GA06069

Carving a life amidst fear

Palestinian Christian continues family business in Bethlehem despite losses due to security restrictions

by John Sniffen

BIRMINGHAM — Ibrahim Giacaman is a Palestinian Christian who knows the financial cost of the current situation in the West Bank.

He owns a woodcarving business, Il Bambino, started by his great-grandfather in Bethlehem. Located on Manger Square opposite the Peace Center, it employed 30 workers in 2000, Giacaman said. But due to the Israeli government's security restrictions in the wake of terrorist violence, he is now able to pay only 15 workers, including two of his sons and four brothers.

The problem is that in order to do business, he must be able to ship carvings through the local post office. And what was once a trip of minutes now takes hours, as boxes carefully packed for shipment are sometimes opened and searched at security checkpoints.

As a result, "I lose much money," Giacaman said. "Some months we cannot work at all."

He added that the Israeli government, in retaliation for the Hamas victory in the Palestinian election, recently refused to renew his permit to travel to Jerusalem. "But we are Palestinian Christians, not Hamas," he said.

During the Assembly, Giacaman is selling his carvings — including attractive Nativity scenes, crosses and candlesticks made from Holy Land olive trees — in the Marketplace area of the exhibit hall.

The trip to Birmingham provided one more example of what the security restrictions mean to law-abiding Palestinians. Giacaman said he had to sit six hours in a hot, crowded bus to travel to Amman, Jordan, because the Israeli government will not let West Bank Palestinians leave the country through the Tel Aviv airport.

His presence here is the result of a 13-year business relationship with the Rev. Elizabeth B. Knott of Federal Way, WA. Knott operates Pal Craftaid, a volunteer, non-profit ministry with three objectives: to raise consciousness about and an appreciation for the skilled and ancient craftsmanship of Palestinians; to contribute toward their economic survival by opening markets for their crafts in the United States; and to support Palestinian Christian agencies providing a variety of ministries "to a destitute people struggling to survive in a first-world economy and an extremely hostile and volatile environment."

These ministries include support for the isolated and vulnerable elderly in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and counseling for children and others affected by the stress of living in constant crisis.

Pal Craftaid provided $45,000 to help send a young Palestinian Christian, Simon Minassian, to Maryville College in Tennessee, where he made the dean's list and from which he recently graduated with a bachelor's degree.