Terrorists deter pilgrims from Bethlehem

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 6

Terrorists deter pilgrims from Bethlehem

NZPA-AP Bethlehem The fear of terrorism and hijackings in the Middle East was keeping pilgrims from Jesus’ birthplace this year, an Israeli tourist official said yesterday. Merchants in Bethlehem, a town of 50,000 Bkm south of Jerusalem, said that the number of tourists had dropped sharply from last year and a reporter saw noticeably fewer pilgrims in the streets.

Near Manger Square, in the heart of Bethlehem, a Palestinian teenager in a plastic Santa Claus costume rang a small brass bell, trying to attract a few browsing tourists to his friend’s empty'new hamburger spot. “I’m trying to catch them on their way out of church, but there aren’t very many people around this year,” Wahel Muammar, aged 17, said through a thick beard of white cotton.

In the winding, narrow streets off Manger Square dozens of tourists patronised shops and businesses. But at this same time last year hundreds of tourists thronged there. Some tourists who did visit Bethlehem went direct to the Church of the Nativity, the site where tradition says Jesus was born. But they then returned to Jerusalem, without shopping or eating in the town. Haya Fisher of the Israeli Tourism Ministry’s pilgrimage division, said that the

number of Christmas pilgrims in the Holy Land was down at least 20 per cent this year because of recent terror attacks, aircraft hijackings, and the pirating of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. Terror attacks on and near the occupied West Bank have killed 17 Israelis; this year and prompted stricter security measures; and a more visible military presence in the area. “People, especially Americans, are deterred by all this violence,” Ms Fisher said.

The lack of Americans had been responsible for most of the decline of nearly 5000 Christian pilgrims from 1984, when 20,000 foreigners arrived for the Christmas holidays. Ms Fisher said that this year tourists preferred northern Israel, near the Sea of Galilee, or the Red Sea beach resort of Eilat.

Standing near the towering, gold-laced Christmas tree next to Manger Square’s police station, Wanda Vogel, of Dot Lake, Alaska, said that her family had tried to talk her out of travelling. “I just told them that God goes wherever I go, and I’m going,” she said. The police, implementing tight security measures for the holiday, blocked a main road leading to the square with metal barricades, and green Israeli military jeeps cruised the city.