Christmas spirit returns to Bethlehem
Lining the streets on a crisp, windy day, pilgrims gathered in Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity — built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born — to watch a procession of marching bands, bagpipe players and boy scout troops.
They also watched Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, enter town for the Christmas celebrations.
Whipping winds blew the hats off boy scouts and police officers and knocked down metal security barriers. Yet the streets were packed with visitors excited about spending the holiday in one of Christianity’s holiest sites.
More than 30,000 people were expected in what would be the largest turnout since fighting erupted in September 2000, although the bleak gray concrete slabs of Israel’s separation barrier at the entrance to town provided a looming reminder of the conflict.
Israel’s summer withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a sharp drop in violence this year contributed to the joyful atmosphere, which buoyed the spirits of Bethlehem residents and tourists in the festively decorated town. Forecasts of a rare snowfall added to the sense of excitement.
“It’s really amazing. When you hear about all the conflict between Israel and Palestine, really I was expecting things to be a little bit — rougher,” said Stephen Ogden, 23, of Knoxville, Tenn.
In the first years after fighting erupted, an Israeli army siege and high death tolls among Israelis and Palestinians put a damper on Christmas.
Crowds that numbered tens of thousands during the boom years of the mid-1990s dwindled to just a few hundred.
Even the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was barred from attending the celebration, confined by Israel to his headquarters in Ramallah. Instead, a black-and-white headdress — similar to the one he traditionally wore — was draped across the chair he usually occupied.
Last year’s celebration was merrier than those of the previous four years, buoyed by a thaw in relations after Arafat’s death. But shopkeepers and hotel owners still lamented the thin crowds, empty hotel rooms and bad weather.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, elected last January to succeed Arafat, planned to join the Bethlehem celebrations and attend Midnight Mass in a church next to the grotto. Tickets to the Mass were sold out, and some tourists had a hard time finding hotel rooms.
Earlier this week, Palestinian gunmen briefly took over Bethlehem’s city hall to demand jobs and wages, raising worries that the Christmas celebration might be disrupted. Dozens of Palestinian police and security officers stood in Manger Square and snipers were on rooftops Saturday.
“It will be joyful and a very Merry Christmas, especially since the president will join us,” Mayor Victor Batarseh said. “There is enough police and security. It will be very peaceful.”
Edwina Webster, 53, on a two-week vacation from Hereford, England, overcame her safety concerns to spend Christmas in Bethlehem. “It’s awesome here. To come here is very emotional,” she said.
Although the Palestinian Authority never gave Bethlehem the $436,000 promised for Christmas festivities, the municipality got out the lights, bells and Palestinian flags from previous years and used donations to decorate every corner of the town.
Israel eased restrictions at its main checkpoint into town, decorating the military structure with posters declaring: “Peace be upon you.”
Still, the West Bank security barrier cast a shadow on the celebrations. Snaking along Israel’s boundary with the West Bank, it divides Bethlehem and prevents tourists from walking into town on the biblical-era road likely used by Joseph and Mary.
Shops, restaurants and businesses that once thrived remain shuttered, split off from the rest of town by the 25-foot-tall concrete wall designed to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli cities.
Ogden and the group of Presbyterians he traveled with made sure to visit the area of the barrier to see the effects of the conflict in the land of Jesus’ birth, and were shocked by what they found.
“I don’t think anything can quite prepare you for something like that,” Ogden said.