Bethleham mayor urges pilgrims to visit in numbers
The mayor of Jesus’ traditional home town today asked pilgrims to visit in large numbers during Christmas and help pressure Israel to dismantle the barrier that rings the city and cuts it off from Jerusalem.
Victor Batarseh, the mayor of Bethlehem, said twice as many visitors are expected this year, compared to last, but they will find the city “walled off.” A 25ft wall cuts through the north edge of the town, part of the barrier Israel says it needs to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out.
The Palestinians see it as a land grab and an Israeli attempt to draw a border unilaterally.
“The pilgrims who will travel to Bethlehem for Christmas this year will find that the city of Christ’s birth is being walled off. Fears are growing that the town may soon become a prison,” Batarseh said, but urged them not to turn back.
Instead, he said, they should come to Bethlehem to “morally bring down the wall,” which cuts the town off from Jerusalem, just a mile away.
A drop in violence, an election of a new Palestinian leadership and the reduction of roadblocks into the city are contributing factors to the return of pilgrims to the holy city residents say.
Israeli Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson said co-operation between the Palestinians and Israelis will ensure smooth travel of tourists and pilgrims.
“For the Israeli government I say: ‘We as two parties, the Palestinian and Israeli people do not needs walls, we just need bridges,”’ Batarseh said, adding that he hoped the smoothing works all year round.
The barrier cuts through the Bethlehem district, separating villages from the main centre of the city, isolating agricultural land and encircling outlying villages.
Batarseh said the past five years of violence have taken their toll on Bethlehem residents, leaving some 60% of them out of work.
A new Israeli checkpoint at the entrance of Bethlehem is under construction. Batarseh said it will be “a new frontier” between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, hindering flow of tourists between the two cities.
The hardship, he said, has caused a wave of immigration from the city, particularly among its Christian population, who make up only 35% of its total 30,000 residents.
“The main reason for this immigration is the economy,” he said, and it is more apparent among the Christian community, which find it easier to immigrate as they have the means and have already families living abroad. Christian emigration has been noted for more than a decade.
But hopes of a better season had some people energised. Batarseh said 18,000 visited last year, and he is expecting 30,000 this year.
Workers were hanging ornaments on the huge Christmas tree in Manger Square, overlooking the Church of the Nativity. A man bent over the church bells, giving them a new coat of paint. Lights and stars lined the main street leading to the church.
But most of the shops remained closed. The town that used to receive an average of 90,000 visitors a month in the mid-1990s, after an interim peace deal with Israel brought calm, saw the numbers drop to around 7,000 in the first 10 months of last year.
This year, the numbers have bounced back, showing that some 130,000 tourists have visited the holy site in the past five months.
Saad, a street vendor working at the entrance to the Church of the Nativity, said the improvement has not got everyone back in business. He was working without a permit and gave only his first name in fear of reprisal.
“We used to get 200 buses (of tourists) a day,” he said. “Now the most is 40 a day,” he said.
