The Palestinian Authority decided to spend $50,000 on Christmas decorations in Bethlehem this year. The decoration committee is headed by city council member Zoughbi Zoughbi, who is excited about the prospect of lighting up this small city just south of Jerusalem. However, apart from Mr. Zoughbi, seven other council members, and the mayor, very few Christians remain here: over 80% of the population today is Muslim. 60 years ago, the Muslim-Christian ratio was the exact opposite.

When I discuss this with Mr. Zoughbi, he blames Israel. It's the occupation, the checkpoints, the wall (a.k.a. the West Bank security barrier), and the settlements that make life in Bethlehem unbearable for Christians. As he utters every cliche about the suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Jews, I gaze through his window at the settlement of Har Homa that towers on a neighboring hilltop. Yep, it must really suck to lose. 

Mr. Zoughbi scoffs when I try to interject with a question about Muslim persecution of Christians. "Such talk just plays into the hands of the Zionists." Obviously. "The occupation is like a cancer, while any tension between Muslims and Christians is comparable to a small cut in the finger," he says.

Let's take a peek at that small cut: intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion. In confidence Palestinian Christians tell me that they are not running away from an economy ruined by the Jews, but from the Palestinian Authority and the increasingly intolerant Muslim society that surrounds them. "You are not seeing any Muslims running away, are you?" one Christian man asks me with a bitter grin. Off the record, of course. One would imagine that Muslims would make up a considerable part of the Palestinians leaving Bethlehem if the economic situation were indeed so bad as everybody willing to go on record claims, but they are not. Even the Palestinian propagandists can't get their head around this glaring fact, they start mumbling about Christians being more sensitive to economic pressure before changing the subject back to the occupation. 

If anything, the economy in Bethlehem is booming. This year has seen a 96.5% increase in tourism compared to last year, surpassing even the number of tourists that came before the Second Intifada. The average day wage among West Bank Palestinians has increased with 24% this year, and all the hotels in Bethlehem are fully booked over Christmas, allegedly a common problem in this shoddy little town.

After having spent three days in Bethlehem talking to Christians about the situation, any semblance of a Christmas spirit that I have tried to work up is gone. The people I talk to are either too terrified to go on record, or they lie to protect themselves and their families. As I approach the border terminal where Israeli soldiers routinely humiliate Palestinians for fun, I come across a black Hummer outside of a store selling Christmas ornaments. The owner brags that he payed 600,000 shekels for it. That equals $125,000. What a ripoff, I bet it was a Jew that made him pay twice of what it is worth.

The Conference began properly at 4 o'clock, with President Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad (the Prime Minister of Palestine), and Tony Blair entering through the middle of journalists hovering around the main conference room. We media had been told in advance that we couldn’t enter this session, and were ushered along—with the many delegates who found there was no room for them either—into another room to watch proceedings on a screen, complete with faulty translation devices. Abbas apologized for the chaos evident at the conference, asked for our sympathy in light of it being their first, and promised to make amends in the future.

In the midst of the day, news filtered out—mainly between journalists on the phones to their bureaus, and then referred to by Abbas in his speech—that Israel and Syria had announced they were in talks towards a peace treaty. Abbas welcomed this, but then cataloged the many ways Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians made economic development difficult. Judging by the wealth on display amongst the delegates milling outside, this is a little hard to believe. Interestingly, he reached out to the “brothers in Gaza” and hoped that there would be change there soon. A delegate whispered to me that there were many Hamas spies amongst us, mixed in with the suits, and possibly wearing the robes of sheiks and sultans. I remained vigilant.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the PNA, at the Opening Ceremony If you’ve been to Bethlehem before, you will no doubt have visited the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square, perhaps Solomon’s Pools and the Shepherd's Field (a strange place, filled with dozens of little churches, crypts, and olive wood carvings available from the olive wood carvings superstore across the road). It's a curious place. There’s a strong sense that something needs to give in this city—it is a tourist ‘mecca’, but the tourists only trickle through, partly because of the facts on the ground, and partly due to fear.

I’m not a newcomer to Bethlehem, and was here almost a year ago for a conference of a similar length run by an American organization dedicated to the cause of non-violence. It was a great experience, and it's great to come back with an entirely different focus. The first conference was laid back, and took place at several venues across the city, without such security measures in place. The highlight was seeing Martin Luther King III arrive with a huge delegation of African Americans in tow.

Suits or Spies?With the dawn of the third day, the PIC was really underway. The venue moved to the newly built conference center, a swish pile high on a hill overlooking Solomon’s Pools. Upon arrival, I noticed that there was a different energy to the event—the delegates had slept well, they were being well-looked after (fed, watered, and given lots of freebies), and were in their stride, networking and doing deals left, right, and openly in the hallway. The moving and shaking was really happening, and the delegates from far and near had taken over the asylum.

Booths had been erected in the conference center lobby: the Islamic Bank (great toffees), USAID (lots of smiles, and paper bags loaded with papers), and the Brits, in the form of DFID (Department for International Development), who weren’t so forthcoming, but who did have a great big flag, which made my heart flutter a little.

Opening CeremonyUSAID has half a dozen programs running in the West Bank including loan guarantees, which shore up fledgling projects during the current weak state of the US economy. One project is a drip irrigation program for small households of 1.5 dunam plots, encouraging self-sufficiency in vegetable growing; another is the Khaizaran herb farm in Tubas. This is the first commercial Palestinian herb enterprise, and since opening in May last year, has tapped into lucrative markets in Europe, Russia, and the US.

At the DFID booth I met a Brit, Mark Pearson, who runs Hucksters, an advertising and publishing consultancy firm which has been developing call center facilities in the West Bank. This is a good example of the raw potential in Palestine, which is being seized upon by investors and business entrepreneurs alike.

Later, I talked with Rob Quartel, the CEO of FreightDesk Technologies, who has pioneered an innovative software application to manage goods and trucks in and out of border crossings. This is up and running in Jordan, and he was in Bethlehem to investigate whether the Palestinians can make use of it. He's optimistic it will work here...

Last week saw the Palestine Investment Conference, a three-day affair in Bethlehem organized to highlight investment opportunities in the Palestinian economy. Jewcy contributor James Murray-White was there to cover the event from start to finish.

Crossing into Bethlehem from Jerusalem is an experience. Coming back is tougher—being amongst Palestinians who are searched, held up, and often refused is a difficult sight to witness. Returning to Jerusalem on a little bus through the hilltop suburb of Beit Jala shows the interconnectedness of the hills and the land here: the continual heat beating down on us, the rocky fields interspersed with olive trees, two peoples living together on one piece of land.

Once you’re through the gray concrete monolith that is the checkpoint and wall complex, it hits you: Bethlehem, Palestine—a different country. Yellow taxis vie for your attention immediately, the terrible driving is worse than Israel, and the ever-present security wall runs into a town composed of rundown houses, shops, and buildings. The road is smooth, with a recently added speed bump, and the welcoming flags and banners attempt to hide the fact that not much is going on here at all.

The Palestine Investment Conference hosted here last week was an attempt to change that. Held at two impressive venues—the Jacir Palace Hotel and the brand new Convention Center (so new that the road was being built as I drove up to it, and conference registration took place in a tent next to the front door)—the Conference, organized and pushed for in part by the Quartet Representative Tony Blair (the program refers to the Prime Minister as ‘His Eminence’), sought private and governmental investment in the area.

The Long and Winding Road: to the palestine investment conference Under the Conference slogan "You can do business in Palestine", this effort came as part of a US $7.7 billion commitment from the international donor community for a comprehensive 3-year development and rehabilitation plan for. The conference itself cost a total of $3 million, with half of that coming from various sponsors, and the remaining half paid for by the Palestinian Authority. This comes hand-in-hand with intensive and highly secret discussions between the Israeli and PNA negotiation team to achieve a peace plan, including a final status agreement on Jerusalem and the establishment of a formal Palestinian State.

Upon arrival, journalists were ordered to convene outside a side entrance to the Jacir Palace and watch the guards figure out how to assemble the type of security gate that beeps when you pass through with metal in your pocket. Then the media scrum had to surrender all of our possessions and cameras and tripods and watch as the Palestinian Police/Army/Security (it never was clear which was which) had their latest security gadget—a sniffer dog—sniff it all. Security was extremely heavy, including snipers on the surrounding buildings. It was intimidating, but they cannot risk losing a key player in the slow political machinations.

Securing the Convention Center Once we all got through the newly-assembled gate, the media congregated for the press conference. Oddly, it was in Arabic, and the few foreign media were told that this was because the translation services were set up “in another room.” This could have been a disaster, but thankfully the Governor of Bethlehem and Chairman of the Conference, Saleh Al-Ta’mari, spoke English and translated from the podium. He and a few other high-ranking officials told us that 1200 participants had registered for the conference, including 7% from America, 5% from Israel, and 300 Palestinians from abroad. For the 109 projects on the metaphorical conference table, $2 billion was being searched for. I clutched my pocketful of shekels tightly.

We were informed that we must all stay at the venue, probably for security reasons. It's generally a mistake to try to keep a pack of journalists—Palestinian or otherwise—in one venue for several hours with little happening. Watching the many delegates arrive and rating them on a scale of importance, or slowly befriending the security guys couldn’t entertain for that long.

Speaking of the young, lean security guys: I'll stick my neck out here and say that I believe a lot of the US/EU money has gone to dressing them in Armani suits and Italian loafers. Never mind earning a living and supporting a family: Protect the ‘Rais’ (Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas—and all the others at the top of the importance scale, for that matter) and you will be measured up for a very fine silk-lined suit indeed, yours to keep while upholding the nascent Nation’s honor. They were impeccably turned out, putting Mr. Blair’s pasty English minders in threadbare Government surplus hand-me-downs to shame.

Journalists were provided with a small ‘media center' that contained a few laptops and comfy chairs to lounge in, plus limited access to food and drink, although the venue was clearly stretched way over capacity.

Adam Neiman Inspects a No Sweat Tee Thankfully, I had a meeting set with Adam Nieman of No Sweat Apparel—the only Jewish-owned company participating in and looking for investors at the Conference—which turned out to be the highlight of the day. We retired to a nearby eatery, and Adam shared with me his formidable achievements in bringing business to Palestine from Boston, Massachusetts, and his no less extraordinary hopes and plans for the future. Adam brought his business, Bienestar International, to Bethlehem two years ago, and was delighted to be back in a place he regards as “the Gordian knot of global geo-politics.” Later, he introduced me to Khaled J. Al-Arja, the owner of Arja Textile Company in Bet Jala, Bethlehem, who is the manufacturer of Adam’s 100% organic cotton T-shirts.

A Street In Bethlehem: and the wallI’ve met Rabbi Melissa Weintraub a few times, most notably last year at Limmud NY, and she’s just completely amazing on so many levels. One of the awesome things about her is that she was one of the founders of Encounter Programs when she was living in Israel. Here’s Encounter’s mission statement:

Encounter is an educational organization dedicated to providing Jewish diaspora leaders from across the religious and political spectrum with exposure to Palestinian life.

Motivated by the relentless Jewish pursuit of hokhma (wisdom) and binah (understanding), Encounter programs bring participants on journeys to engage with Palestinians face-to-face and witness realities first hand.

Within a supportive, uniquely caring, and pluralistic framework, Encounter invites participants to ask questions and grapple with fresh perspectives, in order to create human connections across lines of enmity, and expand personal and political understanding.

Israel education is a hugely important factor in any Jewish community and Jewish life, but I don’t feel like I’ve ever gotten an adequate exposure to Palestinian life, and I think it’s incredibly important for Jewish leaders to talk from a place of experience when they talk about the conflict, and that means visiting Palestinian homes and engaging with Palestinians. So I hope I’ll be on an Encounter program soon.

I have a number of friends who have been on Encounter trips and they’ve all come back feeling confused by enlightened. And maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but that sounds like exactly the appropriate reaction to the situation as a whole.

Support Encounter Programs here; learn more about going on a trip yourself here.

The project "Seen in Behlehem" takes art to the walls and streets of the West Bank. More photos from this series can be found at the Wooster Collective website.