduit of such applications to the Israeli authorities). But beyond that, there is no redress. Many spouses whose children, wives or husbands are now stranded outside the country have tried to get a permit through this Palestinian ministry or the District Civilian Affairs Office (DCO) or Beit Eel with no avail.

In terms of numbers, the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-entry in the occupied Palestinian territories has documented dozens of cases, but this is the tip of the iceberg. Contact person for documentation is Anita Abdullah (anita@birzeit.edu).

B’Tselem estimates that there are 16,000 foreign nationals living with their families “illegally” in the occupied territories, and are therefore restricted in their movements and travel. This figure gives a sense of the scope of the problem with regard to residency/family unification as it relates to those needing to achieve it in some legal way.

B’Tselem also estimates that since the start of the Intifada in September 2000, the Israeli authorities have refused to process 120,000 family unification applications.

The policy of denying visas is closely related to family unification, because entering and reentering on a temporary visa had been a mechanism by which people denied family unification through the limited and restricted procedures that Israel had been imposing could achieve it. In many cases, the spouse being denied entry is the major breadwinner in a family, and that person’s job is in the occupied territories. So the economic burden is heavy.

Additionally, businesspeople who need to reside in the occupied territories because of job or investment opportunities (as opposed to living with their families and also contributing to the economy) are being denied entry and the required residency. The same goes for teachers, researchers and students at universities and schools. In short, Palestinians are being deprived of foreign expertise of any kind unless it comes in an international aid package.

In Gaza and north of the West Bank, the Israelis are taking down what should never have been put up in the first place (their illegal settlements), all the while muttering, "they haven't made us do it; we are doing it on our own". On the West Bank, the Israelis are busy constructing what must in future be taken down. It must.

So much back-breaking, deal-breaking work for the future (not to mention all the expense for the US taxpayer, who is footing the bill of what goes up)! Day by day, what will have to be dismantled grows, concrete slab by concrete slab, what has to be "withdrawn" proliferates, and there is no one to stop it or even to protest against it. On the contrary, Israel continues to hoodwink the US Senate and the House of Representatives, some of whose members are now considering attaching even stiffer conditions on aid to Palestine based on one red herring issue dangled by Israel after another.

But the world should keep its focus on the real leads to the conflict, the real incitements - like the abomination of the wall, and now the construction of "processing terminals" for people and goods to be run by civilian operators employing "smart cards" or biometric hand screens in place of physical security checks. So much for high tech enterprise and growing the knowledge economy in the Middle East! And who needs the military after the Israelis impose their peace on their terms?

The two new terminals for Gaza are Erez (for people) and Karni (al-Mintar) (for goods). For the West Bank, the terminals will all be located on the Wall line (not the Green Line) at Bitunia, Jalameh, Kalandia, Qalqilya, Ma'ale Efrayim, Tarqumia, and near Bethlehem. Cost: $27-$38 million each, of which, according to Ha'aretz, the US will contribute 40%.

The large processing terminal at Kalandia is now taking shape. It is the mechanism by which the West Bank is being isolated from Jerusalem, the crossroads of so many walls. It's a big construction site with ample parking that looks obscene next to the congested Palestinian shops, public transport and narrow Ramallah-Jerusalem road against which the construction pushes up - the better to grab land on the Jerusalem side of the barrier, my dear.

Would you call any of this, at the very least, "hurtful and insulting"? That's what Israeli officials are calling the private construction, by the Palestinian business community in San Salvador, of a park near the city's Jerusalem Street named after the late Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat. Oh, yes, Israel is so irked by this park that it is delaying the return to San Salvador of Ambassador Yonatan Peled.

Since showing diplomatic displeasure is a toothless option for the Palestinians, other countries ought to speak up for them against what Israel continues to do. But this doesn't happen, unfortunately. Where was the displeasure, the withdrawing of ambassadors when Israel, for example, built Canada Park?

Canada Park (named in honor of the Canadian funds that built it) extends illegally for 7,500 pine-forested acres built by Israel over the ruins of three Palestinian villages, Amwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba, and across what used to be no man's land between Jordan and Israel. In 1967, Palestinians were forcibly expelled from these villages never to be allowed to return.

Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan knows only too well of the options the Palestinians have to react to what's "hurtful and insulting". He is warning that "Israel's current actions, its settlement policies and its isolation of Jerusalem from the West Bank, are paving the way for a third Intifada."

So why aren't Abbas and all his make-believe cabinet, all the newly-elected Hamas officials, not sitting in peaceful protest in front of the stone crushers on the Kalandia construction site right now? Are they waiting for the VIP lounge to be built, or are they afraid they might be scooped up by a bulldozer and eviscerated, as happened to peace activist Rachel Corrie?

Why aren't Egypt and Jordan withdrawing their representatives from Israel?

Why aren't the US and Europe calling, in the strongest terms possible, for an immediate halt to the illegal wall construction and for the dismantling of the miles already up, for a halt to the illegal Kalandia construction, to the continued illegal Israeli settlements? Why are they not withdrawing their ambassadors from Israel?

By not protesting, by accepting Israeli actions implicitly or explicitly as "security" policies, they are buying into the biggest hoax in history. They are leaving the Palestinians no option but to fight back - one kind of force (the kind that grabs land, builds walls and barriers and constructs illegal settlements under the protection of the Israeli army) with another kind of force (the kind that throws stones and mortar shells and explodes people in the market place), and then let each individual's conscience sort out which is defense and which is terrorism.

It will take some effort to get out from under the biggest Israeli hoax of all time. You have to use imagination: "You have to imagine what it feels like to wake up one morning in your own house, the house your grandfather built long before the state of Israel existed, and to find the official notice on the wall. Your home, where you have lived your life, is soon to be destroyed; you and your children will be refugees."

So wrote Professor David Shulman, a member of Taayush/Hacampus-lo-shotek (Students and Faculty against the Occupation) in The Electronic Intifada a few days ago (link below) in connection with 88 homes slated for demolition in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan, as a result of which some 1,000 innocent people will lose everything in order to create yet another Jewish island in East Jerusalem.

May courageous leaders see the hoax for what it is and intervene before Israel's brand of terrorism leads to yet another Intifada.

Rima Merriman is a freelance writer and a communications specialist. She worked in the West Bank for four months in late 2004. This article was first published in The Jordan Times on June 16 2005.

These 10 photos were taken on 22 May 2005 and show the passage from the point of arrival at the border of Gaza to the point of entry into Gaza. A sign at the entrance to the passage says in faulty Arabic: “Continuing with violence results in the withholding of ease of access and luxury for the people.” The passage is similar to the design developed by Temple Grandin (an assistant professor at Colorado State University) for the routing of cattle as they are led to slaughter. The Israelis are on the scene through remote control. When a person exiting from Gaza approaches the turnstile, a disembodied voice, rough and rude, tells him or her to drop bags to the floor, to lift up clothes, turn around, etc.

The waiting is interminable when there are a lot of people. Most of the time now, the place is deserted, as very few permits are given to people to get out or to go in. One photo shows Israeli soldiers erecting a barrier on top of a barrier. In Gaza, the entire population is effectively imprisoned. Not only are the many refugees and their descendants blocked by Israel from returning to their homes in places like Bir Sabe’ (now Beersheba), but so also are thousands of laborers prevented from earning a living in Israel or the West Bank.

Rima Merriman is a freelance writer and a communications specialist. She worked in the West Bank for four months in late 2004.