Lifting of curfew brings little joy in Bethlehem

Israel withdrew its armoured personnel carriers from Bethlehem yesterday and lifted a month-long curfew. The birthplace of Jesus Christ ceased to be a ghost town and sprang back to a semblance of life.

With neither Israeli soldiers nor Palestinian police anywhere to be seen, thousands of its Christian and Muslim residents thronged the markets while the going was good. The stalls were suddenly filled with fish and fowl, oranges, corn on the cob, salads and spices.

The trouble was that the West Bank city's 30,000 people had little money to spend. Many have been unemployed since the intifada broke out two years ago and none has worked more than a couple of days since Israel imposed the curfew after a suicide bomber slipped out of Bethlehem and blew up a Jerusalem bus, killing 11 passengers.

There may be relief, but there is little joy this Christmas. Jamal Toshia, a 62-year-old Catholic, carves Nativity scenes from olive wood and mother-of-pearl. "This is the worst Christmas in 50 years," he said. "When I had money, I used to buy meat for the holiday. We treated ourselves to fruit and nuts. Now I'm buying the cheapest things I can get, a few dried figs, one kilo of tomatoes."

At noon in the old city market, paved and spruced up three years ago for the millennium, a man was hawking plump live rabbits and quails for the pot. "Since 7 o'clock," he complained, "I've sold only two."

Three-quarters of Bethlehem's economy depends on the pilgrim trade. This year, as last, there are no pilgrims.

Midnight mass will be celebrated tonight, but Israel has barred Yasser Arafat from attending. Manger Square is bare of decorations.

Journalists apart, the only foreigners in town were 20 musicians and four singers of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Verona, who performed at Sunday mass in the Nativity church and again in the Italian Salesian church yesterday.

Their director, Alfredo Cavalieri, said: "We are here as witnesses to the possibility of normal life here."

That's as optimistic a message as you will find in the Holy Land this Christmas.