A merry Christmas in Bethlehem

PALESTINIAN Scouts play bagpipes outside Church of the Nativity. AFP

BETHLEHEM, West Bank—Tens of thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims packed the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations, bringing warm holiday cheer to the traditional birthplace of Jesus on a raw, breezy and rainy night.

With turnout on Saturday evening at its highest in more than a decade, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence.

Bethlehem, like the rest of the West Bank, has fallen on hard times since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000. As the fighting has subsided in recent years, tourists have returned in large numbers.

By late night, the Israeli military, which controls movement in and out of town, said some 100,000 visitors, including foreigners and Arab Christians from Israel, had reached Bethlehem, up from 70,000 the previous year.

Thousands of Palestinians from inside the West Bank also converged on the town.

“It’s wonderful to be where Jesus was born,” said Irma Goldsmith, 68, of Suffolk, Virginia. “I watch Christmas in Bethlehem each year on TV, but to be here in person is different. To be in the spot where our savior was born is amazing.”

After nightfall, a packed Manger Square, along with a 15-meter-tall (50-foot-tall) Christmas tree, was awash in Christmas lights, and the town took on a festival-like atmosphere.

Vendors hawked balloons and corn on the cob, bands played Christmas songs and tourists packed cafés that are sleepy the rest of the year. As rain began falling in the early evening, many people cleared out of the square and raced to nearby restaurants.

Muslim women

Festivities culminated with Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity, which was built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.

Among the visitors were a surprisingly large number of veiled Muslim women with their families, out to enjoy an evening out in what is normally a quiet town.

“We love to share this holiday with our Christian brothers,” said Amal Ayash, 46, who came to Manger Square with her three daughters, all of them covered in veils. “It is a Palestinian holiday and we love to come here and watch.”

Israel turned Bethlehem over to Palestinian civil control a few days before Christmas in 1995, and since then, residents have been celebrating the holiday regardless of their religion.

Pilgrims from around the world also wandered the streets, singing Christmas carols and visiting churches.

“It’s a real treat to come here,” said John Houston, 58, a restaurant owner from Long Beach, California. “It makes me feel really good to see what I have been learning from the time I was a kid in Sunday school until today.”

Houston said he was surprised by Bethlehem’s appearance, a far cry from the pastoral village of biblical times.

Today, it is a sprawling town of cement apartment blocks and narrow streets where some 50,000 people live in several communities.

Surrounded by barrier

Located on the southeastern outskirts of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is surrounded on three sides by a barrier that Israel has built to stop attacks by Palestinian militants.

Palestinians say the barrier has damaged their economy by constricting movement in and out of town. Twenty-two percent of Bethlehem residents are unemployed, the Palestinian Authority says. Israeli settlements surrounding Bethlehem have added to the sense of confinement.

The Christmas season is essential for Bethlehem’s economy, which depends heavily on tourism.

Most visitors entering Bethlehem, including the top Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, had to cross through an Israeli-controlled checkpoint to reach town.

Twal, a Palestinian citizen of Jordan, arrived in a traditional midday procession from Jerusalem, and later celebrated Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity.

In his homily, he referred to the Arab Spring, imploring Arab leaders to have “wisdom, insight and a spirit of selflessness toward their countrymen” and praying for reconciliation in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and North Africa. He urged “the return of calm and reconciliation” in these places.

In popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which ended decades of secular dictatorships this year, Islamist parties have since taken center stage. In Syria, government troops have killed more than 5,000 in a crackdown on protesters in recent months, while sectarian violence in Iraq has left 60 people dead less than a week after US troops withdrew.

“O Child of Bethlehem, in this New Year, we place in your hands this troubled Middle East and, above all, our youth full of legitimate aspirations, who are frustrated by the economic and political situation, and in search of a better future,” Twal said.

The patriarch welcomed Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to the Mass and congratulated him “in his unfaltering efforts to achieve a just peace in the Middle East, a main thrust of which is the creation of a Palestinian state.”

At the same time, however, Twal noted the Palestinian campaign to join the United Nations and complained that the world body was “less than united” in its support for the stalled initiative.

The patriarch also criticized the international community for pushing the Palestinians to “reengage in a failed peace process” which has “left a bitter taste of broken promises and of mistrust.”

Twal lamented the Israeli barrier enveloping Bethlehem—“let us tear down the walls of our hearts in order to tear down the walls of concrete”—and prayed for peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Celebrating hope

The Palestinians have subtly tried to draw attention to their plight with this year’s Christmas slogan, “Palestine celebrating hope,” a veiled reference to their bid to win UN recognition.

With peace talks at a standstill, the Palestinians are seeking membership as a state in the United Nations and recently gained admission to Unesco, the UN cultural agency.

“We are celebrating this Christmas hoping that in the near future we’ll get our right to self-determination, our right to establish our own democratic, secular Palestinian state on the Palestinian land. That is why this Christmas is unique,” said Mayor Victor Batarseh, who is a Christian.

Late Saturday, Abbas told a meeting of Christian leaders that he was committed to reaching peace with Israel, despite a three-year standstill in negotiations.

“I hope they will come back to their senses and understand that we are seekers of peace, not seekers of war or terrorism,” said Abbas, a Muslim. “The mosque, church and synagogue stand side by side in this Holy Land.”

Today, only about one-third of Bethlehem’s residents are Christians, reflecting a broader exodus of Christians from the Middle East in recent decades. Overall, just 60,000 Christians live in the Palestinian territories, making up less than 2 percent of the population, according to Palestinian officials.

As day broke over Bethlehem, a few kilometers south of Jerusalem, residents welcomed thousands of pilgrims who came to see where Jesus was born to a couple from Nazareth.

“Hotels are full. We have no rooms left even though the number of hotel rooms has multiplied in the last three years,” said Palestinian Tourism Minister Khulud Daibes.

Boy Souts with drums and bagpipes marched through the town for the annual Christmas parade ahead of concerts and other entertainment on what is the year’s biggest tourist attraction in the Palestinian territories.

“I’m here today to see the celebrations like every year. We come as Christians and Muslims to see them,” said Shireen Knaan, a Muslim. “There is no difference between Christians and Muslims as it is the Prophet Isa’s birthday.”