Bethlehem no longer a ghost town

By ERIC SILVER

BETHLEHEM - Israel withdrew its armoured personnel carriers from Bethlehem the day before Christmas Eve and lifted a month-long curfew. Jesus' birthplace ceased to be a ghost town and sprang back to a semblance of life.

With neither Israeli soldiers nor Palestinian police anywhere to be seen, thousands of its Christian and Muslim residents thronged the markets while the going was good. The stalls were suddenly filled with fish and fowl, oranges, corn on the cob, salads and spices.

The trouble was that the West Bank city's 30,000 people had little to spend on them. Many had been unemployed since the intifada broke out two years ago. None had worked more than a couple of days since Israel imposed the curfew after a suicide bomber slipped out of Bethlehem and blew up a Jerusalem bus, killing 11 passengers.

There may be relief, but there is little joy this Christmas. Jamal Toshia, a 62-year-old Catholic, carves Nativity scenes from olive wood and mother of pearl. "This is the worst Christmas in 50 years," he said. "When I had money, I used to buy meat for the holiday. We treated ourselves to fruit and nuts. Now I'm buying the cheapest things I can get, a few dried figs, one kilo of tomatoes."

At noon in the old city market, paved and spruced up three years ago for the millennium, a man was hawking plump live rabbits and quails for the pot. "Since 7 o'clock," he complained, "I've sold only two." A fishmonger said people were buying sardines, but nothing bigger.

Three quarters of Bethlehem's economy depends on the pilgrim trade. This year, as last, there are no pilgrims. In his gift shop behind the Church of the Nativity, Daoud Mansour quipped that the last time he'd seen a tourist was in 1999.

Midnight mass will be celebrated tonight, but Israel has barred Yasser Arafat from attending. Manger Square is bare of Christmas tree or decorations. "No one feels like partying," said Mayor Hanna Nasser.

Journalists apart, the only foreigners in town were the 20 musicians and four singers of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Verona, who performed at Sunday mass in the Nativity church and again in the Italian Salesian church yesterday. Asked if they were afraid to come, their director, Alfredo Cavalieri, smiled: "We are here as witnesses to the possibility of normal life here." That's as optimistic a message as you will find in the holy land this Christmas.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald feature: The Middle East