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BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- George Baboul, the proprietor of a dusty
souvenir shop that has seen better days, has watched his children grow
up and, one by one, move abroad. Only the youngest remains.
"There's no work, no jobs for the kids to build their future," said
Baboul, a Palestinian Christian. "There's no peace in the Middle East,
especially here."
Baboul, 71, opened his shop in 1966, a year before Israel captured
Bethlehem along with the rest of the West Bank in a war with its Arab
neighbors. Now, after six years of violence that has driven away
tourists and pilgrims, the aging shopkeeper is marking time, waiting for
his store to join the other shuttered shops on Milk Grotto Road, off
Manger Square.
Bethlehem, the town revered as the birthplace of Jesus, is losing its
Christians, an exodus spurred by mounting economic hardship and the
grinding conflict with Israel.
Once an overwhelming majority here, Christians have dwindled to about a
third of the population of Bethlehem and less than 2% of all
Palestinians in the West Bank, according to several estimates.
The trend has been going on for decades but it has accelerated since the
start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000. About 3,000
Christians have left the Bethlehem area during that time, according to
Dr. Bernard Sabella, an expert on local Christian communities who is a
member of the Palestinian parliament.
Altogether, about one-tenth of the Christian population in Bethlehem and
two adjacent towns, Beit Jalla and and Beit Sahour, has moved away
during the recent years of fighting, according to figures compiled by
the United Nations.
Many move abroad
Generally well-educated, middle class and with relatives abroad,
Palestinian Christians, most of them Eastern Orthodox or Catholic, have
been prone to emigrate as conditions at home deteriorated. Many have
gone to the United States, Latin America and Europe.
Ibrahim Shomali, 55, a Christian from Beit Sahour, returned to the West
Bank with his family 12 years ago during a time of rising hopes after
the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the
Palestinians. He had been living comfortably in Nigeria, but the
prospect of peace drew him back, and he moved into a family house that
had been built by his grandfather.
His attempt to open a restaurant foundered after the eruption of the
uprising: Violence kept visitors away. Out of money and out of work,
Shomali said he now barely scrapes by with the help of one of his sons,
who has a job.
He recently applied for a visa to the United States.
"We can't live here anymore," said Shomali's wife, Sandra. "We want a
good life for our children, good work, good education."
Christians were about 90% of Bethlehem's population in the first half of
the last century but lost their majority there after the 1948 Middle
East war sent an influx of Muslim refugees to the town.
In subsequent decades, Christians in the West Bank steadily emigrated,
as in other parts of the Middle East, and their birthrate, lower than
that of Muslims, further reduced their percentage in the general
Palestinian population.
The trend has been different inside Israel, where the Christian Arab
population has grown and where its emigration patterns are similar to
those of Israeli Jews -- an indication of greater economic and political
stability.
The hardships driving Christians away from Bethlehem have been
aggravated by construction of the Israeli separation barrier that
separates the town from neighboring Jerusalem. The barrier was built by
the Israelis to block suicide bombers after several slipped into
Jerusalem from the Bethlehem area.
But the barrier and a network of other roadblocks have restricted
movement of ordinary Palestinians, who can travel the short distance to
Jerusalem only with an Israeli permit.
Religious divisions grow
Along with the corrosive conflict with Israel, Christians in Bethlehem
also have felt the impact of strained relations with Muslim
Palestinians. Those relations have been tested by the victory of the
militant Islamic group Hamas in parliamentary elections last January. A
return to religion among Palestinian Muslims receptive to the messages
of Hamas has tended to distance Muslims from Christians.
"Socially there is separation," said Ramzi Mitri, a local jewelry shop
owner, explaining that Muslims and Christians no longer mix freely at
weddings and other social events.
Shomali, who is waiting for a U.S. visa, said if the current situation
persists, and without aid from Christians abroad, the local Christian
community could die out.
"In another 50 years, in the town where Jesus was born, Christians could
be finished," he said.
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