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Oh, Little Town Lies Still Indeed

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Times Staff Writer

There’s room at the inn. In fact, at the Bethlehem Hotel, all 210 of them are available.

Not a single Christmas booking has been made at the comfortable, well-appointed hotel just down a gentle slope from Manger Square, where tradition says Christ was born. And the establishment’s Palestinian proprietor, Elias Arjah, isn’t expecting any last-minute rush.

“God help us -- not even one guest,” he said, speaking over tinny Christmas tunes echoing through the cavernous, deserted lobby. “No one, absolutely no one, wants to spend this Christmas in Bethlehem.”

The biblical birthplace of Jesus, now a Palestinian city of 28,000 set in the stony hills south of Jerusalem, has been occupied for nearly a month by Israeli troops who moved in after a suicide bomber from the Bethlehem area killed 11 Israelis.

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The soldiers are unlikely to be withdrawn before Christmas, Israeli officials say, citing what they describe as the continuing threat of more terrorist attacks originating from the city and its environs.

“We are assessing the security situation on a daily basis,” said Capt. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli army spokeswoman. “We will try to make every effort to ease restrictions on the civilian population and allow festivities to go on as usual.”

Festivity, though, is in short supply. The traditional Christmas Eve midnight Mass will be held in the Church of the Nativity, but only a smattering of pilgrims and worshipers are expected.

In past years, choral concerts and parades were held in Manger Square before the Mass began -- a sometimes raucous open-air party, complete with all manner of Palestinian fast food -- but no celebrations are planned this year.

A week before Christmas Eve, at a time when pilgrims would once have jammed the ancient basilica, the church and its rain-soaked stone plaza were deserted except for a few ragged Palestinian children begging for spare change.

The Roman Catholic parish priest, Amjad Sabarra, said the city is shadowed by a 39-day siege of the basilica and adjoining buildings in April and May.

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Israeli troops, tanks and sharpshooters surrounded the square after Palestinian gunmen took shelter inside the church. The standoff finally ended with an agreement that sent most of the wanted men into exile.

“What a terrible time that was,” said Sabarra, who was inside during the siege. “I would never have imagined such things would happen here, in the mother of our churches.”

To protest the Israeli decision not to allow Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas observances, the city fathers decided to refrain from putting up any holiday decorations, eschewing the holiday lights, the fully trimmed Christmas tree and the giant inflatable Santas that once loomed incongruously on the corners of old stone streets.

Arafat, who has been confined for months to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, was also barred from the observances last year.

Since 1995, when control of Bethlehem and other major Palestinian towns and cities was handed over to the Palestinian Authority as part of what was then an ongoing peace process, the Palestinian leader had been a fixture at the annual festivities. Although a Muslim, he always attended the Mass, greeting visiting dignitaries and diplomats.

Lately, a strict curfew broken by unpredictable interludes has kept most Palestinians in Bethlehem indoors.

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“I have to hurry -- I don’t know how long we have,” said Imam abu Ali, a 42-year-old widow and mother of four, her brow creased with worry. “I don’t have the money to buy much, but I must find some food for my children.”

Bethlehem’s economy, like that of most Palestinian towns, has been devastated during 26 months of fighting, and residents say the resulting hardship is unrelenting.

Unemployment is running close to 70%, according to Mayor Hanna Nasser. In grocery stores, many of those buying food Tuesday were doing so with Red Cross vouchers.

“This is the most unhappy Christmas I can remember,” said Nasser, a native of Bethlehem whose family traces its roots in the city back several centuries. “Where will all this suffering end?”

On the Israeli side, a few voices warned of damage to Israel’s reputation if it is perceived as repressing religious observances by the diminishing Palestinian Christian community. Bethlehem was once overwhelmingly Christian; now its Christian inhabitants make up less than half the population.

“The damage inflicted on us in the eyes of the Christian world and the international community if we remain in Bethlehem during the holidays is huge,” reserve Gen. Danny Rothschild, a former military governor in the West Bank, told Israeli radio Tuesday.

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In a souvenir shop just off Manger Square, owner Tony Michael said he had abandoned his daily cleaning of his inventory of carved olive-wood Nativity scenes and mother-of-pearl crosses.

“I might as well let the dust have it all,” he said. “No one is ever going to come and buy.”

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