Bethlehem'south declining Christian population casts shadow over Christmas

A pilgrim lights a candle Dec. 17 in the grotto of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

Bethlehem, W Banking concern — As Christmas approaches, visitors swarm Manger Square in Bethlehem to eat hot cups of sweet corn and have selfies side by side to the l-foot loftier tree in Manger Square. Christmas lights festoon the old stone alleyways, and the falafel sellers stay open extra late.

For the more than than a million foreign tourists who visit the Church of the Nascency each year, nothing seems amiss during a quick visit to the birthplace of Jesus. They dash into the basilica with their cameras held aloft and browse the plethora of shops selling Christian trinkets, the same way visitors take done for decades. But behind the touristy sheen, the demographics tell a different story. Bethlehem's Christian population is quickly disappearing, every bit Palestinians exit in droves for a ameliorate life abroad.

In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86 percentage Christian. But past 2016, the Christian population dipped to just 12 pct, co-ordinate Bethlehem mayor Vera Baboun. Across the West Bank, Christians at present account for less than 2 percent of the population, though in the 1970s, Christians were 5 percent of the population. In Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, today there are but 11,000 Christians.

Many people explicate that the declining Christian population in Palestine is due to the overall difficulties of living in Palestine, non considering of overt discrimination towards Christians. "Even Muslims are leaving; of course, information technology will not be as axiomatic to run into how many Muslims are leaving compared to the Christians, considering the Christians are really a minority," said Sr. Lucia Corradin, a Elizabethan sister from Italy who works at the Caritas Infant Hospital.

In Gaza, the situation for Christians is even more than precarious. In 2006, there were 5,000 Christians living in Gaza when difficult-line Hamas took power from the more moderate Fatah party. Ten years later, there are just 1,100 left, said Samir Qumsieh, the owner of Nascency Goggle box, the only Christian Television receiver station in Palestine, and a researcher focusing on Christian issues.

In Israel, where Arab Christians have insufficiently more opportunities than their Palestinian counterparts, the Christian population has stayed stable. The Christian population grew by virtually five,000 in the past 20 years. Today Christians in Israel number 164,700, about 2 percent of the population, a similar ratio to past decades.

Walid al-Shatleh, a gym instructor at Talitha Kumi school in Beit Jala, a traditionally Christian village side by side to Bethlehem, is one of the Palestinian Christians considering emigration. He and his extended family are debating between moving to Canada or Australia.

Al-Shatleh said the Israeli army seized 24 dunams (six acres) of his farmland to construct the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories, cut down his family's sometime growth olive trees and ruining his livelihood.

"We experience like at that place is no hereafter for us in this land," he said. "I can travel to Europe and move freely between countries, even leaving my passport [at the hotel]. But here, I accept to show my ID everywhere I get, I have to cross a checkpoint every day," he said. "I tin't visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, I used to go one time a month but now I need special permission."

"We alive like nosotros're an animal in a cage in a zoo, in that location's simply ane exit and entrance which is a slice of paper from Israeli authorities saying when I can go to Jerusalem and at what time," al-Shatleh added.

Bethlehem mayor Vera Baboun, a Catholic who has led the urban center since 2012, when she was the start woman elected mayor, said the city is trying to increase tourism. One major initiative is a sorely-needed $17 million renovation of the Church of the Nativity, including piece of work which would reveal the original floor mosaics, among other needed restoration.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism, 1.16 million foreigners visited the Church of the Nascence in 2013, the most contempo year statistics were available.

That aforementioned twelvemonth, well-nigh 3.54 million tourists visited State of israel. All tourists to Bethlehem make it from State of israel via one of 29 checkpoints that lead to the city and surrounding villages. One of the main complaints among residents is that many tourists come up to Bethlehem merely for a few hours to visit the church building and then immediately get back on the motorbus to return to Jerusalem, spending very picayune money in the city. Baboun said the city is considering a tourism tax to ensure some of the tourism dollars are directed dorsum to the metropolis.

Nabil Giacaman, a Catholic shop owner of the "Christmas House" store on Manger Square, said media emphasis on the shrinking Christian population was role of an effort to create an internal dissever in Palestinian society. "Information technology'southward not about Christians and Muslims, it'due south not that I'm facing these issues merely because I'm a Christian," said Giacaman. "As Muslims endure, Christians also suffer. At the terminate, nosotros are all Palestinian, we get the same permits and the aforementioned handling at the checkpoints."

Others say the situation is more nuanced.

"Officially, the laws are the same for Christians and Muslims but in that location is still some racism," said Qumsieh, who noted that virtually of the prejudice is connected to land ownership, and that people by and large try to sell land to others from the same religion.

"I can't run across how nosotros have a hereafter with this problem of ongoing emigration," said Qumsieh. "I promise it won't come to be that the Church building of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will become museums, but the fact on the ground is dark and gloomy."

Qumsieh said his own family unit is a perfect example of this. Every bit one of six highly-educated brothers, four of whom are engineers, Qumsieh is the only one still living in Palestine. His two sons, studying in the United States, laughed in his face when he asked if they were coming dorsum to Bethlehem after graduating from higher, Qmsieh recalled.

Qumsieh faulted the Israeli occupation for Bethlehem's struggles, but added that the metropolis also needs to address internal strife, including the stagnant economic system. "We need housing projects, we need investors who volition employ our youth," he said. "People will stay if they can get a flat and a job."

According to Baboun, the unemployment charge per unit in Bethlehem is 27 percent, the highest in the Palestinian territories after Gaza. Boilerplate unemployment in the West Bank is 22 percent.

Part of the obstruction towards economic development is that many of the large infrastructure projects must be coordinated with the Israeli Civil Administration, the Israeli Army, the Palestinian Authority, and the Bethlehem City Council, she said. Much of the city does not have running water, and residents must get water delivered privately. Additionally, at that place are no wastewater treatment areas in the region, a major ecology issue.

Sr. Lucia Corradin, the Caritas Babe Hospital administrator who has lived in Bethlehem for thirteen years, said that whenever she hears of another Christian moving abroad she is disappointed but agreement.

"It'southward really linked to your freedom, to do what you desire, to search for your future," she said. "Nosotros have so many colleagues who are resigning to find a better futurity. What can you say? I remember people, before reaching that determination, they suffer a lot. It's a actually painful conclusion. Y'all don't want them to suffer more, you lot only hope for the all-time, even for those who are choosing to emigrate and leave this country."

Baboun is hoping that the tourists who throng Manger Square Dec. 24 will acknowledge the difficult realities while even so celebrating the traditional Christmas sprit. "Bethlehem is open up, and Bethlehem is ringing the bells of joy for peace in the Eye Eastward," she said.

There are at present 55 hotels in Bethlehem, Baboun added, hopefully ensuring that, unlike Joseph and Mary, everyone who wants to will find a identify at an inn. And despite all the difficulties, there is a certain thrill when she tells people around the world that she is from Bethlehem. "My religion has afflicted my power to hope," said Baboun. "I was built-in and raised in Bethlehem, and I always carry that inside of me."

[Melanie Lidman is Eye East and Africa contributor for Global Sisters Study based in State of israel.]

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