The term "fence" is misleading

"We're not celebrating Christmas this year," says Yaqub Kasis, a member of Bethlehem's dwindling community of Palestinian Christians.

It should be a time of celebration for the city where Christ was born. Unlike last year, this Christmas there are no Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem's streets and the tanks have gone. "This Christmas is quieter than before," Mr Kasis says. "But it's worse. It's worse because of the wall."

Israel's "security fence" has arrived in Bethlehem. It snakes through the suburbs, close to the old stone houses. But the term "fence" is misleading. The section built in Bethlehem is made up of a triple layer concrete wall and two metal fences, one equipped with electronic sensors. The space between the two fences is patrolled by Israeli army jeeps. Israel is building hundreds of miles of fence across the West Bank. The pilgrims who travel to Bethlehem for Christmas this year will find that the city of Christ's birth is being walled off. Fears are growing that the city may soon be surrounded. The Israeli army says that the wall will not encircle the city - one quarter will remain open to the West Bank, it says.

But the Palestinian group Arij, which monitors Israeli construction in the West Bank, claims that the Israelis are planning to close the last quarter with two bypass roads. One road has already been completed near the north-eastern edge of the city and is cut off by its own protective fence. The Israelis say the new roads will be open to Palestinians, but Dr Jad Isaac, the head of Arij, says that even if they are, they will separate Bethlehem from its farmland and prevent expansion. "They are turning Bethlehem into a ghetto," he says.

It is a fate which has already befallen the Palestinian cities of Qalqilya and Tulkarem further north in the West Bank. Qalqilya is surrounded by a concrete wall complete with pillboxes from which Israeli soldiers look down on the city. The only way in and out is through Israeli army checkpoints.

Israel says the wall will stop suicide bombers crossing from the West Bank into Israel. "If that were true, why don't they build it on the Green Line?" says Dr Isaac. The Israeli government refuses to build the fence on the Green Line, the internationally recognised border between the West Bank and Israel. Instead, it cuts many miles into the West Bank, so that Jewish settlements can be included on the "Israeli" side.

International observers, including President George Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, claim that Israel is attempting to establish a new de facto border. Last week, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said he wanted Israel to withdraw unilaterally from part of the West Bank and set its own borders. In an ultimatum to the Palestinians on Thursday, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, warned he would embark on a "unilateral separation" plan within months if the Palestinians failed to arrest the gunmen and the suicide bombers as part of a negotiated peace. "If you look at the map you can see what Olmert is saying," says Dr Isaac. "They are saying that a Palestinian state will be limited to 40 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, crammed into separate cantons."

Palestinians who live outside the planned route of the fence face an uncertain future. Where the fence has been completed, the Israeli army has ordered that only Palestinians with permits can live between the fence and the Green Line. These permits will be issued at the discretion of the Israeli army. But the order exempts not only Israeli citizens but anyone of Jewish origin.

The situation is just as bleak for those inside the fence. The Israeli army wants to demolish Mr Kasis's home in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem with a large Christian population, to make way for the fence. "If they demolish it, I will live on the rubble," says Mr Kasis. "I have nowhere else to take my children." Mr Kasis used to work in Israel, but since the Israeli military closures that have been imposed during the intifada, he has been unemployed. Mr Kasis lives on land that was given free for new housing by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. He invested his savings in the cooperative that built his home. The fence will increase Bethlehem's economic problems. Workers will no longer be able to cross illegally into Israel in search of jobs.

Those living near the fence will not be the only ones to suffer, Dr Isaac said. The land either side of the proposed route was set aside for the city's future development. If Bethlehem is completely enclosed, he says, the population will become increasingly crammed in as it continues togrow. Bethlehem could come to resemble the already fenced Gaza Strip, where the cities cannot expand and the population density is 4,500 people per square kilometre - one of the world's most crowded places.

The fence has accelerated another of Bethlehem's problems: the Palestinians are leaving. Many feel that their future in the city is stark and are applying for visas for America or Europe. Mr Kasis has two relatives who have already left. Several of his friends have left too. It seems everyone in Beit Sahour knows someone who has left. They say as many as 1,000 families have left Beit Sahour since the intifada began in September 2000.

George Ibrahim, a Christian who is preparing to leave for Sweden, said: "I don't want to leave. I don't support leaving. I am doing it in spite of myself. When I look at my children, I think, 'I don't have the right to make them suffer this life'."

It is easier for Palestinian Christians to get visas and work permits than Muslims. Many have relatives in Europe and the US, and tend to be more highly educated and better qualified than Muslims. Bethlehem's Christian population is, therefore, in danger of disappearing.

Mr Kasis said: "Can you imagine Bethlehem without Christians? The Church of the Nativity without Christians?" He looks from his balcony to where the route of the fence is being prepared. "That's why they are doing this," he said. "To make us leave."   The Independent - 20 December.

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Hardships Leave Bethlehem With No Holiday

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - 23 December:   There is no Christmas tree in Aida Ghaneim's Bethlehem home this year. No festive lights hang from the ceiling, and the 48-year-old mother of four has no plans to cook her usual feast.

It is not that Ghaneim is abandoning Christmas. On the contrary, she said, "It abandoned us."

A shriveling economy, continuing Israeli restrictions and other hardships caused by three years of Mideast violence have left Christians living in the traditional birthplace of Jesus with little desire to celebrate.

Few of Bethlehem's usual decorations are in place: A Santa outside one shop, a few lights outside another. Many of the red, green and blue lights strung over the streets around Manger Square are burned out.

The Palestinian Authority, saying it lacks the money, refused the town its usual $100,000 decoration budget, forcing local officials to scrounge up $10,000 on their own.

"The whole atmosphere of Christmas is gone," said Jane Bandak, 18, whose family's traditional 30-person Christmas meal will shrink to half a dozen guests this year.

Some Christians have decided to ignore the holiday that was once the high point of their year. Others have fled abroad, splitting up their families. About 2,000 of the town's 28,000 Christians have left during the recent violence, local officials say. They now make up only 35 percent of a town they once dominated.

Checkpoints, curfews and closures, enforced by Israel to stop Palestinian suicide bombings that have killed more than 400 Israelis over the past three years, make it hard for families spread across the West Bank to get together.

Israel says it plans to ease travel restrictions for Palestinian Christians over the holiday, but many Palestinians are skeptical. They say they do not want to spend their holiday waiting at roadblocks.

Before the violence flared, Christmas Eve was an all-night reunion for the Ghaneim family.

Between 30 and 40 relatives came from all over, from Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jenin and even Jordan to roast chestnuts, play cards, exchange gifts, and drink anise and beer in Ghaneim's home.

"No one slept. The few who did were on the couch and on the floor," she said.

On Christmas Day, she would spend the morning visiting relatives and then serve a feast of stuffed chicken and chunks of lamb with rice and yogurt for as many as 20 people.

Now, Ghaneim's family is in debt. One son is in school, a second is unemployed and her third son is abroad looking for work. Her husband also left, heading for the Ivory Coast to seek a job. Though her family has not been directly hit by the violence, "Every mother gets affected when she sees others' kids dying," she said.

Tired, cash-poor and depressed, she canceled her usual 10-day pre-Christmas shopping spree and has not gone to church once in recent days, though she used to attend every day in the week before Christmas.

The Christmas Eve party has disappeared amid the violence and restrictions. The Christmas feast is gone as well.

She plans to eat Christmas lunch with just her mother-in-law and father-in-law, and she has no plans to cook anything festive.

"I'm so demoralized, I can't invite anybody this year," she said. "My heart is closed."

Much of Maha Saca's family has gone abroad as well, and in a personal protest of the conditions here, the 50-year-old crafts shop owner has decided to forego her usual Christmas tree, straining under the weight of tiny Santas and green and red ornaments.

"I feel ashamed to celebrate anything," she said.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Bethlehem's Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, complained that while Christians around the world prepare to sing Christmas carols harking to this town, few appear concerned with the plight of the place where Jesus was born.

"The majority of Christians really don't know what is going on in the little town of Bethlehem," he said.