Bethlehem residents protest security terminal

By Martin Patience, USA TODAY

12/13/2005 9:16 PM

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A visit to this town where the Bible says Jesus was born 2,000 years ago has political as well as religious significance.

Anyone crossing from the historic West Bank city of 30,000 into Israel faces a daunting array of security procedures as they walk through a $7 million terminal that opened Nov. 15.

The terminal at the entrance to Bethlehem, a city that is surrounded by a 24-foot-high concrete barrier, is one of five new stations Israel has opened across the West Bank over the past year, according to Israel's Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Ten more will open in 2006 in the West Bank and Gaza along Israel's 480-mile security barrier.

Israel says the terminals, like the barrier, are designed to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks. Palestinians see the terminals as the latest sign that Israel is moving unilaterally to establish the final boundaries between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh says the new terminal is an attempt to set "an international border" that breaks the historic and religious link between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem, both located in the West Bank. "The terminal is like you are entering a new frontier," Batarseh said during a recent interview in his wood-paneled office, which overlooks the Church of the Nativity on Manger Square.

The Israeli government denies the new facilities are border controls. "This is not a unilateral border. It is a defense line," says Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Tourists and Bethlehem businesses say the terminals are a deterrent to people visiting the town that depends on tourism to survive.

'Ominous' experience

All of the new terminals — one each near Bethlehem, Qalqilya and Tulkarem and two near Jenin — have security checks similar to those at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, Regev says.

Once inside, each individual passes through five electronically controlled turnstiles, two X-ray machines and a final passport check. Belongings are X-rayed separately. Instructions telling people when to pass through the turnstiles are issued in Arabic, Hebrew and English through speakers. Video cameras watch every move.

Tourists passing through the new terminal here say it's an inconvenience and can be daunting. Ron Alling, 60, an attorney from Lake Tahoe, Nev., says the terminal will "absolutely discourage people to visit here."

Megan Clark, 24, a recent college graduate from Washington, says going through the terminal is an "ominous" experience. "I just feel like cattle," she says. "It seems so unnecessary. I feel like I have done something wrong, which is an incredibly powerful feeling and think it will deter tourists."

Bethlehem residents and businesspeople say the new terminal is causing damage in a city where, according to Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ziad al-Bandak, tourism accounts for 70%-80% of the economy.

Tourism in the region has been making a comeback this year for the first time since September 2000, when the Palestinian uprising erupted.

In the first 10 months of this year, more than 1.5 million tourists visited Israel — a 27% increase over the same period in 2004, according to Israel's Tourism Ministry. The Palestinian Tourism Ministry expects 275,000 visitors in Bethlehem this year, more than double the number last year.

The new terminal is putting a dent in those numbers, local hotel owners say. They say tour groups, aggravated by the delays, are canceling overnight stays. Before the new terminal opened, Israeli soldiers would board tourist buses and check travel documents, a two-minute process, Bandak says. Now it can take an hour.

At the 210-room Bethlehem Hotel, general manager Anwar al-Arja says three tour groups have canceled since the terminal opened in mid-November. The biggest group would have occupied 180 rooms. "It takes time, and tourists don't want the hassle," al-Arja says.

Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel, in charge of Israeli security operations in Bethlehem, says the measures are to deter suicide bombers. "In 2004, half the suicide bomber attacks on Jerusalem came from the Bethlehem area," he says. "We need to achieve a balance between security and access as the terrorists are always looking for new ways to carry out their operations."

Feigel says there were a few technical problems when the terminal was opened; one tourist bus was held for one hour. However, he insists it takes tourists an average time of "10 to 12 minutes" to pass through the terminal.

Bethlehem tour guide George Cavanti, 29, says a group of elderly German women was forced to wait for two hours last month.

Bandak says Israeli authorities are "exaggerating the risk of security." He adds, "There are not any tourists smuggling explosives or guns. They are mainly elderly pilgrims. It's a signal to tourists that they (Israeli authorities) don't want the tourists coming to Bethlehem."

Eli Cohen, director general of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, says Israel actively promotes Bethlehem. He points to a meeting of the tourism ministers of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority scheduled to be held this month in Bethlehem. "Bethlehem is part of the Holy Land," he says, "and that's why tourists come to this part of the world."

Border issues

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says the new terminals in the West Bank are an attempt to consolidate control over the territory, home to about 245,000 Israelis who live in guarded settlements and about 2.4 million Palestinians.

"I see the terminals as unilateral steps," he says. "Usually borders are between two states, but the Israelis are trying to control their side of the border and our side."

Erekat says the Palestinian Authority has been concerned Israel would take more unilateral steps ever since Israel's withdrawal from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank in September.

Palestinians also complain that the barrier, along which the terminals are being placed, is a land grab that will make the establishment of a viable Palestinian state impossible. "The wall is creating Bantustans like in South Africa," says Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian political party the Palestinian National Initiative. He was referring to black homelands created under the former apartheid regime.

In a non-binding ruling in July 2004, the International Court of Justice at the Hague, the highest United Nations court, ruled that Israel's security barrier was illegal because parts are being built on land Israel occupied after the Middle East war in 1967. The Palestinian Authority wants to establish its state using the pre-1967 borders, which would include the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

The Israeli government says the security barrier has reduced the number of terrorist attacks inside Israel since construction began in August 2003. According to the Israel Defense Forces, there were 74 terrorist attacks from September 2000 — the start of the Palestinian uprising — to July 2003. From July 2003 onward, there have been 12 terrorist attacks.

Joseph Giacaman, 64, owner of the Holy Land Arts Museum souvenir shop in Bethlehem, says there must be a middle ground that would not deter visitors. They "are checking tourists too much" at the terminal and he can't make a living selling olive wood carvings, he says.

So Giacaman decided that this year he will leave the Middle East for the first time during the Christmas season to attend a trade fair in the German city of Leipzig to try to bolster sales overseas.

"If the work doesn't come to me," he says, "I'll go to the work."

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