there was almost an act of defiance against the de facto 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 wall by itself is an occupation so when you look at when you're at the city you enter the city definitely there are of normal conditions however our persistence to conduct the celebration of christmas in the city of 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 wall what exactly has happened to beverly arms christians i understand 86 percent. of christians of have left the wall is being blamed for that as well as illegal knew or could 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 the 1967 enhanced and then forced 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 the job opportunities seeking better conditions other parts of the world including latin america the u.s. the moment israel. it's 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 $96.00 to $7.00 to come back as palestinian citizens to live in the west bank and gaza and east jerusalem 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 the muslims but actually due to the fact that christians are less in number it was more recognisable unfortunately in 2007 the palestinian statistic 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 $67000.00 it is even less than one percent and to be clear this diverge 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 to drop 12 percent that's 11000 christians leaving do you expect more christians to leave 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 this all you. usually

this is the question that is raised all the time do christians leave because of the predominantly political actions on the run by israel or the decisions and policy of the us the words of the palestinian israeli conflict today my question is when this resolution will 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 not why the christians leave the question is when to that is or who should and should take place to ensure the presence of justice solution football sites do you expect many of gaza's christians to visit bethlehem this year israel of course has been bombing at the gaza strip in the bar 72 to 96 hours definitely 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 with 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 land 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 then just resolution for the palestinian israeli conflict affects the presence of the christians in this part of the world the conditions on the ground creates combined of willing immigration but the conditions on the ground like countries cation walling checkpointing in bethlehem we have the highest rate of unemployment 27 percent the wall is disastrous the checkpoints are to. astra's

people are sandwiched people are cornered and by itself this is discrimination no human rights are witnessed it is not the matter of 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 applied on every citizen in the world should be applied on the palestinian including its 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 in 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. city from jesus is manger are you surprised 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 strained 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 lake of the cradle of the nativity is back to bethlehem definitely pope francis as well approving this return of the relic has a message. and art of 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 absent from bethlehem as long as speace is walled in bethlehem peace would 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 pretty much returned some $64.00 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 when we all pray for peace what dick's 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 we dire linny. we are talking about children we are talking about interests we are talking about as duis and definitely those people when they go when they conduct whatever it is considered a light 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 explain it's a right to fix this since its side of dignity. thank you after the break.

walking in the air of tomorrow's christmas election we speak to our late composer of classic christmas composition the snow. on the ground. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic development only personally. i don't see how that will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. this is

a sticker from a water bottle found in the stomach of a fish the brand is part of the coca-cola company which sells millions of bottles of soda every day the idea was that let's tell consumers there are the bad ones there are the litter bugs are throwing this away industry should be blamed for all of this waste to company has long promised to reuse the plastic. special projects funded. on the disease. but for now the mountains of moist only grow higher. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or

rejected. so when you want to be president or injury. or some want to. have to do like to be close it's like that before 3 in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of my college. first city. my name is sucking on little social media as the jocks see what i don't see it's a. good order you know if you. want to know where you got it out of. who cause and who looks good move who got. the nazi's speech and i use that down sixty's to make it very very easy you know suits me school on drugs used to be able to use. people. who

cooks before school clothes because girls do really he's trying to fit life a music that. i love to jazz because he makes me copy i love he does because he makes me and stopped playing moved to dallas and. and when he moved it's a it's really nice to. be on dialysis because the cost is spot on fox. loves regard because. i think. that i don't.

welcome back we're in the studio one of britain's most renowned composers i would like as well as his iconic music for the snowman 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 matzoh 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 metzer soprano katherine jenkins at the royal albert hall yes i'd like. to be asked to do it i did it a couple of years ago. on the spur of the moment because. i have a dear friend musical director antony and 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 the minute wouldn't be too difficult to get to the earth all the

albert hall and me being surprised about how successful it is i think you're saying when you choose hundreds of millions of hits millions of hits very surprised indeed and in fact the week after the film came out it was nominated for an oscar you have famous for many other things not just going to christmas composition but on the snowman i understand it was one of channel 4 the british brands we knew t.v. stations 1st ever films and you said it should be your music rather than any dialogue a friend of mine. film director had come over from canada jerry patterson and he said i've just got to pop into this. animation studio called television cartoons. and we walked in and. the director of the company joan coats he said would it be a possibly city could you spend 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 sure this image of the snowman and the boy flying through is a marvelous image and i said i have had a coon 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 jones 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 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 the story we just musing tell me about bernard home and famous for citizen kane forever hitchcock how he kind of took you under his wing. burnet herman. through my agent lee's keys and she said to me would you like to me that herman well 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 think there are many affair i'm in an electrical musical instrument. this is also affected by air so i said to turbo no well i'd 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 dr mirkin self. and it will do

exactly what a turban 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 it where is it i said this 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 bolting and he said would you also the various pieces of jazz need to be written for it i said to do what have i have a very extraordinary career in a way that i started as as a as a classical pianist i want to a classical scholarship the world economy. piano but while i was there more interested in film i got very interested in film 0 spent all my time in national film theatre to some. 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 so 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 i'm sure everything one day i was playing in a band in the club and a guard came up through and he said 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 phil and then it was the avengers film music pretty score they've put me so many different films you made the hunger the avengers was extraordinary because our guy actually started. playing piano on of inches and laurie johnson actually wanted to go to to leave he

would he had always written me as if adventures which was huge. it 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 determine it was a great friend of his 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 telstra 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 weeds 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 cool composer understand you did the music for princess diana's 30th

birthday how did you make that transition i thought our current keep writing commercials and commercial music at that point i moved to south 6 and i started to study serious music and chamber music and everything else and music that i really felt was my own music i was it was then 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 or going to tell me a bit about the un the un. i mean. buckingham palace and. the foreign and commonwealth office the head of the foreign call them both 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 the united nations president will be the whole of the all of the top growth of the of the you know the nations plus. the house of lords and a lot of and piece of the prime minister and the whole royal family and i know i wrote it in fact and 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 of truly which is 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 and serve virtually nobody knew about it and i i mean. perhaps the worst because i had called the charter for peace is there is there a tension between being in an establishment composer and famously you played at the 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 recently that the 3 big hangal can coral. pioneers

will coax to you bri legit they're all dead if you work with one of them it will cook yes i just been asked to write a piece for. front it made such an impression that i was also then if i could score for a large monastery in mid sussex. with 'd worth abbey at the end of the said to me he said next year is the 1500 a day benedict and i wrote this very big oratory on. it last about 70 minutes. and it was 1st performed in one in $1000.00 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. sedated both will coax and 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. thank you a great pleasure well before how it plays in 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 dirty war on the n.h.s. his latest documentary to be broadcast next week he is how drake with walking in the air.

in it. and. the. and. the a and. and. and

. and. god. and. all the. god.

some stacey are continuing on our south american tour and as you can see behind me we are in rio de janeiro oh my god so beautiful so much going on this is a country again transition. first so those. lives with us.

oh. at 11 pm from moscow syrian government forces push deeper into the top story dislodging al qaeda linked fighters from dozens of villages in the south of the rebel held something of that. coming up to a story about publishing the polluters the french government introducing a new tax on s.u.v.s and trucks to it is a battle to reduce carbon emissions. fund research shows u.k. weapon sales to saudi led coalition in yemen the spike dramatically in the last 5 years the spike britain being signed up to an almost trade treaty.