Arab Unrest Brings Little Cheer : Bethlehem: 2nd Time the Intifada Stole Christmas

“ E un po’ triste, quest’ anno ,” the young Italian priest whispered to a colleague in lace passing silently under the arches of the Church of the Nativity. “It’s a little sad this year.”

The priest’s delicate understatement captured the sense of gloom in the little town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, a festive holiday turned joyless by tragedy and the competing demands of warring enemies.

Few pilgrims turned out for the first of a series of services at the church that is built around the grotto where Christ was born. Outside, in rainy Manger Square, reporters far outnumbered tourists--and soldiers from Israel outnumbered them all.

This is the second consecutive year that Christmas has been dampened by tension associated with the Palestinian intifada , or uprising, against Israeli occupation. Last week underground Arab leaders demanded that merchants close their shops Christmas Eve and that Christians celebrate at home.

Even without the call, many residents here felt little cheer: At least 320 Arabs have died in the violence on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a dozen from the Bethlehem area alone. In addition, 10 Israelis have been killed.

Israeli military officials tried to persuade Arab storekeepers to at least hang decorations in their windows, to no avail. Word that the Israelis had released 12 local prisoners in a good-will gesture relieved none of the overall dark mood.

A ‘Silent Night’

“We will have a silent night, but not the kind we wanted,” George Freij, the son of Bethlehem’s Christian Arab Mayor Elias Freij, said of the subdued atmosphere.

All sides used the occasion to make their views about the Arab-Israeli conflict known.

Intifada leaders insisted that shops be shut and celebrants stay home “as a rejection of the occupation and a rejection of any Israeli participation in the Christmas celebration.”

For those who missed the message on paper, follow-up graffiti adorned Bethlehem walls. “We will punish everybody who leaves his house,” was painted in red on one. “Let’s make this day a mourning day for our martyrs,” said a slogan on another.

Mayor Freij canceled his customary holiday cocktail reception for the second year and refused to order decorations placed on the town’s streets or on its permanent Christmas tree.

“It is a protest for those killed, injured and detained,” he explained. “The people are not in a mood to celebrate or rejoice.”

Called for Truce

Freij, a longtime moderate voice of the Palestinians, called for a cease-fire between the Arab protesters, who often have used stones or gasoline bombs in their attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers, and Israeli troops, who frequently have fired into crowds of demonstrators.

“All acts against each other would cease,” Freij pleaded. “It would be a calming period to ease the tension, so people could begin to think and behave normally.”

Michel Sabbah, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem, said in his Christmas message that “the people, the Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem and the Holy Land, do not have the joy of Christmas in their hearts. Some had a son or a father killed, others are still in prisons, and all face heavy military repression.”

The Catholic patriarch is himself Arab and was born in Nazareth, although he holds Jordanian citizenship.

Canceled Procession

Sabbah added to the subdued air of the Christmas Eve rituals by canceling his traditional procession into Bethlehem, in which he is normally accompanied by Boy Scouts as he greets local mayors along the way. Instead, his black Mercedes pulled directly up to the Church of the Nativity, where Mayor Freij, parish priests and an Israeli military commander received him.

The Israelis occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and have ruled the land, mainly inhabited by Arabs, ever since. And like the rival Palestinians, the Israeli government also tried to make its points on Christmas, intent on giving the impression that the holiday was being celebrated as usual.

Responding to Freij, the Ministry of Tourism issued a statement that said: “Nothing has changed in the intrinsic meaning of Christmas in Bethlehem. No secular municipal action will either dampen the religious fervor of pilgrims or mar their freedom of worship in Bethlehem.”

To this end, the ministry sponsored Christmas Eve performances by choirs from Switzerland, Spain and the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington.

In addition, after Bethlehem merchants refused to string Christmas lights, Israeli soldiers did some of the decorating themselves.

Troops Were Main Feature

Indeed, the army security presence in Bethlehem, for all its evident intent to guard against terrorist disruption of the celebration, was itself the main feature of this year’s holiday in Bethlehem.

Visitors walking into Manger Square were led through electronic weapons detectors and makeshift rooms for body searches; worshipers entering the Church of the Nativity were thoroughly frisked by plainclothes agents. Soldiers armed with M-16 rifles kept rooftop vigil, and numerous patrols weaved through the town’s narrow streets.

“It is impossible to take a photo without getting some soldier in the shot,” a Venezuelan visitor complained to her three companions as they scurried around Manger Square looking for clear vistas.

About 35,000 Christian Arabs live in the West Bank, mostly in Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jala and Beit Sahur. The total population of the occupied territories stands at an estimated 1.7 million.

Bethlehem, which relies on tourism, has been hit particularly hard by the uprising as the number of visitors plummeted dramatically in the past six months. There are virtually no buyers for the region’s trademark olive wood creches; in any case, souvenir shops close their doors at noon every day in support of the intifada . Almost all of Bethlehem’s 48 restaurants are closed indefinitely.