BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A towering wall of gray concrete slabs cuts across what was once the main road connecting Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Just inside the barrier, past a spanking new Israeli security terminal, a once-bustling neighborhood has become a ghost town.
Shops are shuttered or empty, and the streets deserted. A sign carries the name of an abandoned restaurant. "Memories," it says. Another sign near an empty shell says, "Border Cafeteria."
With the 30-foot barrier separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem completed, the town revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus is preparing to celebrate Christmas behind a wall.
Israel says the wall is meant to keep out suicide bombers, but inside Bethlehem the view is different.
"It is turning the city into a big prison for its citizens," said Mayor Victor Batarseh. "The whole area [near the wall] is like a ghetto."
In a Christmas message, Batarseh urged tourists to come to Bethlehem "by the hundreds and thousands to morally break down the racist wall and checkpoints" maintained by the Israelis around the city.
Bethlehem has been a flash point during the current five-year conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli forces besieged militants holed up in the Church of the Nativity during an incursion in 2002, and gunmen and protesters often clashed with Israeli troops guarding the Jewish shrine of Rachel's Tomb on the northern outskirts of town.
The Israelis have encased the domed tomb, venerated as the burial place of the biblical matriarch Rachel, in a fortified compound, protected by concrete barriers that divide the main street into town and hem in adjacent Palestinian homes. Jewish worshipers are ferried in by armored bus.
It is less than a 10-minute drive from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, but to make the trip, Palestinians have to get special Israeli permits allowing them to leave the West Bank. Israel says it will facilitate Christmas visits to Bethlehem by local and foreign pilgrims and will allow tourist buses free access and ensure speedy security checks on the way out.
A new Israeli terminal in the wall is the latest focus of controversy.
Israeli officials say the facility, where tourists and local travelers are subjected to security and identity checks, is meant to smooth movement. But Palestinian officials say the terminal has caused delays and is an attempt to create a de facto border crossing, separating the Arab areas of Jerusalem from Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank.
