c. 1998 Religion News Service
BETHLEHEM, West Bank_ In the past, the pilgrims would come for just a few hours to take a quick peek at the Church of the Nativity revered as the site of Jesus’ birth before climbing back into their buses to return to hotels in Jerusalem.
Now, Palestinians are hoping that a $150-million investment in millennial renovations, funded largely by the international community, will persuade pilgrims to linger in the city for at least a day or two.
In addition, $50 million is being spent on a 17-month calendar of concerts, nature and historical tours, and religious events designed to enhance Bethlehem’s image as a world-class tourism destination year-round, and not only at Christmas.
Dozens of renovation projects on roads, sewers and sidewalks have the city ringing with the noise of bulldozers and stone construction. Some 265 different projects are being undertaken, all overseen by a new Palestinian Authority ministry called Bethlehem 2000.
Bethlehem 2000 seeks to use the momentum of the celebrations to undertake long-term development in the Bethlehem region, which is heavily dependent on the income earned through tourism, said Julie Bouchain, the ministry’s public relations coordinator. “For us, the year 2000 is a starting point, not a finishing point,”she said.”We want to achieve a sustainable development base in the region.” New wells are being dug in a town chronically short of water, and sewage and electricity lines are being placed underground in the twisting alleys of Bethlehem’s old quarters, where previous infrastructure dated from the British Mandate or Ottoman Turk eras.
Nearly complete now is the reconstruction of Bethlehem’s famous Manger Square, just outside of the Church of the Nativity, where the families of President Clinton and Yasser Arafat met recently to hear Christmas carols and hang ornaments on a giant Christmas tree.
Once a big asphalt parking lot, Manger Square has been repaved with giant white marble stone from the region’s famous quarries and closed to traffic. Shade trees, decorative lights and expensive wooden benches will be added later, making the square a place where tourists will want to linger.
From the square, a network of pedestrian walks through the winding alleys of the old city also are being designed to guide tourists through Bethlehem’s traditional eastern”souk,”or outdoor market, and its varied layers of Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader and Turkish histories.
It is hoped that the walks will provide a place for local craftspeople to open new stores, showcasing the olive wood carvings, mother-of-pearl jewelry and embroidery for which the town is famous, as well as local food delicacies, such as lamb shish kabob.
Other tours also are being designed to scenic points on the outskirts of town, including historic monasteries tucked in the hills, and the ancient Solomon Pools that once channeled spring water from higher ground in the Hebron hills north to Bethlehem and even Jerusalem.
New hotels are being built _ the number of guest rooms in the town will double from the current 1,200 to 2,500 _ due largely to the construction of a massive Intercontinental Hotel on the former grounds of an aristocratic Bethlehem family mansion.
Bouchain said that work on the key tourism circuits should be complete by Easter 1999, but added that work on some of the longer-term projects will continue well into the new millennium.”We’d rather start small at the beginning of the year 2000 and then build upwards, and that’s reflected in the program of events, which runs from just before Christmas 1999 to Easter 2001.” IR END FLETCHER
