Bethlehem ( , , lit "House
of Meat"; Bethleém; , Beit Lehem, lit "House of
Bread") is a Palestinian city in
the central West
Bank
, approximately south of Jerusalem
, with a population of about 30,000 people.
It is the
capital of the Bethlehem Governorate
of the Palestinian National
Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism.
Bethlehem
is believed by most Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth
. The
town is inhabited by one of the oldest Christian communities in the
world, though the size of the community has shrunk in recent years
due to emigration.
The city is the birthplace of
David and the
location where he was crowned as the
king of Israel. The city
was sacked by the
Samaritans in 529 CE,
during their revolt, but was rebuilt by the
Byzantine emperor
Justinian I. Bethlehem was conquered by the
Arab Caliphate of
'Umar ibn
al-Khattāb in 637, who guaranteed safety for the city's
religious shrines. In 1099, Crusaders captured and fortified
Bethlehem and replaced its
Greek
Orthodox clergy with a
Latin one.
The Latin clergy were
expelled after the city was captured by Saladin, the sultan of
Egypt
and Syria
.
With the
coming of the Mamluk
in 1250, the city's walls were demolished, and were
subsequently rebuilt during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
The British wrested control of the city from the
Ottomans during
World
War I and it was to be included in an
international zone under the 1947
United Nations
Partition Plan for Palestine.
Jordan
annexed the
city in the 1948
Arab-Israeli War. It was occupied by Israel
in the 1967
Six-Day War. Since 1995,
Bethlehem has been governed by the Palestinian National
Authority.
Bethlehem has a
Muslim majority, but is also
home to one of the largest
Palestinian Christian communities.
The
Bethlehem agglomeration includes the
towns of Beit
Jala
and Beit
Sahour
, as well as the refugee camps of 'Aida
and Azza
.
Bethlehem's chief economic sector is tourism which peaks
during the Christmas season when Christian
pilgrims throng to the Church of the Nativity
. Bethlehem has over thirty hotels and three
hundred handicraft work shops.
Rachel's Tomb
, an important Jewish holy site, is located at the
entrance of Bethlehem.
History
The first historical reference to the town appears in the
Amarna Letters (C. 1400 BC) when the King of
Jerusalem appeals to his Lord, the King of Egypt, for help in
retaking "
Bit-Lahmi" in the wake of disturbances by the
Apiru. Since the Jews and Arabs had not yet
arrived in the area it is thought that the similarity of this name
to its modern forms inidicates that this was a settlement of
Canaanites who shared a Semitic cultural and linguistic heritage
with the later arrivals.
Biblical era
Bethlehem, located in the "hill country" of
Judah, may be the same as the Biblical
Ephrath, which means "fertile": There is a
possible reference to it as Beth-Lehem Ephratah. It is also known
as Beth-Lehem Judah, and "the city of David". It is first mentioned
in the Tanakh and the Bible as the place where the Abrahamic
matriarch
Rachel died and was buried "by the
wayside" (Gen. 48:7).
Rachel's Tomb, the traditional grave site, stands at the entrance
to Bethlehem. According to the Book of Ruth, the valley to
the east is where
Ruth of
Moab gleaned the fields and returned to town with
Naomi. Bethlehem is the traditional
birthplace of
David, the second king of
Israel, and the
place where he was anointed king by
Samuel. It was from the well of Bethlehem
that three of his warriors brought him water when he was hiding in
the cave of
Adullam.
Roman and Byzantine periods
View of Church of the Nativity in
1833, painting by M.N.Vorobiev
Between 132-135 the city was occupied by the Romans after its
capture during the
Bar Kokhba
Revolt. Its Jewish residents were expelled by the
military orders of
Hadrian. While ruling Bethlehem, the Romans built a
shrine to the mythical
Greek cult figure Adonis on
the site of the Nativity. A church was erected in 326, when
Helena, the mother of the
first
Byzantine emperor
Constantine, visited Bethlehem.
During the
Samaritan revolt of 529,
Bethlehem was sacked and its walls and the Church of the Nativity
destroyed, but they were soon rebuilt on the orders of the Emperor
Justinian I. In 614, the
Persian Sassanid Empire invaded
Palestine and captured Bethlehem. A story
recounted in later sources holds that they refrained from
destroying the church on seeing the
magi
depicted in
Persian clothing in a
mosaic.
Birthplace of Jesus
Silver star marking the place where
Jesus was born according to Christian tradition
Two accounts in the
New Testament
describe
Jesus as born in Bethlehem.
According
to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus' parents lived in Nazareth but traveled to Bethlehem for the census of CE 6, and Jesus was born
there before the family returned to Nazareth.
The
Gospel of Matthew account
implies that the family already lived in Bethlehem when Jesus was
born, and later moved to Nazareth. Matthew reports that
Herod the Great, told that a 'King of the
Jews' has been born in Bethlehem, ordered the killing of all the
children aged two and under in the town and surrounding areas.
Jesus' earthly father
Joseph is warned
of this in a dream, and the family escapes this fate by fleeing to
Egypt and returning only after Herod has died. But being warned in
another dream not to return to Judea, Joseph withdraws the family
to
Galilee, and goes to live in
Nazareth.
Early Christians interpreted a
verse in the
Book of Micah as a
prophecy of the birth of the
Messiah in
Bethlehem. Many modern scholars question whether Jesus was really
born in Bethlehem, and suggest that the different Gospel accounts
were invented to present the birth of Jesus as fulfillment of
prophecy and imply a connection to the lineage of King David. The
Gospel of Mark and the
Gospel of John do not include a nativity
narrative or any hint that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and refer
to him only as being from Nazareth. In a 2005 article in
Archaeology magazine,
archaeologist Aviram Oshri pointed to the absence of evidence of
settlement of the area at the time when Jesus was born, and
postulates that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Galilee. Opposing
him, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor argues for the traditional
position.
The antiquity of the tradition of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem is
attested by the
Christian
apologist Justin Martyr, who
stated in his
Dialogue with Trypho (c. 155-161) that the
Holy Family had taken refuge in a cave
outside of the town.
Origen of Alexandria,
writing around the year 247, referred to a cave in the town of
Bethlehem which local people believed was the birthplace of Jesus.
This cave was possibly one which had previously been a site of the
cult of
Tammuz.
Islamic rule and the Crusades
In 637, shortly after
Jerusalem
was captured by the
Muslim armies,
'Umar ibn al-Khattāb, the second
Caliph visited Bethlehem and promised that the Church
of the Nativity would be preserved for Christian use.
A mosque
dedicated to Umar was built upon the place in the
city where he prayed, next to the church. Bethlehem then
passed from the control of the Islamic caliphates of the
Ummayad in the 8th century, then the
Abbasid in the
9th century.
Persian geographer recorded in the mid-9th
century that a well preserved and much venerated church existed in
the town. In 985,
Arab geographer
al-Muqaddasi visited Bethlehem, and referred to
its church as the "Basilica of Constantine, the equal of which does
not exist anywhere in the country-round." In 1009, during the reign
of the sixth Fatimid Caliph
al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Church of
the Nativity was ordered to be demolished, but was spared by local
Muslims, because they had been permitted to worship in the
structure's south transept.
In 1099, Bethlehem was captured by the
Crusaders, who fortified it and built a new
monastery and cloister on the north side of the Church of the
Nativity. The
Greek Orthodox
clergy were removed from their Sees and replaced with
Latin clerics. Up until that point the
official Christian presence in the region was Greek Orthodox. On
Christmas Day 1100
Baldwin I,
first king of the Frankish
Kingdom
of Jerusalem, was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin
episcopate was also established in the town.
A painting of Bethlehem, 1882
In 1187,
Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who led the
Muslim Ayyubids, captured Bethlehem
from the Crusaders. The Latin clerics were forced to leave,
allowing the Greek Orthodox clergy to return. Saladin agreed to the
return of two Latin priests and two deacons in 1192. However,
Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was
a sharp decrease of European pilgrims.
William IV, Count of Nevers had
promised the Christian bishops of Bethlehem that if Bethlehem
should fall under Muslim control, he would welcome them in the
small town of Clamecy
in present-day Burgundy, France. As such, The
Bishop of Bethlehem duly took up residence in the hospital of
Panthenor, Clamecy in 1223. Clamecy remained the continuous
'
in partibus infidelium' seat of the
Bishopric of Bethlehem for almost 600 years, until the
French Revolution in 1789.
Bethlehem
— along with Jerusalem, Nazareth and Sidon
— was
briefly ceded to the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem by a treaty
between Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II and
Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil in 1229, in return
for a ten-year truce between the Ayyubids and the Crusaders.
The treaty expired in 1239 and Bethlehem was recaptured by the
Muslims in 1244.
In 1250, with the coming to power of the
Mamluks under
Rukn al-Din
Baibars, tolerance of Christianity declined; the clergies left
the city, and in 1263 the town walls were demolished. The Latin
clergy returned to Bethlehem the following century, establishing
themselves in the monastery adjoining the Basilica of the Nativity.
The Greek Orthodox were given control of the basilica and shared
control of the Milk Grotto with the Latins and the
Armenians.
Ottoman and Egyptian era
A crowded street in Bethlehem,
1880
View of Bethlehem, 1898
From 1517, during the years of
Ottoman control, custody of the Basilica was
bitterly disputed between the Catholic and Greek
Orthodox churches. By the end of the
16th century, Bethelem had become one of the largest villages in
the District of Jerusalem, and was subdivided into seven quarters.
The Basbus family served as the heads of Bethlehem among other
leaders during this period.
Bethlehem paid taxes on wheat, barley, and grapes. The Muslims and
Christians were organized into separate communities, each having
its own leader; five leaders represented the village in the
mid-16th century, three of whom were Muslims. Ottoman tax records
suggest that the Christian population was slightly more prosperous
or grew more grain as opposed to grapes, the former being a more
valuable commodity.
From 1831
to 1841, Palestine was under the rule Muhammad Ali Dynasty of Egypt.
During this period, the town suffered an earthquake as well as the
destruction of the Muslim quarter in 1834 by Egyptian troops,
apparently as a reprisal for the murder of a favored loyalist of
Ibrahim Pasha. In 1841,
Bethlehem came under Ottoman rule once more and remained so until
the end of the World War I. Under the Ottomans, Bethlehem's
inhabitants faced unemployment,
compulsory
military service and heavy taxes, resulting in mass emigration
particularly to
South America. An
American missionary in the 1850s reports an population of under
4,000, 'nearly all of them belong to the Greek Church.' He also
comments that 'there is a fatal lack of water' and hence it could
never become a large town.
Twentieth century
Bethlehem was administered by the British Mandate from 1920 until
1948. In the
United
Nations General Assembly's
1947 resolution to
partition Palestine, Bethlehem was included in the special
international enclave of Jerusalem
to be administered by the
United
Nations.
Jordan annexed the
city during the 1948
Arab-Israeli War. Many refugees from areas captured by
Israeli forces in 1947-48 fled to the Bethlehem area,
primarily settling in the what became the official refugee camps of
'Azza and 'Aida in the north
and Dheisheh
in the south. The influx of refugees
significantly transformed Bethlehem's Christian majority into a
Muslim one.
Israeli Soldiers in Bethlehem, 1978.
Jordan
retained control of the city until the Six-Day War in 1967, when Bethlehem was occupied
by Israel, along with the rest of the West Bank. On December 21, 1995, Israeli troops
withdrew from Bethlehem, and three days later the city came under
the complete administration and military control of the
Palestinian National
Authority in conformance with the
Interim
Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1995.
Second Intifada
During the
Second Palestinian
Intifada, which began in 2000-01, Bethlehem's infrastructure
and
tourism industry were severely damaged.
In 2002, it was a primary combat zone in
Operation Defensive Shield, a
major military offensive by the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
During
the operation, the IDF besieged the Church of the
Nativity
, where about 200 Palestinians, including a group of
militants, sought refuge amid IDF advancements into the
city. The siege lasted for 39 days and nine militants and
the church's bellringer were killed.
It ended with an
agreement to exile thirteen of the wanted militants to various
European nations and Mauritania
. Pope John Paul
II condemned Israel's actions, describing them as reaching
"unimaginable and intolerable" levels and the United Kingdom's
foreign ministry stated they were
"totally unacceptable".
Geography
A map indicating Bethlehem's
location
Bethlehem is located at
Bethlehem stands at an elevation of about
above sea level, higher than
nearby Jerusalem. Bethlehem is situated on the southern
portion in the Judean
Mountains
.
The city
is located northeast of Gaza
and the
Mediterranean Sea
, west of Amman
, Jordan, southeast
of Tel
Aviv
, Israel and south of
Jerusalem. Nearby cities and towns include Beit Safafa
and Jerusalem to the north, Beit Jala to the northwest, Husan
to the west,
al-Khadr
and Artas
to the southwest, and Beit Sahour to the east. Beit Jala and the latter form an
agglomeration with Bethlehem and the Aida and Azza refugee
camps are located within the city limits.
Old city
In the center of Bethlehem, is its old city. The old city consists
of eight quarters, laid out in a mosaic style, forming the area
around the Manger Square. The quarters include the Christian
al-Najajreh, al-Farahiyeh, al-Anatreh, al-Tarajmeh, al-Qawawsa and
Hreizat quarters and al-Fawaghreh — the only Muslim quarter. Most
of the Christian quarters are named after the Arab
Ghassanid clans that settled there.
Al-Qawawsa Quarter
was formed by Arab Christian emigrants from the nearby town of
Tuqu'
in the 18th century. There is also a
Syriac quarter outside of the old
city, whose inhabitants originate from Midyat
and
Ma'asarte in Turkey
. The
total population of the old city is about 5,000.
Climate
Bethlehem has a
Mediterranean
climate, with hot and dry summers and cold winters.
Temperatures in the winter season, from mid-December to mid-March,
could be cold and rainy. January is the coldest month, with
temperatures ranging from 1 to 13 degree Celsius
(33–55 °F). From May through September, the weather is warm
and sunny. August is the hottest month, with a high of 27 degrees
Celsius (81 °F). Bethlehem receives an average of of rainfall
annually, 70% between November and January.
Bethlehem's average annual relative
humidity is 60% and reaches its highest rates
between January and February. Humidity levels are at their lowest
in May. Night dew may occur in up to 180 days per year. The city is
influenced by the Mediterranean Sea breeze that occurs around
mid-day. However, Bethlehem is affected also by annual waves of
hot, dry, sandy and dust
Khamaseen winds that originate
from the
Arabian Desert, during
April, May and mid-June.
Demographics
Population
| Year |
Population |
| 1867 |
3,000-4,000 |
| 1945 |
8,820 |
| 1961 |
22,450 |
| 1983 |
16,300 |
| 1997 |
21,930 |
| 2004 (Projected) |
28,010 |
| 2006 (Projected) |
29,930 |
| 2007 |
25,266 |
In the PCBS's 1997 census, the city had a population of 21,670,
including a total of 6,570
refugees, accounting for 30.3% of the
city's population. In 1997, the age distribution of Bethlehem's
inhabitants was 27.4% under the age of 10, 20% from 10 to 19, 17.3%
from 20-29, 17.7% from 30 to 44, 12.1% from 45-64 and 5.3% above
the age of 65. There were 11,079 males and 10,594 females.
According to a PCBS estimate, Bethlehem had a population of 29,930
in mid-year 2006. The 2007 PCBS census, however, revealed a
population of 25,266, of which 12,753 were males and 12,513 were
females. There were 6,709 housing units, of which 5,211 were
households. The average household consisted of 4.8 family
members.
According to Ottoman tax records, Christians made up roughly 60% of
the population in the early
16th
century, while the Christian and Muslim population became equal
in the mid-16th century. There were no Muslim inhabitants by the
end of the century, with a recorded population of 287 adult male
tax-payers. Christians, like all non-Muslims throughout the Ottoman
Empire, were required to pay the
jizya tax. In
1867 an American visitor describes the town as having a population
of 3,000 to 4,000; of whom about 100 were
Protestants, 300 were
Muslims and "the remainder belonging to the Latin and
Greek Churches with a few Armenians".
In 1948, the religious makeup of the city was 85%
Christian, mostly of the Greek Orthodox and
Roman Catholic denominations, and 13%
Sunni
Muslim. By 2005, the proportion of Christian residents had
decreased dramatically, to about 20%.
The only mosque in
the Old City is the Mosque of Omar, located in the Manger Square.
Christian population
Four Bethlehem Christian women,
1911
The majority of Bethlehem's Christian inhabitants claim ancestry
from
Arab Christian clans from the
Arabian Peninsula, including the
city's two largest: al-Farahiyya and an-Najajreh.
The former claims to
have descended from the Ghassanids who
migrated from Yemen
to the
Wadi
Musa
area in present-day Jordan and
an-Najajreh descend from the Arabs of Najran
in the
southern Hejaz. Another Bethlehem clan,
al-Anantreh, also trace their ancestry to the Arabian
Peninsula.
The percentage of Christians in Bethlehem has been steadily
falling, primarily due to continuous emigration. The lower birth
rate among Christians as compared to Muslims also accounts for some
of the decline. In 1947, Christians made up 75% of the population,
but by 1998 this figure had declined to 23%. The current mayor of
Bethlehem,
Victor Batarseh told the
Voice of America that, "due to the
stress, either physical or psychological, and the bad economic
situation, many people are emigrating, either Christians or
Muslims, but it is more apparent among Christians, because they
already are a minority."
Palestinian Authority rule following the Interim Agreements is
officially committed to equality for Bethlehem area Christians,
although there have been a few incidents of violence against them
by the
Preventive Security
Service and militant factions.
The outbreak of the
Second Intifada
and the resultant decrease in tourism has also affected the
Christian minority, leaving many economically stricken as they are
the owners of many Bethlehem hotels and services which cater to
foreign tourists. A
statistical analysis
of why Christians are leaving the area blamed the lack of economic
and educational opportunities, especially due to the Christians'
middle-class status and
higher education. Since the Second
Intifada, 10% of the Christian population have left the city.
A 2006 poll of Bethlehem's Christians conducted by the Palestinian
Centre for Research and Cultural Dialogue, found that 90% reported
having Muslim friends, 73.3% agreed that the Palestinian National
Authority treats Christian heritage in the city with respect and
78% attributed the ongoing exodus of Christians from Bethlehem to
the Israeli travel restrictions in the area.
The
Hamas government's official position has
been to support the city's Christian population, though the party
at times has been criticized by some anonymous residents for
increasing the Islamic presence in the city by, for example,
activating the call to prayer at a previously unused local mosque
in a Christian neighborhood. According to the
Jerusalem Post, under Hamas, the
Christian population faces a lack of law and order which has left
it susceptible to land theft by local mafia who take advantage of
ineffective courts and the perception that the Christian population
is less likely to stand up for itself.
Economy
Shopping and industry
Shopping is a major sector in Bethlehem, especially during the
Christmas season. The city's main streets
and old markets are lined with shops selling handicrafts,
Middle Eastern spices, jewelry and oriental
sweets such as
baklawa.
The tradition of making
handicrafts in the city dates back
to its founding. Numerous shops in Bethlehem sell olive
wood carvings — for which the city is renowned
— made from the local olive groves. The carvings are the main
product purchased by tourists visiting Bethlehem. Religious
handicrafts are also a major industry in Bethlehem, and some
products include ornaments handmade from
mother-of-pearl, as well as olive wood statues, boxes,
and crosses.
The art of creating mother-of-pearl
handicrafts was introduced to Bethlehem by Franciscan friars from
Damascus
during the 14th
century. Stone and marble-cutting, textiles, furniture
and furnishings are other prevalent industries. Bethlehem also
produces paints, plastics,
synthetic
rubber, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and food
products, mainly pasta and confectionery.
Bethlehem
has a wine-producing company, Cremisan Wine
, founded in 1885, that currently exports wine to
several countries. The wine is produced by monks in the
Monastery of Cremisan, and the majority of the grapes are harvested
from the al-Khader area. The monastery's wine production is
around 700,000 liters per year.
Tourism
Tourism is Bethlehem's
primary industry and unlike
other Palestinian localities before 2000, the majority of the
working residents did not work in Israel. Over 25% of the working
population was employed directly or indirectly in the industry.
Tourism accounts for approximately 65% of the city's economy and
11% of the
Palestinian
National Authority.
The
Church of
the Nativity is one of Bethlehem's major tourist attractions and a magnet for
Christian pilgrims. It stands in the center of the city — a part
of the Manger
Square
— over a grotto or cave called the Holy Crypt,
where Jesus supposedly was born. Nearby is the Milk Grotto
where the Holy Family took refuge on their Flight to Egypt and next
door is the cave where St.
Jerome spent
thirty years
translating the Hebrew Scriptures
into Latin.
There are over thirty hotels in Bethlehem.
Jacir Palace
, built in 1910 near the church, is one of
Bethlehem's most successful hotels and its oldest. It was
closed down in 2000 due to the violence of the Second Intifada, but
reopened in 2005.
Economic conference
Bethlehem
hosted the largest ever economic conference in the Palestinian
territories
on May 21, 2008. It was initiated by
Palestinian
Prime Minister and former Finance
Minister Salam Fayyad to convince
over 1,000 businessmen, bankers and government officials from
throughout the Middle East to invest in
the West Bank and Gaza
Strip
, although Fayyad admitted the territories were "far
from the perfect business environment", being directly linked with
the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Nonetheless, 1.4 billion US dollars was
secured for business investments in the Palestinian
territories.
Culture
Embroidery
A woman in Bethlehem.
Her headdress and short jacket are typical of the Bethlehem
area.
Before the establishment of Israel as a state, Bethlehem costumes
and embroidery were popular in villages throughout the Judaean
Hills and the
coastal plain. The women
embroiderers of Bethlehem and the neighboring villages of Beit Jala
and Beit Sahour were known to be professional producers of wedding
costumes. Bethlehem was a center for embroidery producing a "strong
overall effect of colors and metallic brilliance."
Less formal dresses in Bethlehem were generally made of indigo
fabric and a sleeveless coat (
bisht), made from locally
woven wool, was worn over top. Dresses for special occasions were
made of striped silk with winged sleeves and the short
taqsireh jacket, known throughout Palestinian as the
Bethlehem jacket, was worn over it. The taqsireh was made of
velvet or
broadcloth, usually with heavy embroidery.
Bethlehem work was unique in its use of couched gold or silver
cord, or silk cord onto the silk, wool, felt or velvet used for the
garment, to create stylized floral patterns with free or rounded
lines. This technique was used for "royal"
wedding dresses (
thob malak),
taqsirehs and the
shatwehs worn by married women. It has
been traced by some to
Byzantium, and by
others to the more formal costumes of the Ottoman Empire's elite.
As Bethlehem was a Christian village, local women were also exposed
to the detailing on church vestments with their heavy embroidery
and silver brocade.
Mother-of-Pearl carving
Craftsmen working with
mother-of-pearl, early 20th century
The art
of mother-of-pearl carving has been a Bethlehem tradition since the
14th century when it was introduced to the city by Franciscan friars from
Damascus. Bethlehem's position as an important
Christian city has for centuries attracted a constant stream of
pilgrims. This generated much local work and
income, also for women, including making mother-of-pearl souvenirs.
It was noted by
Richard Pococke, who
travelled there in 1727.
Present day products include crosses, earrings, brooches, maps of
Palestine, and picture frames.
Cultural centers and museums
Bethlehem
is home to the Palestinian Heritage Center
, established in 1991. The center aims to
preserve and promote
Palestinian
embroidery,
art and folklore.
The International Center of Bethlehem is another cultural center
that concentrates primarily on the culture of Bethlehem. It
provides language and guide training, woman's studies and
arts and crafts displays, and
training.
A branch of the
the Edward Said
National Conservatory of Music is located in Bethlehem and has
about 500 students. Its primary goals are to teach children music,
train teachers for other schools, sponsor music research, and the
study of Palestinian folklore music.
Bethlehem has four museums located within its municipal borders.
The Crib of the Nativity Theatre and Museum offers visitors 31 3D
models depicting the significant stages of the life of Jesus. Its
theater presents a 20-minute animated show.
The Badd
Giacaman Museum
, located in the Old City of Bethlehem, dates back
to the 18th century and is primarily dedicated to the history and
process of olive oil
production.
Baituna al-Talhami Museum,
established in 1972, contains displays of the culture of
Bethlehem's inhabitants.
The International Museum of Nativity was
designed by United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
(UNESCO) for the purpose of showing works of "high
artistic quality in an evocative atmosphere".
Festivals
Christmas pilgrims, 1890
Christmas rites are held in Bethlehem on three different dates:
December 25 is the traditional date by the Roman Catholic and
Protestant denominations, but Greek,
Coptic and
Syrian Orthodox Christians
celebrate Christmas on January 6 and
Armenian Orthodox Christians on
January 19. Most Christmas processions pass through Manger Square,
the plaza outside the Basilica of the Nativity. Catholic services
take place in
St. Catherine's
Church and Protestants often hold services at Shepherds'
Fields.
Bethlehem, like other Palestinian localities, participates in
festivals related to saints and prophets that are attached to
Palestinian folklore. One such festival is the annual
Feast of Saint George (
al-Khadr) on 5 May-6 May.
During the
celebrations, Greek Orthodox Christians from the city march in
procession to the nearby town of al-Khader to baptize newborns in the waters around the
Monastery of St.
George and sacrifice a sheep in ritual.
The Feast of St.
Elijah (Mar Elias) is held
in a similar way, except the procession is towards the Monastery of
St. Elijah to the north of Bethlehem. The
feast commemorates the miracles attributed to the saint, a popular
figure in Palestine. Prior, to restrictions imposed on the
residents by Israel, local Christians used to visit the monastery,
bringing various gifts, such as bread, olive oil and candles. The
candles would be lit and the oil would be placed in front of
icons in the church, while the bread was handed
to the monks.
Government
Bethlehem
is the muhfaza (seat) or district capital of the Bethlehem
Governorate.
Bethlehem held its first municipal elections in 1876, after the
mukhtars ("heads") of the quarters of Bethlehem's Old City
(excluding the Syriac Quarter) made the decision to elect a local
council of seven members to represent each clan in the town. A
Basic Law was established so that if the
victor for mayor was a Catholic, his deputy should be of the Greek
Orthodox community.
Throughout, Bethlehem's rule by the British and Jordan, the Syriac
Quarter was allowed to participate in the election, as were the
Ta'amrah
Bedouins and Palestinian refugees,
hence ratifying the amount of municipal members in the council to
eleven. In 1976, an amendment was passed to allow women to vote and
become council members and later the voting age was increased from
21 to 25.
Today, the Bethlehem Municipal Council consists of fifteen elected
members, including the mayor and deputy mayor. A special statute
requires that the mayor and a majority of the municipal council be
Christian, while the remainder are open seats, not restricted to
any religion.
There are several branches of political parties on the council,
including
Communist,
Islamist, and secular. The leftist factions of the
Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) such as the
Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the
Palestinian People's Party (PPP)
usually dominate the reserved seats.
Hamas
gained the majority of the open seats in the 2005
Palestinian municipal
elections.
Elected Candidates of the Bethlehem municipal elections of
2005
Mayors
The mayor and the deputy mayor of Bethlehem are required by
municipal law to be Christian.
- Mikhail Abu Saadeh - 1876
- Khalil Yaqub - 1880
- Suleiman Jacir - 1884
- Issa Abdullah Marcus - 1888
- Yaqub Khalil Elias - 1892
- Hanna Mansur - 1895-1915
- Salim Issa al-Batarseh - 1916-17
- Salah Giries Jaqaman - 1917-21
- Musa Qattan - 1921-25
- Hanna Ibrahim Miladah - 1926-28
- Nicoloa Attalah Shain - 1929-33
Education
According to the
Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, approximately 84% of
Bethlehem's population over the age of 10 was literate. Of the
city's population, 10,414 were enrolled in schools (4,015 in
primary school, 3,578 in secondary
and 2,821 in high school). About 14.1% of high school students
received diplomas.
There were 135 schools in the Bethlehem
Governorate in 2006; 100 run the Education
Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority, seven by the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 28 were
private.
Bethlehem
is home to Bethlehem
University
, a Catholic
Christian co-educational institution of higher learning founded in
1973 in the Lasallian tradition, open to students of all
faiths. Bethlehem University is the first university
established in the West Bank, and can trace its roots to 1893 when
the
De La Salle
Christian Brothers opened schools throughout Palestine and
Egypt.
Transportation
A street in Bethlehem lined with
taxis
Services
Bethlehem
has three bus stations owned by private companies which offer
service to Jerusalem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Hebron
, Nahalin
, Battir
, al-Khader, al-Ubeidiya
and Beit
Fajjar
. There are two taxi stations that make trips
to Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Jerusalem, Tuqu' and Herodium
. There are also two car rental departments:
Murad and 'Orabi. Buses and taxis with West Bank licenses are not
allowed to enter Israel, including Jerusalem, without a
permit.
Movement restrictions
The Israeli construction of the
West Bank barrier has had an
impact on Bethlehem politically, socially, and economically. The
barrier runs along the northern side of the town's built-up area,
within meters of houses in 'Aida
refugee
camp on one side, and the Jerusalem municipality on the
other.
Most
entrances and exits from the Bethlehem agglomeration to the rest of
the West
Bank are currently subject to Israeli checkpoints and
roadblocks. The level of access varies based on Israeli
security directives. Travel for Bethlehem's Palestinian residents
from the West Bank into Israeli-annexed Jerusalem is regulated by a
permit-system. Acquiring such permits to enter, what in the past
served in many ways as an urban anchor to Bethlehem, has become
exceedingly rare since the onset of the violence surrounding the
Second Intifada, though Israel has subsequently erected a terminal
to ease transit between the two adjoining cities.
Palestinians are not allowed to enter the
Jewish holy site of Rachel's
Tomb, which is on the outskirts of the city, without a
permit. Since Bethlehem and the nearby biblical
Solomon's
Pools
lie in Area A (territory under both PNA military
and civil administration), Israeli citizens are barred without a
permit from the Israeli military authorities.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Bethlehem is
twinned with:
See also
References
- Amara, 1999, p. 18.
- Brynen, 2000, p. 202.
- "Oxford Archeological Guides: The Holy Land",
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, p198-199,
Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 019288013-6
- "International Dictionary of Historic Places: Vol 4, Middle
East and Africa", Trudy Ring, K.A Berney, Robert M. Salkin,
Sharon La Boda, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger, p. 133, Taylor
& Francis, 1996ISBN 1884964036
- , ,
- History of Bethlehem Bethlehem Homepage
- Vermes, 2006, p.64.
- Freed, 2004, p.77.
- Vermes, 2006, p.22.
- Sanders, 1993, p.85.
- Crossan and Watts, p.19.
- Dunn, 2003, pp.344-345.
- Mills and Bullard, 1990, pp.445-446. See Mark 6:1-4; and John 1:46
- Aviram Oshri, "Where was Jesus Born?", Archaeology,
Volume 58 Number 6, November/December 2005.
- Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Bethlehem…Of Course,
Biblical Archaeology Review
- Taylor, 1993, pp.99-100. "Joseph ... took up his quarters in a
certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary
brought forth the Christ and placed him in a manger, and here the
Magi who came from Arabia found him."(Justin Martyr, Dialogue
with Trypho, chapter LXXVIII).
- In Bethlehem the cave is pointed out where he was born, and the
manger in the cave where he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And
the rumor is in those places, and among foreigners of the Faith,
that indeed Jesus was born in this cave who is worshipped and
reverenced by the Christians. (Origen, Contra Celsum, book
I, chapter LI).
- Taylor, 1993, pp.96-104.
- le Strange, 1890, pp.298-300.
- de Sivry, L: "Dictionnaire de Geographie Ecclesiastique", page
375., 1852 ed, from ecclesiastical record of letters between the
Bishops of Bethlehem 'in partibus' to the bishops of Auxerre
- Paul Reed, 2000, p.206.
- Singer, 1994, p.33.
- Singer, 1994, p.84
- Thomson, 1860, p.647.
- W. M. Thomson, p.647.
- Bethlehem
- A Jerusalem Timeline, 3,000 Years of The City's
History (2001-02) National Public Radio and
BBC News
- About Bethlehem The Centre for Cultural Heritage
Preservation via Bethlehem.ps
- Population in the Bethlehem District Bethlehem.ps
- Distance from Bethlehem to Tel Aviv, Distance from Bethlehem to Gaza Time and Date
AS / Steffen Thorsen
- Bethlehem’s Quarters Centre for Cultural
Heritage Preservation
- Clans -2 Mediterranean Voices: Oral History and Cultural
Practice in Mediterranean Cities
- Tqoa’ area Zeiter, Leila. Centre for
Preservation of Culture and History.
- Short Overview of the Bato Family BatoFamily.com
- Census by Israel Central Bureau
of Statistics
- Palestinian Population by Locality, Sex and Age Groups in
Years: Bethlehem Governorate (1997) Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
- Singer, 1994, p.80.
- Ellen Clare Miller, 'Eastern Sketches - notes of scenery,
schools and tent life in Syria and Palestine'. Edinburgh: William
Oliphant and Company. 1871. Page 148.
- Bethlehem, The Holy Land’s Collective Cultural National
Identity: A Palestinian Arab Historical Perspective Musallam,
Adnan. Bethlehem University.
- Jacir Palace, InterContinental Bethlehem re-opens
for business InterContinental Hotels Group
- Palestinians bidding for business Maqbool,
Aleem. BBC
News. BBC MMVIII. 2008-05-21. Retrieved on
2008-05-22.
- Bethlehem municipality website
- Weir, p.128, 280, n.30
- A Description of the East and Some other
Countries, p. 436
- Brooch, made in Bethlehem
- Maps of Palestine
- Picture frames
- St. George's Feast Bethlehem.ps.
- St. Elijah's (Mar Elias) Feast
Bethlehem.ps
- Municipal Council Elections during the British and
Jordanian Periods Bethlehem Municipal Council.
- Bethlehem Municipality.
- The City of Bethlehem has signed a twinning
agreements with the following cities Bethlehem
Municipality.
- Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza. Hermanamientos y
Protocolos de Colaboración
Bibliography
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