Bethlehem: From 'Little Town' to Imprisoned City

This December, millions of people around the world will gaze upon their Christmas trees and sing about the “little town of Bethlehem.”  In today’s Bethlehem, thousands of residents will spend the holidays in virtual imprisonment.  Bethlehem, like the rest of the Palestinian West Bank, has been under occupation for over forty years.  In that time, Bethlehem has experienced a substantial loss of land through the expansion of Israeli settlements and the construction of Israel’s wall around the city. And, as a result of Israeli building restrictions, it has been unable to develop even the land that it has maintained. Jerusalem, just five miles away, is completely inaccessible for all but a handful of people.  Traditional mainstays of the economy, including tourism, agriculture, and work in Jerusalem, are continually undermined by occupation policies. Had the myriad of checkpoints, gates and barriers that exist today been present 2000 years ago, the Christmas story cherished by so many would likely be unrecognizable to us.

Since 2002, Bethlehem has endured the devastating effects of the construction of Israel’s wall. The wall does not merely separate Palestinians from Israelis; it separates families from one another, farmers from their agricultural land, and isolates entire communities from the outside world. To build the wall, Israel has confiscated more than 60,000 acres of Palestinian land, uprooted more than 100,000 Palestinian trees and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian homes. Construction in the northern part of the city is complete, and the wall now completely severs Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Construction is presently underway in the western part of the Bethlehem governorate, and, when complete, will result in the annexation of an additional 25 square miles of some of Bethlehem’s most fertile land to Israel. Nine Palestinian communities with a total population of approximately 21,000 people will be cut off from Bethlehem’s city center, which is home to the services of the city, including hospitals, schools and markets.

Settlements and settlement infrastructure add to the loss of land and restrictions on Palestinian movement. There are 19 settlements and 16 settlement outposts in the Bethlehem governorate alone.  The settler population is 86,000, making it almost three times the population of the city of Bethlehem.  To allow for the ease of settler movement between settlements and to and from Jerusalem, Israel has constructed bypass Road 60.  The road is built entirely on privately-owned Palestinian land.  

The restrictions extend to religious sites as well. Rachel’s Tomb and the Bilal Mosque, a site holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims, is located in the northern part of the city. Here, the path of the wall actually cuts into the city in order to encompass the holy site and make it easily accessible to Israelis while prohibiting Palestinians from visiting. Before the construction of the wall, there were 80 small but flourishing shops, restaurants and other commercial establishments around the tomb; today, only six remain open. 

Given the amount of land that has been lost to the occupation and to the seemingly permanent Israeli settlements and wall, it is difficult to understand why anyone would hold on to hope for a better future.  Yet many do just that. 

Zoughbi Zoughbi, the director of the Wi’am Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem, maintains a belief that his present suffering is only temporary: “We are passing through the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering).  I believe in resurrection and hope.  My family has lived here for over four hundred years, so I hope my kids will be able to live peacefully and enjoy their lives and have a safe haven they can call home.  I hope the wall will collapse and there will be no more judgment on the basis of color, gender or race.”

But this hope is not shared by all of Bethlehem’s inhabitants. Those who have the financial means are increasingly fleeing Bethlehem and Palestine altogether. A disproportionately high number of these families are Christian.  George Ghattas of the Latin Patriarchate in Bethlehem recently told the BBC, "Christianity started here and should continue to remain here. You would worry if the origin of that religion is basically monuments and shrines and stones, but you don't have faith believers."  Palestinian Christians, often called the Living Stones, once accounted for 80% of Bethlehem’s population.  Today they are a mere 15%, with more families leaving as conditions worsen.

Even the dwindling numbers of religious pilgrims who visit the city rarely stray beyond Bethlehem’s best-known tourist destinations, the Church of the Nativity and Manger Square. But Alex Awad, Dean of Students at Bethlehem Bible College, reminds us that there is more to Bethlehem than these iconic sites: “Today, the best place to see the Baby Jesus is to go to a refugee camp rather than the Nativity Church.  That is where you see the reality of what is happening on the ground; you see real life, and not just tourist attractions.” In Awad’s words, “If we want peace in the world, which is the Christmas message, then we need to stand in solidarity with those who are suffering in Bethlehem.”