Bethlehem Boom expected for Christmas

There's no recession in Bethlehem it seems.

 

"Jingle Bells" rang out over Manger Square on Sunday as Bethlehem opened a Christmas market that the Palestinian city hopes will help cap a boom year for tourism with a profitable festive season.

 

"It has been an excellent year," Bethlehem's mayor Victor Batarseh said, forecasting 1.25 million visitors by the end of 2008 and noting a halving in local unemployment.

 

"We don't have any empty beds. Two years ago, all the hotels were empty."
 
Trade in the bibical birthplace of Jesus was devastated when the Palestinian uprising against Israel began in 2000 - months after a papal visit and millennium celebrations had seemed to lock in a rosy future for Bethlehem as a magnet for tourists and pilgrims in a region aglow with hopes for peace.

The "evil occupation" is not "persecuting the Christians, according to the Reuters article. But there has to be a dig at Israel. It's Christmas, isn't it?

 

Israelis attribute some of that calm on the streets of nearby Jerusalem to the construction of hundreds of kilometers (miles) of walls and fencing around the West Bank. People in Bethlehem blame the barrier for discouraging visitors, who must pass through Israeli military checkpoints to reach the city.

 

"When we came, we saw the watch tower. It's not so good for Christians," said Kinga Mirowska, 24, from Krakow, Poland, as she headed for the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born to Mary in a manger because Bethlehem's inns were full.

 

What do you think? If the city is full of tourists, is the security fence helping or hurting? Here is the result:

 

"We have witnessed a rebound in tourism," said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's tourism minister as she toured the handicrafts and festive decorations on sale from wooden booths in the German-style Christmas market.

"We have put Palestine back on the map as a destination," she added, noting hotel occupancy rates were now typically above 70 percent, compared to 10 percent a few years ago.

 

Peace on earth, Good will towards men. But not Israelis.

 

Ami Isseroff