December 25, 2012
Hundreds gathered to watch the festive scene in Manger Square, outside the Church of Nativity, where choral groups sang and children ran around in holiday costumes.
December 25, 2012
Hundreds gathered to watch the festive scene in Manger Square, outside the Church of Nativity, where choral groups sang and children ran around in holiday costumes.
Christian worshipers visit the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, ahead of Christmas, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Sunday.
BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK — Thousands of pilgrims and Palestinians converged on Bethlehem Monday to celebrate the first Christmas in this West Bank city since the U.N. vote recognizing Palestine as a non-member state. The celebrations capped a boom year for the city of Jesus’ birth, with a record two million tourists in 2012 helping an impressive economic revival.
A few hundred fortunate ticket-holders packed into St. Catherine's, the Catholic chapel inside the Church of the Nativity marking the traditional birthplace of Jesus to join Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials at Midnight Mass conducted by the Latin Patriarch, Fouad Twal. Thousands more watched the service on screens in Manger Square.
The event was the capstone of a good year.
Palestinian Tourism Minister Rula Ma'aya said an increase in much-needed tourism had helped boost the local economy as Palestinians celebrated "a unique Christmas that comes after the world recognized Palestine as a state."
"By the end of this year we will have a 20% increase in the total number of tourists and an increase of 25% in the number staying overnight in Palestine and mainly in Bethlehem," she added.
Fueled by the steady rise in visitors, Bethlehem's economy has soared. A massive building boom is pushing the number of hotel rooms from 1,000 in 2005 to 5,000 by the end of 2013. New restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and other tourist-related trades have seen business grow by 20% in the past year.
A 55-feet-tall Christmas Tree stands in Manger Square in Bethlehem.
In recent months, private entrepreneurs have opened Bethlehem's first two cinemas and the city's first bowling alley with a 300-seat bar, restaurant and conference center.
Unemployment has fallen from 22% to 18% since 2010.
A new French-sponsored industrial zone opening in the new year will create another 1,500 jobs. More than 20 zero-interest loans of $8,000 each have been given to small local businesses and the Bethlehem Development Initiative, a private-public partnership, has been formed to plan the city's economic future.
"Our council consists of technocrats and young people ready and capable of enhancing the development of the city," said Vera Baboun, the city's newly-elected first woman mayor.
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal leads the procession to the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Bethlehem has boomed despite severe restrictions imposed by Israel, including the 30-foot-high security wall at the city entrance that stops suicide bombers but also severs the city from neighboring Jerusalem and cuts off many local residents from their land.
"We control only 35% of the Bethlehem area," said Samir Hazboun, chairman of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. He said exports were made more expensive by cumbersome Israeli bureaucracy.
In Manger Square on Christmas Eve, 27-year-old Nabil Giacaman complained of isolation from Jerusalem and still-uncertain relations with Israel, even as he did brisk trade with tourists at Christmas House, the factory outlet founded by his grandfather Elias in 1925.
Christian pilgrims from Singapore in prayers in the 'Grotto,' or cave, where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, in the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, 24 December 2012, Christmas eve.
"I have the right to live in freedom without walls and without checkpoints," said Giacaman, whose family arrived from Italy with the crusaders in the 14th century.
"They took 10 acres of our olive groves when they built the wall. I have a permit to go through but I can't haul the harvest back without workers and who knows when the soldiers might open fire? I don't want to die for olives."
"I'm 100% for peace, but I don't hold out much hope," he said. "We have a saying here: The land of Jesus will always cry."
A Palestinian girl watches a Christmas parade outside the Church of Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem December 24.
A Palestinian vendor sells balloons and Christmas hats at Manger Square, outside the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas eve in the West Bank town of Bethlehem December 24.
Courtesy: NYDN
