I was the only guest in the 250-room Jacir Palace InterContinental in Bethlehem. The floors didn’t squeak under any feet, there were no kids splashing in the outdoor pool and I had the vast breakfast buffet to myself.
Since aggression between Israel and Palestine started again in 2000, tourists have stopped coming to Bethlehem.
Nearly 70,000 UK tourists visited in 2000. Last year there were fewer than 3,000. The biblical hotspot derives 80% of its income from tourism. Nowadays coachloads of visitors appear fleetingly to see the Church of the Nativity and then disappear back to Jerusalem behind the nine-metre protection wall that separates the cities.
To combat this, Open Bethlehem is a new campaign run by Bethlehem University and supported by local tour companies, hoteliers and the Palestine Tourist Board to remind people the little town is still here and that, without tourism, its future is bleak.
For the visitor, the protection wall is disconcerting, but it’s not impassable. There’s a relatively painless checkpoint. You produce your passport for the Israeli guards and are waved through. There are no further restrictions once in Bethlehem – the town is safe and friendly and local people are delighted to see you. This year there have been significant movements towards peace and hotels are opening their doors again.
On a Saturday morning Bethlehem’s market was abuzz. Headscarved women sat on the flagstones with piles of bright fruit at their feet. People bustled past with boxes of vegetables. The air was rich with the scent of guava, just in season. A stroll down Pope Paul VI street brought me to Lama’s spice shop where they ground me fresh a Turkish coffee with cardamom seeds and zaatar, the pungent herb blend that’s mixed with olive oil, for breakfast.
Elias my guide took me to see bread being baked and steaming casseroles being taken from a huge brick oven; cooking traditions that have hardly changed for eons. Further up the road there was a museum housing an old olive press – it was harvest season and the first presses of virgin oil were soon to take place.
The Virgin Mary is said to have given birth here in Bethlehem. Usually you’d queue for a half hour to duck through the narrow doorway into the Church of the Nativity. But today there was just me, Elias and a few others. Elias pointed out the gold and pearl mosaics and the marble pillars worn by contact from countless pilgrims.
Behind an iron door, down a low staircase of marble is the cave where it is said that Christ was born. His birthplace marked with a silver star on the floor. I sat for a moment in peaceful contemplation. Across from the church in Manger Square we visited the Peace Centre which has a bookshop and interesting exhibitions of local art.
Proprietor Sameer has been chopping mince by hand at Abu Shanab restaurant for 20 years and the lamb we had for lunch was some of the most succulent I’ve tasted. We washed it down with local arrack, similar to Ouzo.
Our next stop was the Monastery of St George. The lovely church here features bright frescos of the dragon slayer in action. Local kids came running and laughing down the street to talk to us. Muslims also venerate St George so this is a shared place of celebration.
A little way outside Bethlehem in Beit Jala is the Cremisan monastery, run by Salesian monks. Father Luciano invited us to try the wines produced here. Before the recent hostilities the monks produced more than a million bottles a year, using the proceeds to pay for people to study theology. Now they produce less than 100,000 and the monastery struggles to stay afloat. A bottle costs just a couple of pounds.
As we sat on carpets in Alkhema restaurant in nearby Beit Sahur eating more tasty Palestinian food for dinner, the scent of nargila pipes wafting around us, I asked Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem chief executive officer about the future. “With Christmas on the way, now is a great time to encourage people to come to Bethlehem” she said. “It’s an ideal base for seeing Jerusalem too. Bethlehem isn’t just one of the world’s most famous sites – it knew tourism before the concept was invented.”
