Freedom, Jesus Celebrated Jubilant Palestinians, Bewildered Tourists Converge As Israelis Leave Bethlehem

Tens of thousands of jubilant Palestinians thronged to Manger Square on Saturday, along with not a few bewildered pilgrims, to celebrate in roughly equal parts the arrival of Yasser Arafat and the birth of Jesus Christ.

Last week, in a move timed for Christmas, the traditional birthplace of Jesus became the sixth West Bank city to see out Israel’s occupying troops and welcome uniformed Palestinian police under an agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization granting limited Palestinian self-rule. Arafat, the PLO’s chairman, swooped in by helicopter Saturday to greet a joyful, chanting sea of celebrants and reassure Bethlehem’s large Christian minority of its place under Palestinian rule.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men,” Arafat, a Muslim, began in Arabic, quoting from the Christian New Testament’s Gospel of Luke.

He will celebrate Christmas Eve tonight, he said, with Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij “for the first time under the Palestinian flag the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For good measure, he declared that Jesus was Palestinian.

Bethlehem, where once there was “no room at the inn” and where Christ’s followers 16 centuries ago built the fortress-like Church of the Nativity, has known many masters across the years, from Romans to Byzantines, Arabs to Crusaders, Mamelukes to Turks to Britons, before the 28-year military occupation by the Jewish state of Israel. But tourists, more than a million a year, have changed its face as much as any army.

Visitors who came expecting what Kentucky grocer Jim Wiest called a “silent night, holy night type of place” did not find that, exactly. Arab rhythms wailed from loudspeakers through a central square made pungent with spit-roasted lamb and frying falafel. Souvenir shops stretched block after block, selling Bethlehem magnets, Santa Claus balloons, mother-of-pearl crucifixion scenes, Wise Men carved from olive wood, Last Suppers molded in plastic and brass, ceramic Adorations, candles shaped like crosses and crowns of thorns.

“I imagined small houses and ruins - not like this,” said a shell-shocked Line Nielsen, 20, from Denmark, who also said she had no inkling of the political changes underway. “It’s not like Christmas, not at all.”

Palestinians, even those in charge, had almost as hard a time adjusting.

A beaming Ziyad Khateeb, 25, had spent all his life under Israeli rule and 18 months of it in prison for fighting with soldiers. Saturday he found himself in Manger Square with a blue uniform and a black beret and the freshly issued badge of a policeman.

“I am the power now,” he said, laughing at the absurdity of the declaration. “It’s a new feeling. I am happy, and a little bit surprised about it.”Arafat again reinforced his claim to the eastern half of Jerusalem, just a few miles north, conquered by Israel from Jordanian control in 1967. Some day soon, he told the crowd, “we shall meet, we shall meet, and we shall pray, we shall pray, in Jerusalem at Al Aqsa Mosque and at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.”

“I have seen all of the Christmases for 15 years,” said Ibrahim Aish, 33, a fireman. “This one is different. I see all of the police are Arabs and all of the soldiers are Arabs, and no one said to me, “Please give me your passport,’ or “Do you have permission to come here?’ “

“It’s incredible,” said Irish tourist Brid Cullen, 40. “It’s very exciting. We came upon a great political celebration. It’s history being made.”

Arafat’s wife, Suha, who was born a Christian but has converted to Islam, made an emotional visit to the Church of the Nativity with their 5-month-old daughter, Zahwa.

Only two years ago a single Palestinian flag would have been grounds for a raid by Israeli soldiers as an outlawed symbol of protest. Saturday there were tens of thousands, and the hilly streets of Bethlehem were blanketed in the flag’s black, white, red and green.

“We waited for this moment,” said Khateeb, the policeman. “We were like animals in the zoo, and now we are free.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: History of Bethlehem Here are milestones in the history of Bethlehem: 1004 B.C.: Birth of David, later king of the Israelites. Bethlehem, also known as Ephrat, “the land of fruit,” was a town of the Jewish tribe of Judah. 4 B.C.: Jesus Christ is born during the time of Roman occupation. Some scholars believe that despite the New Testament accounts of Luke and Matthew, Jesus may have been born near Nazareth, in Galilee, not Bethlehem. 100-200 A.D.: Jews driven from area following revolt against Roman rule. 339: Helena, the empress of Constantinople, dedicates the first church at the site believed to be Jesus’ birthplace. The Christian scholar Jerome describes it as “the earth’s most sacred spot” and begins a tide of immigration by pilgrims and monks. 614: Persian invaders sweep through the Holy Land, destroying Christian shrines in Jerusalem but sparing the Church of the Nativity after recognizing a mosaic depicting the visit of the Magi, Persian wise men who came to visit the infant Jesus. 638: After Muslim conquest of the area, the Church of the Nativity also becomes a mosque. 1099: Crusaders capture Bethlehem and restore the church. 1187: Muslims again take the Holy Land; a Christian pilgrim in the 1400s describes the dilapidated church as a “barn without hay.” 1517: Turkish Muslims control the area for the next four centuries. 1852: Christian infighting for control of the Church of the Nativity magnifies among Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and other churches. Napoleon declares the church is French property, which antagonizes the Eastern Orthodox church and helps bring about the Crimean War with Russia. 1867: American cleric Phillips Brooks publishes the popular Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem!,” adding to a growing body of secular and religious art depicting the town in European and American images of Christmas. 1917: British control Palestine after World War I. 1948: Israel founded. Populations swell in Bethlehem and other West Bank towns, now controlled by Jordan, as Arabs flee. 1967: Israel captures the West Bank during the Six-Day War, imposing a military administration on the territory. Palestinian Christians complain they are prohibited freedom of movement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. 1992: During Israeli occupation and the violent Palestinian resistance, the intifada, tourist books warn Western visitors about false illusions of Bethlehem : “Romantic as it sounds, Manger Square in the center of town is in fact a giant parking place … your attention is more likely to be caught by … gun-toting soldiers than by church spires or minarets,” wrote a handbook published in Britain. 1995: Under Israel-PLO peace agreement, Israeli troops begin their withdrawal from Bethlehem and other West Bank towns and villages. Cox News Service