Peace of Christmas in Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Palestinians lit a four-story Christmas tree in this biblical town Saturday, kicking off a holiday season free of fighting with Israel that officials say will bring the most pilgrims since hostilities broke out seven years ago.

Residents of the West Bank town of 30,000 and foreign tourists alike strolled streets Saturday under lights shaped like bells and Santa Claus. Christians count for only a small percentage of Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land, including Bethlehem, and the town believed to be the birthplace of Jesus is one of the few places that Christmas is felt.

This season, around 65,000 tourists are expected to visit the traditional site of Jesus' birth, Mayor Victor Batarseh said. That's four times the number that came in Christmas 2005.

Israeli and Palestinian forces have cooperated to facilitate the passage of pilgrims from Jerusalem through an Israeli army checkpoint into Bethlehem, said Ahmed al-Haddar, the area's Palestinian security chief. About 1,500 Palestinian police will be deployed during the festivities, he said.

Tourism is integral to efforts to bolster the Palestinian economy, which is tattered from years of conflict with Israel.

But relative calm in the West Bank this year, combined with renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, have persuaded some tourists to return. Mideast envoy Tony Blair visited Bethlehem this month and spent the night to signal that it is safe to visit.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed in a U.S.-hosted conference last month to renew peace talks.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of Palestinians filled the streets Saturday in the biggest show of support for Hamas since the Islamic militants seized the territory in June.

Leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed in speeches on the 20th anniversary of the movement's founding that Hamas will not compromise its hard-line views despite growing isolation, poverty and popular support for Abbas.

Since Hamas wrested control from Abbas' Fatah forces, Gaza's 1.5 million residents have been virtually cut off from the outside world, with Israel and Egypt refusing to fully reopen crossings with the coastal territory. Unemployment has risen to about 50 percent, forcing poverty up to 75 percent, Palestinian officials say.