Thousands of Christian pilgrims, tourists and locals were expected to flock to
Bethlehem on Tuesday to usher in Christmas in the city, considered to be the
birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Lydia Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Tourism Ministry, told
dpa that around 165,000 Christian pilgrims from around the globe had
entered Israel for the Christmas period, a 10 percent increase from 2017 .
Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the head of the Latin Patriarchate of
Jerusalem, lead the traditional Christmas Eve procession from Jerusalem to
Bethlehem.
The procession of the Latin patriarch starts on Dec. 24, at the Latin Church
near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Accompanied by Israeli police, a convoy of several dozen cars stops at the
monastery of Mar Elias before crossing through Israel’s controversial concrete
security wall into the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Metres from Manger Square, the cars stop and the delegation completes the
rest of the way to the Church of the Nativity on foot.
Palestinian workers must normally pass through a heavily guarded checkpoint
in the wall.
But Israel’s Tourism Ministry has provided free shuttles for the Christmas
period, transporting pilgrims back and forth between Jerusalem and the
Biblical city.
In the afternoon and evening, local and foreign choirs will sing in the square
until Midnight Mass, when the archbishop gives his sermon in the presence of
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials and Catholic
diplomats.
The northern Arab-Israeli town of Nazareth will also host its
annual Christmas procession.
