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Bethlehem – Ma’an News-Rachel’s Tomb lies behind Israel’s eight-meter concrete separation wall in a fortified enclave close to the center of Bethlehem. The wall criss-crosses Bethlehem, blocking the main road to Jerusalem, encircling a refugee camp and looming over the upscale Intercontinental hotel. Right-wing religious groups petitioned Israel’s highest court in 2004 to re-route the wall to include the tomb on the western side. To this day the site, formerly known as the location of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, is accessible only from the Israeli side. A major strategy of the Palestinians in their goal of ultimately taking over...

BETHLEHEM - One of the untold stories of the Middle East is what is happening to the Christian population. Many are fleeing areas like the West Bank city of Bethlehem because Muslims are persecuting them. Bethlehem is the birthplace of Christ and was once a Christian city. But today Christians are only about 10 to 15 percent of the population. Some observers say if the mass exodus continues, within another generation it could become a city of Christian holy sites without any Christian residents. Justice Weiner believes that is happening. He has spent years investigating persecution and the exodus of...

Many observers are watching to see to what extent Fatah's Sixth General Congress will advance or retard the prospects for re-launching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. In this regard, the crucial question is: Is Fatah going to waive its historical principle of "armed struggle" and devote itself to peace negotiations based on compromise? The two relevant documents to be discussed and approved by the Fatah Congress are the Political Program and Fatah's "Internal Order." The Political Program might be seen as reflecting progress in terms of accepting a political solution and rejecting violence - but it falls...

Christian families have long been complaining of intimidation and land theft by Muslims, especially those working for the Palestinian Authority. Many Christians in Bethlehem and the nearby [Christian] towns of Bet Sahour and Bet Jalla have repeatedly complained that Muslims have been seizing their lands either by force or through forged documents. In recent years, not only has the number of Christians continued to dwindle, but Bethlehem and its surroundings also became hotbeds for Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters and members. Moreover, several Christian women living in these areas have complained about verbal and sexual assaults by Muslim men. .....

Christian families have long been complaining of intimidation and land theft by Muslims, especially those working for the Palestinian Authority. Many Christians in Bethlehem and the nearby [Christian] towns of Bet Sahour and Bet Jalla have repeatedly complained that Muslims have been seizing their lands either by force or through forged documents. In recent years, not only has the number of Christians continued to dwindle, but Bethlehem and its surroundings also became hotbeds for Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters and members. Moreover, several Christian women living in these areas have complained about verbal and sexual assaults by Muslim men. .....

Workers renovating a house in the traditional town of Jesus' birth accidentally discovered an untouched ancient tomb containing clay pots, plates, beads and the bones of two humans, a Palestinian antiquities official said Tuesday.

Pope says Bethlehem wall "can be taken down"Reuters - Thursday, May 14 By Philip Pullella and Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Pope Benedict on Wednesday said the fortified Israeli wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem could be taken down, if Israel and the Palestinians could remove the walls around their hearts. On a visit to the town where Christians believe the son of God was born, he said he had seen "overshadowing much of Bethlehem, the wall that intrudes into your territories, separating neighbours and dividing families." "Although walls can be easily built, we all know that they do...

JERUSALEM – A Molotov cocktail and gunshots targeted the car of Bethlehem's Christian mayor yesterday, as local leaders there quietly fingered Islamists for attempting to intimidate Christians in one of the most important cities for Christianity. "It's in retaliation for the Passover festivities we held two weeks ago," claimed one Bethlehem Christian leader, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity out of fear for his life. "We had very loud and public Christian displays," he said. "Now they (Islamists) want to send us a message not to get too comfortable." Mayor Victor Batarsa's car was hit while it was parked...

Sixty-six percent of American citizens will celebrate Christmas this season as a religious holiday. It is the day of the year where the globe recognizes the birth of the Messiah, the child called Jesus who was born "away in a manger" in the town of Bethlehem. The place of the birth of the Messiah was extremely important due to the promise made by God, prophesied by Micah. This Old Testament Seer proclaimed the Christ child would be born in the town of Bethlehem. The Scribes and Chief Priest living at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ validated and...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas under the protection of security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. About 500 security men arrived from the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jericho to provide security for the holiday. Similar deployments have taken place across the West Bank over the past year with U.S. backing. "We expect about 40,000 visitors in Bethlehem this week," said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's minister of tourism. The estimate includes Christians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel and the...

"It is supremely fitting that every man should approach the infant Jesus upon his knees." In Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity originally built by the Christian Emperor Constantine during the fourth century is located above a cave that legend holds is the place of Christ's birth. It's impossible to know whether the spot truly is where the Virgin Mary delivered the Son of God. Nevertheless, one interesting fact about the Church is that all pilgrims who venture to see the supposed place where the holy child was laid in a manger must first enter through The Door of Humility....

A message to observant Christians, you should know that if there ever is a Palestinian State you can say goodbye to holy sites Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Ascension. Christian holy sites and populations are endangered whenever Palestinians gain control. Christian towns and churches, including the sacred Church of the Nativity, have been used as bases for Palestinian snipers and launching-sites for terrorist attacks. Many historically Christian towns that came under Palestinian control through Oslo — Bethlehem being only the most famous example — quickly lost their Christian majority as those citizens steadily fled Muslim oppression...

"The flow of foreign tourists had suffered the consequences of the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 2008 showed a reversal in the trend. Fr. Pizzaballa tells AsiaNews that this "was a truly unusual year for everyone: numbers never seen before, much greater than those recorded in 2000...."

BBC has got a Muslim trying to rewrite historic Jewish Jesus from Judea (attempting -- to no avail -- to "Arabize"& confuse JUDEA with Arabia...). Accompanied with a typical Islamic-bigotry's bombarding propaganda of the "bad" Israelis that dare to try fight the Arab Muslim (invaders) that terrorize the Jews (with security checkpoints). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7784227.stm BBC's Aleem Maqbool: The road to Bethlehem

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May 2009 after accepting an invitation by President Shimon Peres. The Vatican and Israel are said, thus, to hopefully end the high tension of recent months between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people over the initiative of canonizing Pope Pius XII. This visit, which would be the third visit of a pope to Israel since the establishment of the state, has not yet been officially confirmed. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041322.html

Arab Muslim Palestinians' Persecution of Christians DHIMMITUDE, ISLAMIC APARTHEIDArab "Palestinian" Christians have been suffering and STILL suffer from Arab "Palestinian" Muslim majority.Just like the Arab Christian Lebanese in "Damour" (Yasir Arafat´s Planned Christian Genocide http://www.chretiens-et-juifs.org/article.php?voir%5B%5D=594&voir%5B%5D=3532 , Hobeika - Damour http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/hobeika_damour/hobeika_damour.html), where "Palestinian" Muslims massacred Christians senselessly, which brought the reprisal by Arab Christians upon Arab "Palestinian" Muslims in Sabra & shatila. The Islamization of Bethlehem that has started by Yasser Arafat has forced Christians out.The "Palestinian" Christians are forced to join the senseless criminal violence against Israeli victims, otherwise they are threatened. Some Arab "Palestinians" that might be Christian won't...

Tony Blair has found that it doesn’t take too much to wipe the smile off one’s face when trying to resolve the competing Arab and Jewish claims to the territory once called Palestine - known today as Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza.

On the eve of Christmas, an op-ed by Kenneth L. Woodward, the former religion editor and now contributing editor of Newsweek, appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Titled "The Plight of Bethlehem," it enumerated a number of ways in which the Jewish state imposes hardships on Christians in the Holy Land. According to Woodward, Israel restricts their movement and their access to holy sites; squeezes them economically in cities like Bethlehem; and confiscates their land for its security fence and for Jewish settlements. Woodward closes by reminding Israel that it would be a mistake to “lose” the good will of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The relics venerated as the crib the baby Jesus used in a Bethlehem grotto are in an alarming state of degradation, some church officials said. The remains have become so fragile that officials at Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, where the crib is located, decided to suspend this year's annual Christmas Eve tradition when the relics are carried from the crypt beneath the main altar in a procession around the basilica and displayed in front of the altar all Christmas Day. Two of the five wooden slats are showing signs of "troublesome deterioration," Msgr. Emilio...

Could the purchase of an ancient coin have led to an important clue about the Star of Bethlehem? The above illustration is a Roman coin from Antioch, Syria which shows the zodiacal sign, Aries the Ram. In trying to understand the meaning behind this coin, I found that Aries was the sign of the Jews. Realizing that this is where ancient stargazers would have watched for the Star of Bethlehem, I embarked on searching for the celestial event that signified the birth of the Messiah in Judea. Superposed on the photograph of the coin is what I found: Jupiter underwent...