The original Christmas destination still has a sad look about it. This time there is lots of room at the inn, as tourism to Bethlehem limps through the latest political crisis.
Entering the Church of the Nativity is similar to trying to get in to a maximum security prison. Bethlehem is one of the isolated West bank towns where Palestinians have nominal control over the own affairs. Getting in and out is arduous and invasive, but at least it is possible. A siege in 2002 which damaged the building and a blockade in 2004 almost brought the passage of pilgrims to the site to a halt. Israeli is locked in an ideological, economic and political conflict with the residents of Bethlehem. The season of peace and goodwill won’t arrive here for a few years yet.
Israelis will deposit you at the security gate; another bus will pick 
you up and bring you to the attractions. Passports are required. But it is a swifter process than it was, and once you are through it is time to admire the site where Christmas began.
Whatever else it is, spiritual it ain’t. The Church of the Nativity is a war zone in itself, this time between the various denominations of Christianity. Each owns and occupies a corner of the church. Those looking for the sort of inspiration you find in Glendalough or Lough Derg will despair. If you’re imagining the bucolic Christmas-card images of the Annunciation, go to the Irish Farmers Association crib in Dawson Street.
By the time the church was built in Byzantine times and extended in Crusader times, pilgrimage was already an industry. It is a common theme through the churches of the so-called Holy land.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the most unspiritual place of all, the Orthodox occupying the slab on which Jesus body was washed, the Catholics occupying the crucifixion site and the more discreet Armenians holding the tomb where the body was laid, as decreed by Helen, Mother of Constantine, when she decreed that Christianity should be the official religion of the empire in 325AD.
The most spiritual place here is where the Ethiopians have built a monastery on the roof, having lost their title deeds in a 19th 
Century fire. It feels like Lalibella, and closer to serenity than the chaos below, best epitomised in the fist fight between monks that can be viewed on Youtube.
A 160-kilometer drive to the North, four days by donkey, lies Nazareth. Jesus’ childhood home is no more spiritual but it is livelier and has more peripheral attractions, for example, the largest Arab city in Israel. The traffic is chaotic, a snakelike line of cars, vans and bikes trying to vie for the narrow space between the stalls and parked vehicles.
Nazareth still has the feel of a small village, with excellent restaurants offering local dishes in Druze bread. The Orthodox Church has an alternative childhood home for Jesus in an out of town location.
The church is modern and Catholic, a bit like you would find in suburban Dublin. Ireland’s mosaic is one of the nearest to the gate. Throughout the church there are Holy Family and Madonna and Child paintings in individual styles, Cameroon has a black family, Japan’s is distinctly oriental. Through a glass panel you can see the green lit cavern where the Holy family lived, part of a complex of caves where the villagers of the time dwelt.
There is a plan to turn Nazareth into a modern attractive city comparable with its well-funded Israeli neighbours. Some of the plan has worked. The winding alleyways of the Old City are 
beautifully lit at night, thanks to the Nazareth 2000 project. This joint project of the Israeli government and the local municipality for restoration of the Old City is to celebrate the Millennium in the Holy Land.
Unfortunately, most of the money was spent on Upper Nazareth, the Jewish section of the city and then the entire fund was frozen by the Israelis. Politics beats pilgrimage every time. Thus was it ever.
Security in Israel is lower, much less than it was even three years ago. There is a sense of the country coming to terms with its own precarious existence. Tourists will feel safe and comfortable here, in what is effectively a bigger Cyprus awaiting discovery, with better beaches and better day trips.
The pilgrim can find more spiritual places along the Galilee seashore. A representative from the tourist office in Nazareth claims that Christians pay too little attention to the North East of the country where most of the New Testament sites are to be found. In a small patch of land, about 50 kilometers long and twenty kilometers wide, is where Jesus spent his entire life, moving only for his birth in Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt and the traumatic last week of his life in Jerusalem. Each signpost comes to life from the Bible. You can feel at home here.
At the site of the Sermon on the Mount a natural amphitheatre 
recedes away to the Galilee shoreline. It is peaceful and bucolic beneath the shining blue winter sky and the crescent moon. Blessed are the meek indeed.
Bmi fly a convenient one-stop same-terminal service to Tel Aviv via Heathrow Terminal 1 with return flights from €408. Bmi operates up to eight daily return flights on the Dublin to London Heathrow route and the only business class service from Dublin to Heathrow.
Eoghan Corry stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ein Bokek health and tourism resort on the Dead Sea (for further information visit www.ichotelsgroup.com), the Sheraton Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem (for further information visit www.starwoodhotels.com) and the Plaza Hotel, Tiberias.
Eoghan Corry
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