In Bethlehem, Rites Stress Peace

Filled with the anticipation of a new millennium, thousands of Christian pilgrims and Palestinian families flocked to the traditional birthplace of Jesus and heard calls for tolerance and peace as they witnessed the dawn of Christmas early today.

With their Palestinian hosts eager to bask in a worldwide spotlight and promote a political cause, Roman Catholic priests led a multilingual midnight Mass at the 4th century Church of the Nativity, which sits on the site where Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus.

“For our Holy Land and for the whole region, we wish and pray that the peace that has begun will find a just conclusion for all, Palestinians and Israelis,” Michel Sabbah, the senior Catholic prelate in this region, said from the church’s pale marble altar.

Throughout a day of celebration in one of the Holy Land’s most revered cities--a day that began with an overgrown street party and ended with sacred rites--security was tight, but fears of serious incidents were unrealized.

Police sharpshooters watched from the steeples of churches overlooking Manger Square while Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat shared center stage with a smattering of world leaders and choirs from three continents.

Calls to Muslim prayer on a Ramadan Friday mingled with the frequent tolling of church bells and a Palestinian bagpipe band playing carols. White lights sparkled from the trees ringing the square, and a huge “Merry Christmas” sign hung from City Hall, next to the main mosque.

And so, with the elaborate marking of another Christmas here where it all began more or less 2,000 years ago, the Palestinians have eagerly embraced the millennium as a chance to win tourist dollars, gain recognition for the aspiring Palestinian state and prove that they can manage a yearlong international event safely.

Proudly showing off a $200-million face lift given this Palestinian-controlled city during the last year, Bethlehem officials pronounced the Christmas festivities a success. The size of the crowds appeared to indicate that recent warnings of terrorism targeting Americans were not enough to keep people away. An estimated 3,000 police officers were deployed in the town of 35,000.

“As much security as they have here, all these police and the checkpoints, 1/8safety 3/8 is the last thing we have to worry about,” said Francis Colligan, 52, a native of Santa Monica who was visiting the Church of the Nativity with his children and girlfriend.

Bethlehem Under Palestinian Control

The Palestinians hope to focus the world’s spotlight on Bethlehem and other Christian sites under Palestinian control as a way to promote their own cause of national statehood. Christmas Eve is but one part of a crowded schedule of festivities for 2000.

A lack of organization, expertise and infrastructure has prevented the Palestinians from capitalizing fully on new waves of tourism.

Nowhere is this more evident than on Calle de la Estrella, or Star Road, which winds above Manger Square. The Spanish government renovated the street and helped set up a Christmas market in time for the start of festivities earlier this month.

But business at the string of souvenir and decoration shops has been abysmally slow. Many of the merchants blame the Israeli tourism agencies that bring visitors briefly into Palestinian territory but rarely let them eat, make purchases or otherwise spend money.

“The Israeli guides march their tourists right through here,” Helen Twemeh, an older woman managing a trinket store on Calle de la Estrella, said as she made her first sale in 10 days. “If the tourists pause to stop and look, the guides hurry them on.”

Arafat Seizes Chance to Upstage Israel

Part of it is pure business: Tour guides are inclined to take their charges to stores that pay commissions to the guides. But there also is a residual perception among some Israeli agencies that Bethlehem, in the West Bank, is not safe.

Ayman Abuzulof, 31, is studying to become a licensed tour guide and wants to promote “alternative tourism” that would concentrate on Palestinian sites.

“The idea is to give the tourist another picture,” Abuzulof said Friday as he stood in the golden sunlight washing over Manger Square. “This helps them to know ‘the other.’ Otherwise, you just continue the stereotypes of Palestinians as violent and terrorists.”

Arafat and the Palestinian Authority clearly are seizing with gusto the chance to upstage Israel as eager hosts to Christian ceremonies that will anchor millennium celebrations.

In contrast to the Palestinian enthusiasm, many Israelis appear ambivalent about the prospect of huge numbers of Christian pilgrims descending on the Jewish state for end-of-the-year visits. This ranges from indifference among secular Jews who are unfamiliar with Christian traditions to a belief among some religious Jews that Christians are determined to convert Jews.

While Arafat was sending out invitations to world leaders to celebrate this Christmas and January’s Orthodox Christmas, the Jerusalem chief rabbinate was ordering stiff restrictions on any celebration of Christmas or New Year’s, both of which begin during the Jewish Sabbath.

Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli writer, said Jews flinch at Christian attachment to the Holy Land because it somehow clashes with Israeli claims to exclusive control of the land.

As for Arafat and his colleagues, Benvenisti wrote in the Haaretz newspaper earlier this month, “Their understanding of the Christians’ interests is no more perceptive than that of the Israelis. But they are exploiting the Israeli failure artfully and snatching the Holy Land away from the Jews.”

Muslim Cleric Preaches Tolerance

Arafat and other Palestinian leaders took pains Friday to sound notes of religious tolerance. Mohammed Salemeh, the imam who delivered the sermon at Friday’s noon service in the mosque on Manger Square, spoke in unusually conciliatory terms, describing Islam as a “religion of brotherhood with Judaism and Christianity.”

In fact, the Christian community in Bethlehem and other parts of Palestinian-controlled territory has been on the decline for years. This town of Jesus’ birth was more than 80% Christian before the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation; today it is less than 35% Christian. Overall, Christians account for only 3% to 5% of the Palestinian population.

When Arafat gained control of Bethlehem and other parts of the West Bank in 1995, many Christians feared for their fates under a Muslim-dominated regime. While a report last year by two Palestinian human rights organizations found no pattern of systematic persecution of Christians because of their faith, there have been periods of heightened tension between Christians and Muslims, and occasional vandalism of Christian sites.

It is a clash of culture and mores rather than religion, say Palestinian human rights activists.

Christian Palestinians historically are better educated and more affluent than Muslim Palestinians. Their more natural ties with Western countries through churches and schools have opened an easier path of emigration to Europe, the United States and, especially, Latin America.

“Like minorities anywhere, they feel insecure, their identities threatened,” said George Hazou, a Christian Palestinian who works for LAW, a Palestinian human rights organization.

According to a report by LAW, the Palestinian equivalent of a constitution provides for freedom of worship but also establishes Sharia, or Islamic law, as the rules that govern Palestinian society. Conversion from Islam, it states, is a “major sin” punishable by capital punishment.