Gloomy Christmas In Bethlehem

Barren of pilgrims and tourists, Bethlehem filled up Thursday with Filipino workers living in Israel who came to celebrate Christmas in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Fears of terrorism and violence kept most other pilgrims away, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

"Unfortunately, it's an unusual, sad situation in the city," said Bethlehem's Palestinian mayor Hanna Nasser.

A few hundred tourists — a far cry from the tens of thousands who flocked here before the violence — were in Manger Square on Christmas Eve to watch the annual procession and attend midnight Mass.

By Christmas morning, most tourists had left, and some 1,500 Filipino foreign workers were bused into Bethlehem to attend English-language services.

"My family is very jealous that I get to come here every year," said Lifa Rementilla, 34, who was spending her sixth Christmas in Bethlehem.

Munching on hot corn doled out of pots of boiling water by Palestinian vendors, the Filipino worshippers gathered in Bethlehem's ancient streets, taking pictures, chatting and thriving in the atmosphere of one of the holiest Christian cities.

"It's nice to be able to forget, if even for just one day, the problems in this land," said Lora Lanipol, 39, who works as a caretaker in Tel Aviv.

"Who knows, maybe this Christmas will bring peace," she added, striking a rare note of optimism in a town that spent a third Christmas under the conflict's gloom.

Economically shattered by the conflict, the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority cut its Christmas budget this year, making decorations sparse. Political banners declaring "No land, No future, No Christmas trees" were prominently displayed alongside a meager showing of lights and streamers.

Many Filipino workers came supplied with sandwiches and mugs of hot coffee, providing little business to the local vendors for whom Christmas was once the year's business peak. Many shops in Manger Square remained shuttered.

"We don't have pilgrims, no tourists, nobody," said Bethlehem resident Elias Abu Akleh, 52. "For whom are they going to open?"

Like many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who have been unable to travel to Bethlehem due to Israel's tight restrictions, Yasser Arafat, a Muslim, was banned by Israel for the third straight year from attending midnight Mass and other Christmas celebrations.

"This is part of the failed Israeli attempt to harm the morale of the Palestinian people, especially in these sacred days, which commemorate the birth of our master," Arafat said from his Ramallah headquarters, where he has been confined for a year and a half.

In the church on Christmas Eve, a front-row seat was left empty for the veteran leader. The seat was draped with a black-and-white checkered headscarf, like the one Arafat wears. A sign on the seat read: "Yasser Arafat, president of the State of Palestine."

Arafat had attended Christmas Eve celebrations every year after Israel turned the town over to Palestinian control in December 1995.

At midnight Mass, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, struck a political chord in his homily, saying "the separation wall will give no security and no peace."

"The sacrifices of these years will not be for nothing if those responsible conclude the true results, rather than concluding that building the wall is the true solution," said Sabbah, the highest-ranking Catholic official in the Holy Land.

"The true results are that war destroys people and places and does not silence a people that demands its freedom," he added.