Word: bethlehem
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Thanks to its renown as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem has long since ceased to be the "little town" described in the popular carol. It is instead a city whose 35,000 residents have traditionally been joined by so many pilgrims and tourists that there is often no room in the inns. But the boom and bustle came to a rather sudden halt in December 1987, when the intifadeh arose among the Arabs in Israel's occupied territories. Last Christmas only 5,000 visitors -- half the normal turnout -- attended Bethlehem's elaborate holiday observance. In the year since then...
Last week a decree went out from the Bethlehem city council that will make Christmas 1988 the gloomiest yet. To express solidarity with the Arab cause, the leaders ordered historic Manger Square to be bare of the usual tinsel and twinkling lights. The city is also canceling the annual Boy Scout parade and its reception for visiting dignitaries. Moreover, many citizens say they are too dispirited this year to hold their customary family celebrations. The new Latin patriarch Michel Sabbah, a pointed critic of Israel's policy toward Arab residents, will still lead the centuries-old procession across the square...
...sadness extends from Bethlehem to nearby Jerusalem and many West Bank towns, where Christians, who are overwhelmingly Arabs, say they too will be forgoing glittering displays and traditional festivities. Most of the country's Christian leaders see no end to the intifadeh. They fear that their flocks, already reduced by a century of emigration to the West, could gradually decline into virtual extinction, as has already happened to the once grand Greek Orthodox community in Muslim Turkey...
Despite such statistics, Christians have already become a minority in places where they traditionally predominated. Bethlehem, for instance, a Christian stronghold from the very earliest days of the faith, now has a Muslim majority as a result of high Islamic birthrates and an influx from refugee camps. The growing influence of Israel's Orthodox Jewish political movements adds to anxieties. Says Bethlehem's Nasser: "Jewish and Arab fundamentalism are the same. They are like sisters, and we fear the sisters are going to clash, and we will be caught in the middle...
RELIGION: It' s a gloomy Christmas in Bethlehem...