IDF to ease W. Bank restrictions for pilgrims during Christmas

Israel will ease access to Bethlehem during the upcoming Christmas celebrations in a "calculated risk" intended to let Christian pilgrims worship the holiday freely in the West Bank town, security officials said Monday.

Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said pilgrims will not need permission from the army to enter the town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conduct spot checks of random buses instead, he said.

Arab Israelis and Christian Palestinians will be allowed to drive into Bethlehem, and Palestinian Christians will be allowed into Israel to visit family, the officer said.

"We are taking a calculated risk by easing steps and that is because we are well aware of the importance of Bethlehem," Feigel told reporters.

The restrictions are to be eased starting December 24 until Armenian Christmas on January 18, he said.

Bethlehem is just south of Jerusalem. A new checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, operating since November 15, has not reduced the number of tourists, he said. Its purpose is to ensure a balance between Israel's security needs and the access for Christians to Bethlehem, he said.

Checkpoints erected around West Bank towns and cities frequently cause a logjam of passengers and vehicles, and Palestinians often endure humiliating security checks. Palestinian officials complain that the checkpoints and a separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank - cutting Bethlehem off from Jerusalem - will hinder tourists from visiting Bethlehem.

Recent Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem have been subdued because of five years of fighting between Palestinians and Israelis and Israeli security restrictions. At the height of the fighting in the spring of 2002, after armed militants took sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity, Israeli soldiers shut down the town during a siege.

The number of visitors increased last year as violence decreased, and even more were expected this year, with stronger cooperation between the two sides. Town officials are planning an open-air Christmas market. Over the weekend, workers set up small stages for dances and choirs in the town of 30,000.

Some 250,000 pilgrims came to the city since January, compared to 100,000 in all of last year, Feigel said.

But Feigel said the quiet in Bethlehem is misleading, and security threats continue. Half of the Israeli fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered Jerusalem from Bethlehem, he said.

On Thursday, a car bomb was found on a road used by West Bank settlers traveling between Jerusalem and the Bethlehem area. Palestinian police alerted Israeli security to the car, and Israeli sappers blew it up safely.