wfn.org | Violence, unemployment dim Christmas glow in Bethlehem

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Note #6312 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

19-December-2000
00456

Violence, unemployment dim Christmas glow in Bethlehem 

Celebration of Christ's birth will go on, but in an atmosphere of sorrow

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Nidal Al-Korna plays cards every day at his brother's
souvenir shop on Manger Square in Bethlehem.

	That's not his day job.

	 It's just the way he passes time since the tour buses stopped shuttling
between Bethlehem and nearby Jerusalem. Any other Christmas, Al-Korna would
be hustling busloads of tourists up and down Bethlehem's narrow streets,
telling them what he has told thousands of other camera-toting pilgrims to
Jesus's birthplace. But there's no call for tour guides now.

	That's because Bethlehem and the neighboring towns of Beit Jala and Beit
Sahour are among the targets of the bombs of the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) -- and have been for more than two months.

	"The streets are empty. There are no buses," Al-Korna says. "The city built
a large parking lot, a place just for tourists, but it is closed. You'd
expect the city, especially this month, to be full of life ... with
Christmas decorations, Christmas preparations. But instead, all people are
talking about is, 'What about tomorrow? How will we face tomorrow?'

	"And nobody has the answer for it," adds Al-Korna, 32, who whiles his days
away playing cards with the other idle tour guides. They can't go elsewhere
to find work because the IDF has sealed off Bethlehem, in reprisal for the
Palestinian violence that erupted last fall and continues today. Few go in
or out.

	Consequently, there is no money in Bethlehem.

	In a normal Christmas season, more than 150 tour buses would be cruising
into and out of Bethlehem daily, to see first-hand the shepherd's field --
where angels proclaimed Christ's birth, according to the Gospel writer Luke
-- and Basilica of the Nativity, which is said to mark the spot where Christ
was born in a manger. A stone church there is believed to be the oldest
continually used Christian sanctuary in the world.

	Any interruption in the tourist trade brings economic chaos.

	The losses are particular devastating this year because the expectation of
profit was even higher than usual. Bethlehem was expecting 1.5 million
tourists between October and the year's end, as part of the "Bethlehem 2000"
campaign to draw tourists into the city for a millennial bash to celebrate
Jesus' birth.

	  More than $200 million was spent to get Bethlehem ready. New hotels were
built. Ancient streets were widened.

	"What's lost is not small amounts," Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser told the
Presbyterian News Service. "Millions. Millions."

	Nasser talked about the collapse of an economy that already was fragile --
while saying that he still hopes to recoup some of the loss when the
fighting stops.

	"With tourism? You don't see anyone. It is dead," he said. "Completely. The
city is closed by the Israeli army.  The ordinary workers, laborers, can't
to out to earn their $60 a day now (since most have to cross the border into
Jerusalem). Commerce isn't functioning as it should. Even light industry
can't get materials ... and cannot move.

	"We're in a very serious situation."

	The seriousness is felt first-hand by managers like Jack Giacaman, 28, a
third-generation operator of two factories where olive wood and seashells
are carved into religious figures and symbols, such as crosses and creches.
He said he had to lay off 10 full-time workers and has taken out a bank loan
to employ 18 carvers two days a week to produce artifacts he can't export.
Christmas and Easter buying accounts for the bulk of his business.

	Giacaman, an accountant by trade, is moonlighting — balancing the books at
the municipal hospital -- to make his living.

	"Bethlehem is totally dead ... People are buying only for their basic needs
and food," he said. "They're unable to pay the telephone bills, the electric
bills. Sometimes there is a shortage of gas ... and we're not allowed to
enter the city (Jerusalem)."

	Giacaman said about 500 families Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala have
been forced from their homes and become refugees.

	He said he has seen the city shut down before -- but never like this.

	"In the Gulf War, Israel put us under curfew. It was more horrible than
now, because we were prevented from going out of our houses — and it stayed
like this the whole Gulf War," he said. "But now the danger is that you can
be killed."

	A few weeks ago, shortly before he packed up for a few months of  home
leave, Presbyterian Church (USA) missionary Douglas Dicks would go up on the
roof of his apartment building at night to watch the shells and tracer
bullets being poured into Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

	"It was an almost nightly occurrence," said Dicks, who claimed the IDF was
hitting buildings under construction and private homes. "You wonder how
anybody could survive that," he said. "Lots of shooting, shells. I'd sit
there thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening. Christian towns and
villages are being shelled.'

	"The Israelis claim that snipers are shooting from some of the buildings
under construction," Dicks added. "But (no one ever) sees bodies pulled out
of the rubble ... So you have to wonder if they're not simply using this to
destroy the (Palestinian) infrastructure."

	A fragile infrastructure at best.

	The Palestinian economy is heavily dependent upon Israel. The Washington
Post has reported that about 25 percent of the gross national product for
the Palestinian territories comes from Palestinians working in Israel. The
newspaper said the Palestinian Authority receives $600 million a year in
revenue transfers, including 75 percent of Israeli income taxes paid by
Palestinian workers.

	But no one is working now. The borders are closed.

	"We're facing the hardest time I've ever seen in this country," said
Al-Korna, who has been struggling to pay for furniture he bought last fall
when he moved his five children to a bigger apartment — and to pay tuition
at a private Catholic school where several are enrolled.  Any cash he gets
his hands on now, he said, goes for food.

	"When this started, we thought, 'In three days, this is going to be over,'"
he said. "Then  a week. Then 10 days. Maybe two weeks.

	"Now no one knows when it will stop."

	The mayor insists that the violence won't stop Christmas Eve celebrations
in Bethlehem, although it will be on a smaller scale than Bethlehem 2000
envisioned.

	"This Christmas is going to be a sad one," Nasser said, pointing out that
more than 200 residents have been injured in the uprising, and about 20 have
been killed. "What's missing is the smiles on children's faces. You don't
see that. The Christmas tree is in Manger Square, but there are no
decorations on the streets of the city.

	"We're in a very serious situation. But that does not mean the city will
not celebrate Christmas this year."

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