CNS STORY: Bethlehem is full with foreign tourists, but without local families

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CHRISTMAS-BETHLEHEM Dec-26-2007 (860 words) With photos. xxxi

Bethlehem is full with foreign tourists, but without local families

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Bethlehem was heady with tourists on Christmas Eve as some, maps and cameras in hand, walked from the Israeli checkpoint at Rachel's Tomb to Nativity Square while others arrived in lumbering tour buses and private taxis.

A Christmas tree twinkled brightly with colored lights through the front window of the Paradise Hotel, which some six years ago had been destroyed in fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers during the intifada. The parking spaces in front of the hotel, as in front of the other city hotels, were full.

The reception clerks were smiling at the luxury Intercontinental Hotel, which was built just before the second Palestinian uprising in 2000 next to Rachel's Tomb and was empty for many years. All 200 rooms were booked for Christmas and New Year's -- compared to only 10 rooms last year.

According to the Palestinian Tourist Information Center, all the hotels in Bethlehem were booked for the holiday as the relative quiet in the region and the first tentative steps in the renewal of peace talks brought tourists back after a long hiatus.

More than 60 percent of Bethlehem's population depends on tourism for its livelihood and the intifada and the years following have left the city in economic straits.

But this year even the weather seemed to be cooperating. The air was clear and crisp as the Christmas visitors wandered throughout the city on their way to Nativity Square. Israel estimated about 20,000 tourists and pilgrims would cross over the checkpoint from Jerusalem to Bethlehem -- double the number from last year. Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh said earlier he expected approximately 65,000 visitors to come to the city.

Smiles were common in souvenir shops bordering Nativity Square as owners did business with customers from Korea, Sweden, Spain, the U.S., India and Switzerland.

"It is better than last year -- better than the last few years, so of course we feel happy," said Mary Giacaman, a Christian whose family owns the Holy Land Arts Museum souvenir store. She said most of the customers were buying olive-wood Nativity sets and Christmas ornaments.

But she noted that the crowd on the square was mostly bands of young Palestinian men.

Esam and Suha Farah, Christian Arabs from the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth, brought their 5-year-old twins, Mira and Zuher, to Bethlehem for Christmas. It was their first visit to Jesus' birthplace.

"You don't see any families here," noted Esam, 41. "In Nazareth the celebrations are filled with families. Where are the local Christians? I don't think people want to celebrate. You can tell people are frustrated by looking at their eyes. It should be bombastic here. For me the spirit of Christmas should be something else."

He said the 25-foot-tall Israeli separation wall surrounding the city has left the city feeling like a prison. Israel says the 400-mile cement and barbed-wire West Bank barrier has proven its effectiveness against terrorist attacks.

"There is nothing to do here," said Suha, 30, who added that she had planned on staying in Bethlehem longer but would be returning to Nazareth on Christmas Day. "We like it because of the church but tomorrow we will go to be with my family."

One local Christian noted there was almost no one from his community at the Nativity Square festivities.

"It is full of people not from Bethlehem. It is not our Christmas anymore. It is not comfortable for us to walk here," said Rania Abdel Nour, another local and one of the few Catholics who came to visit Nativity Square. As midnight approached, she, her husband and daughter planned to go to Bethlehem University where many local Catholics were gathering for midnight Mass.

On stage at the square entertainers kept the crowd in good spirits, and conga lines of exuberant young Palestinian men in colorful party hats wound their way among the celebrants several times throughout the evening.

Hani Mussa, a Muslim from Ramallah, said he and his family made the trip to Bethlehem to share in the Christian holiday as they have been doing every year.

"There is no difference between us and the Christians. We want to share in their celebration," he said.

Scores of people stood behind police barriers outside the Church of the Nativity waiting to enter for Mass. Teresa Pilien, 35, a foreign worker from the Philippines living in Israel for the past three years was eager to get in to pray at the birthplace of Jesus on Christmas.

In years past migrant workers like Pilien were the only foreigners who ventured into Bethlehem for Christmas; now she had to jostle for her spot.

More than Christmas spirit, there seemed to be Palestinian pride in the city, said Shelley Burke, a 19-year-old Catholic from Father Serra Parish outside Los Angeles who came to Bethlehem from Amman, Jordan, where she is studying for a year.

People were very friendly, she said, noting that she and her friend were invited to a meal by a local Christian woman whom they had just met.

END

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