Bethlehem Still Can’t Find Joy in Christmas

It isn’t looking a bit like Christmas here in the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ.

At Manger Square, soaked and made ashen by rain, there are few decorations and no festivities. A banner exhorting Palestinians to engage in Islamic holy war hangs from the mosque, which faces the 4th century Church of the Nativity, on the site where Christians believe the Virgin Mary delivered the son of God.

Inside the church, which just 15 months ago was so crowded with tourists and pilgrims that it was hard to move, a visitor’s footsteps echo. A Greek Orthodox priest naps. A cleaning lady is the only person lighting a candle.

For the second straight year, Christmas in the little town of Bethlehem will be observed in the midst of a raging conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Last year, a bloody uprising by Palestinians against Israeli occupation forced the cancellation of many of the international choir concerts and other gala events that were meant to accompany the customary midnight Mass alongside the Church of the Nativity.

This year is only worse, residents say.

In October, Israeli troops invaded parts of the largely Christian town with the stated aim of crushing terrorism. Gun battles between the Israelis and Palestinian militiamen raged for days. Twenty-two Palestinians--many of them civilians, including a number of Arab Christians--were killed. Tanks rolled down Manger Street, a principal thoroughfare, crushing electricity poles and star-shaped ornaments still hanging from the previous year.

The damage was enormous, and the town--which lived on tourism--is still trying to recover.

“This is the worst Christmas I have ever seen,” said Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser, 65, a member of one of the town’s oldest families. Nasser was notably un-busy this week, able to attend to journalists who dropped in unannounced. The customary parades of foreign dignitaries were not in evidence.

Residents remain traumatized, Nasser said, noting that his six grandchildren still can’t sleep in their own beds at night.

Of Bethlehem’s 86 restaurants, only three are open, the mayor said. There is plenty of room at the inn: Hotels that provide a total of 4,000 beds are reporting occupancy below 3%. And dozens of souvenir shops and the factories that produce Bethlehem’s typical olive-wood ornaments and mother-of-pearl crosses and other trinkets have shut down.

Unemployment in this once most-prosperous of West Bank cities has soared to 50%, and the per capita income has been clobbered from $1,850 to $400, Nasser said. Whether these statistics can be verified is almost beside the point. The feeling in Bethlehem is one of despair.

Routine of Deprivation

Last Christmas was marked by the uncertainty of a still-new conflict. People still believed that it might end soon and that they could endure.

But another year has passed, and people are settling into a near-routine of deprivation and calamity. Tight Israeli blockades, intended to stop suicide bombers and terrorists, will again make it difficult for Christians--foreigners as well as Arabs from elsewhere in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel--to enter Bethlehem for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight Mass.

The army said late this week that it will try to ease restrictions for Christians, and top army officials met with the Vatican’s representative and the senior Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, to make the arrangements.

Sabbah delivered his annual Christmas message Thursday, condemning the “continuous injustice, the occupation of the land, the humiliation of the people, their massacre [and] the siege that is imposed on them.”

But Sabbah, a Palestinian, also had stern words for Palestinians--for the first time--and for Israelis and the leaders of both peoples.

He reproached Palestinians for resorting to violence and suicide bombings, admonishing them to remember that the olive branch is their most effective weapon. And he urged Israelis to end the occupation of Palestinian land as the quickest way to peace, security and liberty for Palestinians and Israelis.

“We need today in the Holy Land not leaders who teach us to make war, who ask their people to accept sacrifices, including their lives,” Sabbah said, “but leaders who have visions of justice and have the courage to realize peace.”

Arafat May Forgo Mass

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has attended the Christmas Eve Mass, usually accompanied by his Christian-born wife, Suha, since Bethlehem was turned over to his control in 1995. But this year, Arafat is under virtual house arrest, following a decision this month by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to sever contacts with him.

To reach Bethlehem from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat would have to cross into Israel and therefore must ask Israel for permission to travel. As of Friday, he had not formally sought Israeli permission, and Sharon’s aides threatened to prevent Arafat from attending the Mass unless he hands over Palestinians suspected in the recent assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

In past years, Arafat presided over a Christmas dinner at Bethlehem’s Paradise Hotel. But during Israel’s invasion of the town, which came in the wake of the assassination by radical Palestinians, the hotel was the scene of some of the worst fighting.

George Abu Aita, the owner of the Paradise Hotel, says he’s giving up. There is no money to repair the building, and no guests for whom to repair it.

“There is no happiness for the people this year,” he said. “The economic situation is worse, more people have been killed, and most of the tourist places and industries have been destroyed by the occupation. There are no tourists. No reservations. So what to do?”

Angela Giacaman runs one of the souvenir shops that ring Manger Square, a stone plaza flanked by City Hall, the mosque and the Church of the Nativity. Her family is a foremost producer of olive-wood figurines and Christmas ornaments. They have kept their factory open, she said, but only by putting all workers on half their salary--just enough to enable them to feed their families.

“You can only cry so much,” she said, laughing as she pointed to her empty store.

Victor Hosh owns a shop several blocks off Manger Square that caters to locals. Things are bleak for him too, mostly because people who have been out of work for so long don’t have money for baubles.