Scotsman, UK
Dec 24 2006
Bethlehem – the last place you would want to be for Christmas
ANNETTE YOUNG
IN BETHLEHEM
CHRISTMAS cheer is hard to find in this year in Bethlehem.
Inside the West Bank town’s Church of Nativity – the birthplace of
Jesus Christ – preparations were being made for Midnight Mass,
overshadowed by worsening violence between Palestinian factions and
an international aid boycott.
But outside in Manger Square, an Arab Christian youth scoffed when
asked about the expected attendance of Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas.
"Bethlehem is the last place in the world where I would want to be
for Christmas," he said. "Hamas and Fatah should remember the enemy
is not each other but Israel, and the longer they fight one another
the better it will be for the Israelis."
The Palestinian president’s visit to the beleaguered town comes after
gunmen from his Fatah faction spent the last week battling their
Hamas counterparts on the streets in Gaza and the West Bank.
Years of feuding and rivalry between the two Palestinian factions
came to a head when Abbas called for fresh presidential and
parliamentary elections in an attempt to remove the Hamas-led
government.
Abbas and his Fatah advisers believe such a move will allow for the
establishment of a government that would be more acceptable to the
West and thus end an international aid boycott in place since the
Islamist movement came to power in March.
Hamas immediately rejected the Palestinian president’s call,
describing it as a coup. However, Abbas has yet to name an election
date and both sides are still talking of last-minute attempts to
establish a national unity government.
Inside the Bethlehem Peace Centre located in Manger Square, its
director, Michael Nasser, tries to remain resolutely upbeat: "In view
of what’s going on at the moment, it’s important for people always to
remember that this is where the ‘Prince of Peace’ was born.
"What’s happening elsewhere in Palestine should hopefully not affect
us here since this town is not only for the Palestinians but is there
for the whole Christian world."
For Christian pilgrims making their way to Bethlehem, they have to
pass through Israel’s controversial separation barrier that now loops
its way around three sides of the town, cutting it off from the
southern edge of Jerusalem normally only a five-minute drive away.
Much of the barrier surrounding Bethlehem is an eight-metre tall
concrete wall and while foreigners are able to visit the town, local
residents cannot leave without applying for a permit from Israeli
authorities.
Israeli officials say the barrier is necessary to stop Palestinian
suicide bombers from entering Israel and that it could be re-routed
or torn down if violence ceases and peace talks resume. But
Palestinians say the barrier’s route is a de facto border and its
existence prevents the creation of the viable state they seek in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in 1967.
Before the Palestinian uprising began in 2000, Bethlehem attracted
more than 90,000 pilgrims a month. At Christmas in 2005, about 20,000
visitors made their way there. However, its mayor, Dr Victor
Batarseh, said the town would be "extremely lucky if we come anywhere
close to that figure this year".
Of Bethlehem’s 30,000 residents, the number of Christians has
dwindled from about 85% in 1948 to just 25%. The Palestinian
uprising, along with the barrier’s construction, has taken its toll
on the Christian population, who due to large diaspora communities
elsewhere are able to emigrate to places such as the United States,
Latin America and Canada.
In addition, the Islamisation of Palestinian society has weakened the
Christian community’s position, although Bartaseh denied that
pressure from Muslims was a contributing factor.
"The [Israeli] occupation is solely the cause of Christian families
leaving here and seeking a life elsewhere," he said. "We happily live
in co-existence with our Arab Muslim brothers."
Bartaseh, who was recently quoted as saying there was a danger of
there being no Christians living in Bethlehem at all within a
generation, was far more circumspect when approached by Scotland on
Sunday, saying: "Of course, there will always be Christians here as
long as we have hope."
The town’s Christian community did receive a boost last week when a
delegation of British church leaders, led by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made a Christmas pilgrimage as a move
of solidarity with its Christian residents.
Williams condemned the barrier, saying it was "a sign not simply of
the passing problem in the politics of one region; it is a sign of
the things which are deeply wrong in the human heart itself."
"We’re here to say that the sufferings of the people here are ours
too," said Williams, joined by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor; the Free Churches’
Moderator in England, the Reverend David Coffey and the Primate of
the Armenian Church of Great Britain, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian.
"We want to do what we can to alleviate them and we hope to see a
Bethlehem that is open for all pilgrims," he told a gathering at the
Bethlehem Peace Centre.
However, while he was speaking, the violence continued.
On Friday, Fatah gunmen opened fire on Hamas members preparing for a
rally in the West Bank city of Nablus, wounding at least nine.
Gunfights also erupted near the Hamas-controlled foreign ministry and
President Abbas’s Gaza residence. It died down as Muslim clerics and
other mediators worked to restore a ceasefire. Abbas was not in Gaza
at the time.
On Friday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged gunmen to
spare Palestinian blood, and said government officials were working
to bring the violence under control.
In the meantime, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, were
meeting last night to discuss the thorny issue of the release of
Palestinian prisoners.
It has been hoped a deal on the release of Israeli soldier Gilad
Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners could be concluded by
the Islamic festival of Id al-Adha that falls this coming Friday.
However, sources in Olmert’s office have said that the prime minister
was unwilling to release any Palestinian prisoners unless Shalit is
set free beforehand.