Report by: George Rishmawi

This was the main slogan in the annual Candle Procession organized by the center.

Around two thousand Palestinians and some Internationals marched on Christmas day in Beit Sahour, calling for the a National Unity in Palestine.

Traditionally the annual candle procession targets a certain issue of interest for the Palestinians.

It started in 1991 entitled "Light a Candle for Peace and Justice". Then, Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis marched together under this slogan.

In the years 2002, and 2003 the procession's main title was against the Apartheid wall Israel is building on the West Bank land that is annexing at least %50 of the West Bank to Israel leaving the Palestinians with about %11 of the Historic Palestine before 1948.

The march started at around 4:30 (GMT +2) from the Shepherd's field in the town and went downtown Beit Sahour to the Greek Orthodox church hall to celebrate the 16 th anniversary of Establishing the center.

The celebration started with the Palestinian National Anthem played by a local boy scouts group with their bag pipes, preceded with a moment of silence in respect of the Palestinian Martyrs and the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

In his welcoming speech, the executive director of the center, Mr. Ghassan Andoni, named some of the major achievements the Rapprochement Center had through the past sixteen years of its work. Explaining about the three major axis of PCR's work in Advocacy; The Media, Youth & the Community Service, and International Solidarity Movement, which PCR is one of its co-founders.

The speech was a followed by live Arabic music played by a group called Jadal. The group nicely played pieces for some of the most famous Arab musicians and singers, like Marcelle Khaliefeh and Fairouz.

The youth group in Rapprochement were the ones who presented plaques to the founders of the organization in symbolic appreciation from the younger generation to the older ones.

Then a slide show presentation was screened to the crowed reviewing some of the major activities and projects carried out by the center and showing different stages and generations in the history of PCR.

The celebration was closed after the Pax-Christi Netherlands choir chanted some Christmas carols.

At least 30 young people from the youth group of PCR worked to make this action a sucessful one. The rain was a trouble, however the youth were very much encouraged to march even unde the rain.

The march was led by the Beit Sahour Evangelical Lutheran Boy Scouts group and the Beit Sahour Roman Catholic Boy Scouts group as well.