Two Stories from Bethlehem:

1) Hardships Leave Bethlehem With No Holiday
2) Christmas Cheer Elusive in Bethlehem

Bob

===============================================

Hardships Leave Bethlehem With No Holiday
Tue Dec 23, 2:25 PM ET

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - There is no Christmas tree in Aida Ghaneim's
Bethlehem home this year. No festive lights hang from the ceiling,
and the 48-year-old mother of four has no plans to cook her usual
feast.

It is not that Ghaneim is abandoning Christmas. On the contrary, she
said, "It abandoned us."

A shriveling economy, continuing Israeli restrictions and other
hardships caused by three years of Mideast violence have left
Christians living in the traditional birthplace of Jesus with little
desire to celebrate.

Few of Bethlehem's usual decorations are in place: A Santa outside
one shop, a few lights outside another. Many of the red, green and
blue lights strung over the streets around Manger Square are burned
out.


The Palestinian Authority, saying it lacks the money, refused the
town its usual $100,000 decoration budget, forcing local officials to
scrounge up $10,000 on their own.


"The whole atmosphere of Christmas is gone," said Jane Bandak, 18,
whose family's traditional 30-person Christmas meal will shrink to
half a dozen guests this year.


Some Christians have decided to ignore the holiday that was once the
high point of their year. Others have fled abroad, splitting up their
families. About 2,000 of the town's 28,000 Christians have left
during the recent violence, local officials say. They now make up
only 35 percent of a town they once dominated.


Checkpoints, curfews and closures, enforced by Israel to stop
Palestinian suicide bombings that have killed more than 400 Israelis
over the past three years, make it hard for families spread across
the West Bank to get together.


Israel says it plans to ease travel restrictions for Palestinian
Christians over the holiday, but many Palestinians are skeptical.
They say they do not want to spend their holiday waiting at
roadblocks.


Before the violence flared, Christmas Eve was an all-night reunion
for the Ghaneim family.


Between 30 and 40 relatives came from all over, from Ramallah,
Jerusalem, Jenin and even Jordan to roast chestnuts, play cards,
exchange gifts, and drink anise and beer in Ghaneim's home.


"No one slept. The few who did were on the couch and on the floor,"
she said.


On Christmas Day, she would spend the morning visiting relatives and
then serve a feast of stuffed chicken and chunks of lamb with rice
and yogurt for as many as 20 people.


Now, Ghaneim's family is in debt. One son is in school, a second is
unemployed and her third son is abroad looking for work. Her husband
also left, heading for the Ivory Coast to seek a job. Though her
family has not been directly hit by the violence, "Every mother gets
affected when she sees others' kids dying," she said.


Tired, cash-poor and depressed, she canceled her usual 10-day pre-
Christmas shopping spree and has not gone to church once in recent
days, though she used to attend every day in the week before
Christmas.


The Christmas Eve party has disappeared amid the violence and
restrictions. The Christmas feast is gone as well.


She plans to eat Christmas lunch with just her mother-in-law and
father-in-law, and she has no plans to cook anything festive.

"I'm so demoralized, I can't invite anybody this year," she said. "My
heart is closed."

Much of Maha Saca's family has gone abroad as well, and in a personal
protest of the conditions here, the 50-year-old crafts shop owner has
decided to forego her usual Christmas tree, straining under the
weight of tiny Santas and green and red ornaments.

"I feel ashamed to celebrate anything," she said.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Bethlehem's Evangelical Lutheran
Christmas Church, complained that while Christians around the world
prepare to sing Christmas carols harking to this town, few appear
concerned with the plight of the place where Jesus was born.

"The majority of Christians really don't know what is going on in the
little town of Bethlehem," he said.

===============================================

Christmas Cheer Elusive in Bethlehem
Tue Dec 23, 9:56 AM ET

By Megan Goldin

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Christmas joy was as scarce in
Bethlehem on Tuesday as the few tourists intrepid enough to visit the
war-torn West Bank town revered as the birthplace as Jesus.

Owners of stores selling carved nativity sets and other Christian
souvenirs sat glumly in shops around Manger Square two days before
Christmas, with little hope of an upturn in trade.


"So far today there have been no tourists," said Joseph Giacaman as
he sorted yellowing postcards that have sat on his shelves since
before the Palestinian uprising erupted more than three years ago.


"When there are a few tourists they don't come here. They go to the
church and then they leave," he said despondently.


Giacaman's family began making and selling olive wood souvenirs about
150 years ago.


"Many times in the past there used to be trouble but still tourists
would come," he said. "But now..." he gestured at the near-empty
square in front of the Church of the Nativity, in better days the
center of Christmas festivities.


An officer for the Palestinian Tourist Police counts the handful of
tourists each day, entering the statistics on his clipboard.


"So far we've had around 20 today," said Rami the policeman. During
the heyday of Middle East peacemaking in the 1990s, Bethlehem was
visited by as many as 6,000 tourists a day, he said. A modern bus
station built then now stands empty.


JESUS'S BIRTHPLACE GLOOMY


Since 2000 there have been gun battles near Manger Square, Israeli
army raids and a standoff between Palestinian gunmen holed up in the
Church of the Nativity and besieging Israeli forces.


On Tuesday the Byzantine-era Church of the Nativity, built over the
spot where Jesus is believed to have been born, was deserted but for
two guards and a monk hanging incense burners.


Once, pilgrims would queue for hours for a brief glimpse of the
manger. These days there is no wait.


Bethlehem Mayor Hannah Nasser blamed Israeli military roadblocks for
the dearth of tourists and the town's dire economic troubles,
although the army said it would ease restrictions over Christmas.


"Factories are closing. Souvenir shops are going bankrupt," he told
Reuters. "Tourists are not coming and Bethlehem depends on tourism."


Nasser said the per capita income of Bethlehem people had dropped
from $2,400 a year before the uprising to only $400, while
unemployment had risen to 60 percent. Local Palestinians stared
dejectedly as the few tourists who had braved the Israeli military
checkpoints briefly visited the Church of Nativity and then left
quickly.


"The people of Bethlehem are not laughing. They are not smiling,"
said Rami the tourist policeman.