Christmas business as usual
Elisabeth Luard
In December the hills above Bethlehem are mantled with drifts of sweet-scented white blossom. The rose of Sharon is in flower, its clusters of ivory coronets and golden crowns bright against the grey and pitted limestone. The city of David lies seven miles from Jerusalem beyond kibbutz Ramat Rahel, last outpost of the Israeli forces before the six-day war. Hard-won territory and hard-held. Beyond Ramat Rahel the surburban complex of Gilo has materialised from the air, an amphitheatre of stacked sand-coloured apartments whose prices are heavily subsidised to encourage young Jewish couples to move in. On the West Bank government policy requires that the Arab-Israeli population ratio is 'im- proved'.
Bethlehem itself has been Arab-Christian for centuries. Today it is busy stringing silver tinsel and huge plastic snowflakes across the town's narrow streets to welcome and reassure the annual invasion of Christmas pilgrims. In the cobbled lanes of the souk Bedouin women in black dresses and white headscarves from the neighbour-
ing villages prod mounds of fruit and finger bunches of mint and coriander. Goats' hooves strike sparks from the stones and the braying of donkeys echoes down the alleys. At the town's centre, Manger Square has filled up with charabancs. Three sides of the square are occupied by shops: the Good Shepherd Stores, the Nativity Em- porium, the Bethlehem Star Bazaar. They sell crusader jackets, inlaid mother-of-pearl boxes, Arab jellabahs, wooden rosaries, and a population explosion of carved olivewood nativity figurines. On the square's fourth side rises the basilica of the Nativity, a pale crusader fortress blankwall- ed in the cold winter sunshine. Round the belltower flutters a colony of doves. A kestrel perched on a nearby rooftop wat- ches them with gastronomic interest. Beside the doorway lounge a group of young Israeli soldiers, their weapons cradled in their khaki-clad arms. One of them has a transistor radio playing Yoko Ono.
The entrance to the church is very low. The crusaders clearly had no intention of being caught napping by mounted infidels.
Inside there are lines of blood-red Pillars and afloor empty of chairs or benches. Guardianship of the church is shared be* tween the Armenians, the Greek OrthodoN, and Franciscan monks. As the Armenians are in charge of the sale of candles for the shrine, they seem to have the edge over tlie other two. The shrine itself is in a cave bei neath the altar reached by a double flight 0, steps. Midway down the steps a gloom} in i b lackbearded Armenian brother is engag`' n an argument with a plump American matron who has a ten dollar bill, a t" dollar prayer, and no change. The Arrne: man wins and the ten dollars vanish int° Ills gown. Some small compensation for the various items that have disappeared fr°11/ the church over the centuries. The woodeercil manger was shipped to Rome by the St. Helen in the 12th century, bless original gold star marking the spvilohtilv'ellthee the Virgin gave birth went home in the lag die gage of an unknown pilgrim in the IItcli,„, Ages. Even the heavy lead roof, donated
'
Edward IV, was pinched by the Turks used it to make ammunition to fire at ‘, 1
Venetians. A present from Bethlehem 1111`
ed from the mouth of a cannon. tiny Back in the crypt a group 01 ,,;;; Japanese, Nikons dangling from t'",t neckstraps, are inspecting the relics. Suddenly they are herded bacINv against the asbestos-lined walls by a brLihris monk making way for a procession 01 ."g b. rethren. The Franciscans appear, swing l°' incense and chanting in Latin, and take ,/.111,1 their positions. Overhead splutter se ve,,o dozen oil lamps, explaining the asbestos !'"d, the walls. Down the steps and into the all idal ye ob fr otthbee sr e, rwv ibcne bbue begins lness tan Gl nr eweekr Ord a dr°
re
all the lamps. There is a minor flurry as a salbe bald Japanese gentleman is struck 011 .0 head by a descending brass bowl- 14° sits down abruptly on the floor. No one and any attention. The flashlight bulbs PO 3111 the monks leave through a concealed exl ' mysteriously vanishing beneath the floclrio Upstairs the ikons are doing g° business. There are several of them, draPfeor like miniature theatre stages with boxes offerings beneath. Down the way the M1015 grotto distributes small packets of gr°,,-uhe rock to encourage nursing mothers. '10 Japanese flood out into the square and head off for the government ir souvenir shops. They have to thread 10,4 way between huge nylon velvet suites, (".. furniture displayed for sale on the cobb17., In the fields below the Bedouins herd then", goats as the first stars appear in the sad°,t,e ly darkening sky. This year the one on move is a heat-sensitive satellite. As I leafoer television cameras are being unloaded my the broadcast of the midnight mass'. ;sh. guide says: 'I was here under the BrIt'Aa. Very nice people. Then under the J.or"tbe nians. Now under the Israelis. All. Is are same'. The streets of David's citY are decorated with cutout cardboard Faitioty Christmasses and Monty Python's is Gral iiin business. in Jerusalem.
still Bethlehem
Previous page
