we have a days going on there before starting tomorrow as u.k. general election let alone the fallout from the u.s. inspector general's report into obama era corruption in the usa will come christmas when millions of people of the book all around the world look to bethlehem in palestine to celebrate the birth of jesus christ but is what is happening in bethlehem arguably just as political as the major international stories we have covered on this program this year we can go now to bethlehem in palestine joining me is bethlehem former mayor vera babu and thanks so much vera for you coming on to if you could just pages a picture of what beth them is like this year because obviously there's a wall is the aida refugee camp banks the woman in black the woman in black jewish women's organization protesting israeli occupation tell me what it's like this year chris this christmas this fight all the challenges and christmas this here was a very beautiful very light and the christmas tree at the end up knee vendor in huge number of attendance where they're the tree up badly have

a look gorgeous the motor was the joy of christmas and the joy of christmas is this year all over the place in every city in the west bank in. love it for hollywood and i'm a large area go everywhere people are celebrating the joy of christmas the last time around we spoke to mayor and john salmond he described christmas celebrations in bethlehem as almost an act of defiance against the defacto u.k. u.s. backed israeli occupation do you think that occupation is still on the minds of all the pilgrims that will be there celebrating this year well actually the wall speaks for itself the world by itself is and good patient so when you look at when you're at the end of the city you enter the city definitely there are a normal conditions however our persistence to conduct the celebration of christmas in the city. the nativity in the city of birth of peace it is yes. a

determination that we are there to celebrate christmas despite all the paying actions and despite all the american policy we have the right to live joy to live peace and this is what we express in our celebrations and through our message of peace not only to us for do not live repeat is but to the whole world as well you mentioned the war what exactly has happened to bethlehem's christians over certain 86 percent. of christians of have left the wall is being blamed for that as well as illegal new or patients around bethlehem when we talk about the christian presence in palestine and in general and the christian presence in bethlehem in particular the political situation since 967

enhanced and in force and encouraged the degrees of the christian presence and migration of christians from bethlehem in specific many of the christian bethlehem ites before 967 immigrated seeking job opportunities and seeking better conditions other parts of the world including latin america the us the moment israel did its consensus all who were not inside lost their national id number thus. the continuing political factors coming from the 1st intifada the 2nd intifada and the war mainly the war encouraged many of the young palestinian families to immigrate so we are talking about 2 very important things the prevention of those christians who were outside before 967 to come back as. palestinian citizens to live in the west bank and

gaza and it is duerson them plus the political situation ensuing the building of the wall which by itself prevents job opportunities it prevents normal conditions this encourage the young christian families as well as muslims but actually due to the fact that christians are less in number it was more recognisable unfortunately in 2007 the palestinian statistics department did its last consensus the number of the palestinians living in the west bank are 3000000 and in gaza 2000000 the number of the christians living in gaza in the west bank and east jerusalem are only 67000 it is even less than one percent and to be clear this is the factor with a big cleansing about as julian christians as predated donald trump's rise in the

united states when you were mayor in 2016 you said the christian world relation a drop 12 percent that's 11000 christians leaving do you expect more christians to leave what with the threads of israeli arbitrary detention in the coming weeks even as we approach christmas definitely i hope not but another very important point that we should not wait for more christians to leave until we find a solution usually this is the question that is raised all the time do christians leave because of the predominantly political actions and run by israel or the decisions and policy of the us the words the palestinian israeli conflict today my question is when this resolution with take it before strand with equitable situations where the 2 state solution that ensures the dignity of all of us palestinians as christians and muslims the question is. is not why the christians

believe the question is when there is a lucian it should will take place to ensure the presence of justice solution football sites do you expect many of gardner's christians to visit bethlehem this year israel of course has been bombing at the gaza strip in the bus 72. hours definitely it depends on the israeli permissions to the christians usually and normally it is not a big number it doesn't exceed $100.00 would you go so far as to agree would say there was a university study that suggested there's been an actual de facto ethnic cleansing of christians because of the occupation because of discrimination and learned theft let alone the economy which has been impacted of course by by the u.s. u.k. armed occupation and definitely the absence of a peace process and the just resolution for the palestinian israeli conflict

affects the presence of the christians in this part of the world the conditions on ground creates combined of willing immigration but the conditions on ground like countries cation walling checkpointing in bethlehem we have the highest rate of unemployment 27 percent the wall is that stress the checkpoints are disastrous people are sandwiched people are cornered and by itself this is discrimination no human rights are witnessed it is not the matter that you live inside the wall to eat work and sleep no it is more than that palestinians are like the rest of the word are global citizens and what is up light on every citizen in the world should be applied on the. listen including it's

muslim and christian in habitants and population of course the british and american armed israeli government claims they need a wall circling jesus says birthplace for israeli national security you know this is a very important question are we as a palestinian as palestinians in need as well for it is sense of security as peace is important for us security for israel security is also very important for every palestinian the absence of security is also a very predominant factor for the people to leave the area usually it is always discussed that israel is predominantly need to ensure its security and that's why they need to build all this actually within the ward inside the ward we live with this sense of insecurity especially since i'm not sure whether the archbishop of canterbury representing the anglican church as messages but pope francis i

understand is sent relics this year from the vatican. allegedly from jesus is a manger you surprise that more christian leaders around the world are not making more of an issue the de facto ethnic cleansing of christians from bethlehem yes this is strange and dirty turn and there it is the return of the relic to bethlehem is a message by itself immobility the word to the nativity church the words the nativity of peace today when the relic of the cradle of the nativity is back to bethlehem definitely pope francis while approving this return of the relic has a message. and are the world a word that we need to turn of peace to the cradle of peace in bethlehem in particular as lot guess peace is absence from bethlehem as long as speace is walled

in bethlehem peace will never prevail because the main act of defiance on behalf of palestinian christians and muslims and atheists and in other communities has been the great march of return in gaza how is bethlehem taken the news that on last friday is a great march returned some 64 civilians have been wounded nearly 20 children including a paramedic according to palestinian sources bethlehem is part and parcel of the palestinian pain what took place in gaza it during this time of christmas where we all pray for peace what decks place in gaza today while we are celebrating peace definitely enhances another meaning to why do we need to celebrate christmas since christmas is that message of peace with the we direly need. we are talking about children we are talking about interests we are talking about as there is and

definitely those people when they go or when they conduct whatever it is considered a right of existence. is very important not only for gazan but for every palestinian their pain is our pain. and that is a message to every citizen in the world enjoying this christmas time to see what they explained it's a right to fix this since it said i thought of dignity a very big thank you after the break walking in the air to morrow's christmas election we speak to our late composer of classic christmas composition the snowman all the small coming up about to have going on the ground.

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back where in the studio one of britain's most renowned composers howard blake as well as his iconic music in the snow man he's composed for everyone from princess diana to ridley scott to the united nations and tomorrow he plays his piece walking in the air with legendary mentor soprano katherine jenkins at the

royal albert hall howard thanks for inviting us into your studio we can talk too much about tomorrow's general election in britain because of reporting restrictions and let's hear about your performance tomorrow with the legendary soprano katherine jenkins of the royal albert hall. yes i'm delighted. to be asked to do it i did it a couple of years ago. on the spur of the moment because. i have an idea friend musical director and to this he said you know my bit they found for you to come along and conduct walking in there would you do so he said you only live next door so a man it wouldn't be too difficult to get. to the albert hall if you've been surprised about how successful it is i think you're saying when you choose hundreds of millions of hits millions of hits are very surprised indeed and in fact the week after the film came out it was nominated for an oscar of course you have famous for

many other things not just that iconic christmas composition but on the snowman i understand it was one of channel 4 the british bred 3 new t.v. stations 1st ever films and you said it should be your music rather than any dialogue a friend of mine a. film director had come over from canada jerry patterson and he said i'm just going to pop into this. animation studio called television cartoons. and we walked in there and the director of the company john kurtz he said would it be possibly said could you spare a couple of minutes because i've done a little demo of something called the snowman an 8 minute and a matic pencil only. i said yes but i'd love to see it. so he put it on and the minute i show this image of the snowman and the boy flying.

i thought that is a marvelous image and i said i have had a tune in my head for years that i've never known what to do with i think it would work for this and i think more than that i think you could make a whole film without dot org and just do it with the music and joan said no no i don't know what you're talking about so i say well can i do a demo for you he said if you'd like to and john took it to the the new director of channel 4 it had literally opened that jeremy isaacs looked at it and he said absolutely bring that will make i think you know it was in a way it was something i had wanted to do all my life i'd always believed you could make a film and a story we've just music tell me about bernard homan famous for citizen kane forever hitchcock how he kind of took you under his wing and then own it herman.

through my agent lee's keys and she said to me would you like to me that herman i said i would love to because of course he is absolutely the doyenne of of film composers of all time with citizen kane behind him and psycho and so on and he's the 1st thing he said me do you know where i could find a thera main in london and i said i've never seen one of them i don't want to get there i'm an affair i'm an. electrical musical instrument the he's also affected by me so i said to tip in a while i know what it does but there's a new machine that i've just bought cold a mood synthesizer and i've just bought it from doc to make him self. and it will do exactly what with her main does and even more and it's got it's got a ribbon control which you can control with your finger and he said great i want to hear where was it i said it's in my flat he said let's go so that's how by

relationships i played on the next film that he did which was cool twisted nerve might buy the bolting and he said would you also the various pieces of jazz need to be written for i set out to do what have i have a very extraordinary career in a way that i started as a as a classical pianist i want to see a classical scholarship the road kind of me. piano but while i was i got more interested in film and i got very interested in film 0 spent all my time in national film theatre to some t.v. and after i left the academy there was a projectionist i was there for about 2 years and then i missed music so much and i thought i actually want to know how to play it will be soul music and all that music and rock this is the music if i want to know about it i left there and got

a job in a pub would you believe where you had to play absolutely everything one day i was playing in a band in the club and a guard came up through and he said would you would you do. would you would you come along to abbey road and to an old dition i went along and i became a pianist in residence at abbey road and i also played on films and then it was the avengers film music pretty score they've put in so many different films you made the hunger the avengers was extraordinary because i'd actually started. playing piano on of and. and laurie johnson actually wanted to go to to leave he would he had always written me as if avengers which was huge was going out in $93.00 countries it was the biggest television show in the world and but he wanted to do this film and he said to her but it was a great friend and he said is there anybody who could actually take over from me

and just well he said you know you're pinnace could and he knows your style and so i took over as as a musical director and composer at elstree so that that's what then led me into from they i started to do feature films i started to be offered them all round and . another thing i did in the same week was i did a commercial which won the prize for the best commercial of the year which also brought did so but to work that i nearly died that's another story ok but then how come you may be transferred from film music to become in a way a kind of cooled composer understand you did the music for princess diana's 30th birthday how did you make that transition i thought i can't keep writing commercials and commercial music at that point i moved to sussex and i started to study. serious music and chamber music and everything else and the music that i

really felt was my own music i was it was then asked to write the do list by ridley scott which was his 1st great film studio like you would with the establishment you can get more establishment than quietly and not running more establishment than writing music for the united nations organ only because of the un the un. i mean via via buckingham palace and and the foreign and commonwealth office. the head of the forum called both of those office called me and said we want we want to write a piece or we want you to write the piece because it's the 50th anniversary of all of the united nations present will be the whole of the all of the top broth of the of the you know she nations plus. the house of lords and

a lot of m.p.'s and the prime minister and the whole of family and i know i wrote it in fact and at the last minute i called it a charter for peace because it with it was written at the end of the war but general smuts and winston churchill and i thought. offering to say this organization is to preserve peace but it was seen as controversial that the un after all if you saw which was founded for world peace i for some reason i think if we had a vast array of media all lined up ready to film it and at the last minute it was decided from above that it would not be filmed and it would not go out and serve virtually nobody knew about it and i i mean. perhaps the worst because i'd called it charter for peace is there is there a tension between being in an establishment composer and famously you played at the

end heroic war demonstrations in trafalgar square yards poking about un rights peace around the world is there a tension there no i don't see that at all i mean. i think the great advantage of being in this country has always been that one has the right to express one's opinion and one has a right to hold any opinions which. which one chooses to hold and i have many very very unorthodox opinions all various things there has been a lot of. stuff written about recently that the 3 big anglican choral. pioneers will coax clear bre legend they're all dead now if you work with one of them it will cook yes i just been our steroid apiece for. fronts

it made such an impression that i was also then if i could score for a large monastery in mid sussex. with worth having at the end of the said to me he said next year is the 1500 birthday of benedict and i wrote this very big oratory on. it last about 70 minutes. and it was 1st performed in in wortham me and and amazingly which is right out in the country to an audience of $1700.00 which was sort of extraordinary then nothing much happened until it was taken up by. so david wohl wilcox he said i want to do this all over the world it is it is a great piece he called it actually a work for all centuries which was

a very nice thing to say i would like thank you a great pleasure well before how it plays of the royal albert hall tomorrow he'll play us out with walking in the air in a moment that's it for the show will be back on saturday with ledger journalist and filmmaker john pilger to take us through the aftermath of the u.k. general election and what it will mean for the dead he wore on the n.h.s. his latest documentary to brokers next week he has how do with walking in the air.

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you know world of big partisan logs and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to get the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. it's a let me. ask i would and will. pick i could. not tell the thing.

you love who you know nothing. some do make it a secret don't honestly. know what they were all of the kook on the standards of that night as you had checked on this mission. no multiple difficult. being. a new one who is to moan from. where much of this news figured in 1000 for not. so when you hired the one he tried to use in did. the one thing with your house on there not a classroom. ok

that's what. i'm going to see some. powerful blast undone file reported outside a major u.s. outpost in afghanistan the very same background based on old trump paid a surprise visit to less than 2 weeks ago the news comes hot on the heels of a damning report which i slight on top of her going officials have been routinely distorting facts and figures on the war in afghanistan and attempts to convince the public the drawn out war is winnable. the us president said he looks forward to more dialogue with russia months after meeting is for.