Sombre mood in Bethlehem ahead of Christmas
By Andrea Doucet,WNS Israel Bureau Chief
BETHLEHEM - Despite sunny skies and crisp weather, the looks were sober and the mood grim in Bethlehem as the faithful - very few foreign tourists among them - flocked to the birthplace of Jesus Christ for the annual Christmas celebrations. Several thousand people milled in Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity ahead of the traditional midnight mass that this year takes place against the backdrop of a dire economic crisis gripping the Palestinian territories. "It's a very sad Christmas," Bethlehem Mayor Viktor Batarseh said on Sunday, pointing to the Western freeze on aid to the Palestinian government that has ground the economy to a halt. The freeze, imposed after the Islamist Hamas formed a government in March, has plunged the Palestinian territories into their worst-ever economic crisis. "The economic situation is dire," Batarseh said. "How can you enjoy Christmas in these conditions, when people can't even feed their children?"
With Hamas steadfastly refusing to bend to Western conditions for unfreezing the badly needed funds - renouncing violence, recognising Israel and agreeing to abide by past peace deals - the situation shows no sign of improving any time soon. "Pilgrimage and tourism are the first sources of income for this city. Because of the political situation, their numbers have dropped," Batarseh said. "With the local tourists and pilgrims, this year we don't expect more than 10,000 visitors. They were 20,000 last year. And before the intifadas, we used to reach 50,000 over this period." It was difficult to find visitors from abroad in the crowd in Manger Square on Sunday afternoon, with most foreigners present appearing to be ex-pats living in the region.
The towering concrete wall of the Israeli security barrier, which snakes along the occupied West Bank and around Bethlehem, has also contributed to the sombre mood. "The Israeli wall of separation is harming us, like the confiscation of agricultural land to build it," Batarseh said. "People are no longer allowed to work in Jerusalem." Adnan Sobeh, 36, the owner of a tourist shop along Manger Square, said business this year is bad. "Last year it was already bad, but this year it's even worse. The small groups that come from Israel get out of the buses, rush inside the Church of the Nativity and leave. No shopping," he said. "The wall scares them: they see it, they think they are entering Fallujah," Sobeh said, referring to the city in war-torn Iraq. "The situation in the entire Middle East is bad: Iraq, the fighting between the Palestinians, the war in Lebanon this summer. They see the entire region as a war zone." "But in fact Bethlehem is so peaceful and quiet," he said.
posted by wnsworld @ 11:52 PM
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