Bethlehem Residents Gloomy About Israel's Security Wall

 

By Laurie Kassman
 
The security wall Israel is building aims to protect its citizens from Palestinian suicide bombers¹ and other terrorists coming from the West Bank and Gaza. The wall soon will restrict access to the town of Bethlehem, a popular tourist destination traditionally considered the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Vendors² in Bethlehem's central market call out to a few early morning customers wandering through the maze³ of vegetable and meat stalls.
The city's narrow stone-paved streets once bustling⁴ with tourists are populated these days by jobless young Palestinians who depended on a lively tourist trade for their income.
At the entrance to the city, taxi drivers wait for the elusive⁵ customer. They sit quietly in the shade of an Israeli security wall under construction there.
Abu Katona says he is lucky if he gets one customer a day.
"We come here in the morning," said Abu Katona. "We are out here 50 meters before the wall. And we try to make a living. I have family, I have children and no business. All my life I work with tourism. And you see they come one bus, two buses. They go to the church of the nativity for mass and they're here for one hour and back to Jerusalem. So we have no work."
Bethlehem's hotels are empty. So are the tourist shops.
Jewish tour buses visit a sacred tomb near the entrance to Bethlehem, but venture no farther. The few Christian⁶ tour buses that head toward Christian shrines⁷ in the city center do not linger.
Tourism has steadily⁸ dropped since the Palestinian uprising four years ago that enflamed the West Bank and since a month-long Israeli military siege of Bethlehem two years ago, when Palestinian fighters hid inside the Church of the Nativity.
Bethlehem's plight⁹ mirrors Palestinian cities across the West Bank and Gaza. A U.N. study says Palestinians have lost one fifth of their economic base over the past four years. Without international support, the report warns, the Palestinian economy will collapse¹⁰.
Michel Nasser heads Bethlehem's Peace Center, which sits across Manger Square from the church where Christian teachings say Jesus was born. He remembers better days.
"If you wanted to get a ticket to get in to the church, it used to take two months in advance, minimum, to get tickets," said Michel Nasser. "Now you can literally¹¹ in the last minute get a ticket and go inside the church. And this is a sad thing."
He says the security wall that will soon surround Bethlehem and the neighboring Christian villages of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour will only make things worse.
Mr. Nasser says the loss of revenue from the tourist trade has forced some residents to sell their property in order to survive.
Lutheran minister Mitri Raheb estimates nearly 3,000 Christians¹² alone have left the area in the past four years.
Palestinians Christians, who once dominated the so-called Christian triangle of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, today account for less than one third of the inhabitants.
Mitri Raheb's recent book, called Bethlehem Besieged¹³, Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble, chronicles the fears and frustrations¹⁴ of its residents through the uprising, military siege and construction of a security wall that will soon encircle the city.
"Bethlehem will be surrounded on three sides by the wall and on one side by a highway, built on Bethlehem land but not accessible to Bethlehemite's. It's only for the settlers and this basically will close the ring around Bethlehem. And there will be just three gates leading in and out of Bethlehem." said Mr. Raheb.
While he speaks about the negative impact on the economy, the daily reminder¹⁵ of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be heard outside his window. A tear gas canister explodes in the street below as Israeli troops round up half a dozen young Palestinians.
"secondly¹⁶ it means an economic catastrophe¹⁷ because Bethlehem survives on tourism and were afraid that tourists would be prevented from coming," he said. "So economically, its a catastrophe."
Israeli citizens believe the wall has made the country safer from terrorists and Palestinian suicide bombers.
But community leaders like Mitri Raheb say the wall and other travel restrictions¹⁸ also make it harder for Bethlehem's jobless to find work in Jerusalem, just eight kilometers away.
"So you will have these gettos, overpopulated, large unemployment, and no future prospect," he said. "Our children will grow up surrounded by a wall and we're afraid this wall might affect their soul."
Mr. Raheb and other leaders like the Peace Center's Michel Nasser have started organizing concerts, youth dances, conferences and art exhibits to revive the city's cultural life and lift its spirits too.
Laurie Kassman, VOA News, Bethlehem.
注释：
suicide 自杀
terrorist 恐怖分子
Gaza 加沙
destination 目标
Vendor 小贩
nativity 基督降生
Jerusalem 耶路撒冷
enflame  燃烧
collapse 崩溃
inhabitant 居民
chronicle 叙述

 

1 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

4 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

5 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 shrines   

圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All three structures dated to the third century and were tentatively identified as shrines. 这3座建筑都建于3 世纪，并且初步鉴定为神庙。
• Their palaces and their shrines are tombs. 它们的宫殿和神殿成了墓穴。

8 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

9 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

13 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

14 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

15 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

16 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

17 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

18 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制