Booked At The Inn

two stories so as not to compete with
the hunched, 6th-century Nativity
Church at the end of the square.
Backed by a $25 million soft loan
Bethlehem
from
the World Bank, the Palestinian
here's some news coming
Authority's
$180 million "Bethlehem
out of Bethlehem this
2000"
project
is showing results.
weekend. And almost
The
old
city,
above Manger
unlike anything that's ever
Square, has been cleaned up and
happened here before.
paved in local limestone. Doors, win-
"Bethlehem has finally taken off,"
dow frames and steel shut-
Joseph Canavati, the
ters have been painted a
Christian Arab owner of the
smart, uniform duck-egg
Alexander Hotel, exulted.
green. (Asked how the
"It's the best thing that's
authority had persuaded
happened here since Jesus
them all to adopt the same
Christ." For a quarter of a
color, one shopkeeper
zlaipPromRtrzt;
century the world's media
explained: "They'd fine
have trekked to this little
you if you didn't.")
West Bank town every
Sweden contributed $8.5
December and reported: "If
million for the square.
Joseph and Mary came to
Belgium, Norway, Spain
Bethlehem this Christmas,
and Japan adopted blocks
there'd be plenty of room at
of old houses and alleys.
the inn." It lamented the
Private investors are lining
potholed roads, the shabby
up behind them.
buildings, the kitschy gift-
Ygt the old city, for all its
shops. Even the fading
new squares and civic
Intifada slogans, we wrote,
sculptures, remains a place
looked as if they needed a
where people live and shop.
new coat of paint.
There are more grocers and
At last, as Bethlehem
butchers, cobblers and iron-
launches itself into the
mongers, than tourist traps.
2,000th anniversary of its
Peddlers hawk shoes for $8
most revered son, there are
a pair. Housewives snap up
glad tidings to bring. And
giant cauliflower for pen-
Israelis are taking note as
nies. Israel is racing against
their Palestinian neighbors
time to finish resurfacing
seem to have their act more
the Jerusalem-Bethlehem
in gear than the Jewish state
highway. Pilgrims will have
of
the
Church
o
A
Palestinian
man
sweeps
the
square
in
when it comes to greeting
to tolerate the clank and
Nativity earlier this month. A message of peace emanate/ 1from
the millennial tourists.
dust of work in progress in
the
hills
of
• Bethlehem a millennium ago. Today a illierO•OSM Of
This Christmas, for
ifS
COUCIete
130312011,
the town for a while longer.
modern East reality over
starters, there really is no
They don't seem to mind.
room at the inn.
Ken
Zapp,
an
economist from
Haaretz column, is upstaging Israel,
road to Manger Square. A former
Canavati reported 95 percent occu-
Minnesota,
said
before boarding his
which
alienated
both
Christians
and
pasha's palace is being converted into
pancy in his 48-roomed hotel
bus:
"There's
a
vitality
here. Bethlehem's
Muslims
with
its
mishandling
of
a
dis-
the holy city's first five-star
throughout the autumn, with every
growing.
That's
good
for
everyone."
puted
site
in
Nazareth,
as
custodian
of
InterContinental.
bed taken for Christmas and New
Leaving the city, one sees a perfect
the
Holy
Land.
Bethlehem
expects
50,000
visitors
this
Year's weekends.
swords-into-plowshares symbol for the
Since last Christmas; Bethlehem
Christmas, two and a half million by the
The mayor, Hanna Nasser, said
millennium of peace: a brass shell case,
has
been
transforming
itself.
Its
main
end
of
next
year.
Pope
John
Paul
II
is
Bethlehem could have filled twice as
finely incised in Arabic calligraphy,
road has been widened, resurfaced and
coming in March. At least eight heads of
many rooms if only they'd had them.
with
the spout and lid of a Turkish
divided into a four-lane highway.
state, including Boris Yeltsin, as well as
A record 150 buses, carrying about
coffeepot
grafted onto the top.
Manger
Square,
once
decried
as
the
the president of the World Islamic
6,000 millennium pilgrims, have trun-
How
much
did it cost? "Three
world's
holiest
parking
lot,
has
been
Conference are already booked in.
dled into town every day for the past
hundred
dollars,"
said the shopkeeper.
paved
and
pedestrianized.
The
British-
- Mayor Nasser said: "We feel we
three months. Unlike previous years,
"It's
an
antique."
built
police
station
no
longer
casts
its
will be newly reborn." Although 65
when local traders complained that
Bethlehem, perhaps, hasn't changed
ugly shadow. An elegantly modern
percent of the town's 30,000 Arab
the Christians visited the Church of
that
much, after all. 17
museum
has
replaced
it,
limited
to
inhabitants
are
Muslims,
Nasser
the Nativity, got back on their buses

ERIC SILVER
Israel Correspondent

T

and swept off to Jerusalem three miles
to the north, many are staying for as
long as four or five nights, using
Bethlehem as a base.
The town, which has enjoyed a
building boom since the 28 year Israeli
occupation ended in December 1995,
now offers 1,250 hotel, hostel and bed-
and-breakfast rooms, mostly doubles.
More hotels are sprouting along the

-

insisted they would join the Christian
minority in the celebrations.
They have cause to do so.
The Palestinian Authority, backed
by international money, has got its mil-
lennium act together much better than
Israel. Bethlehem has its own minister
and its own United Nations aid pro-
gram. Yasser Arafat, as Israeli political
scientist Meron Benvenisti wrote in a

Bethlehem is seeing an unprecedented
tourist crush as Israel watches om the sidelines.

402,01

12/24

1999

30