This is the message that Bethlehem is desperate to send to the world. This month sees the launch of an initiative - Open Bethlehem - intended to help rescue this town, at least, among all the towns on the West Bank facing isolation and collapse. By spreading word of Bethlehem’s surprising calm and the endlessly hospitable spirit that has made pilgrims welcome for centuries, the campaigners hope to encourage visitors to return. There is a particular urgency because Israel’s infamous security barrier is near completion, while a ring of expanding Jewish settlements eats into Palestinian territory. According to Open Bethlehem’s first briefing paper, “The cradle of biblical history is in peril. Today, it resembles a bleak prison town surrounded by a concrete wall.” The unspoken question is this: why, given the place of Bethlehem in the Christian imagination, does the outside world seem so unconcerned?
