Thousands of Christian pilgrims and visitors came to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem amid heavy security precautions. Security forces, including local policemen, police reserves from elsewhere in the country and soldiers surrounded Manger Square to search everyone who entered. At the outskirts of town, police checked the special entry permits which were issued to visitors.
The ceremonies opened Friday afternoon as Latin Patriarch Giacomo Beltritti led a procession from Jerusalem to the Church of the Nativity. A police hand and other local bands played in the square as thousands of pilgrims waited for the Patriarch to arrive. He was preceded by a large contingent of Franciscan monks local dignitaries and choir boys dressed in red and black robes.
At midnight Friday the Patriarch conducted the High Pontifical Mass. Thousands of visitors who could not get into the church watched the mass on a large closed circuit television screen in the square. Those who could not attend the midnight mass attended one of the many masses celebrated in the Grotto of the Nativity Friday night and Saturday.
WALKED 7000 KILOMETERS
The live TY broadcast of the midnight mass was carried out according to schedule. Radio and television broadcasting returned to normal Friday afternoon after a 36-hour interruption caused by transmission engineers leaving their posts. Communications Minister Aharon Uzan issued the back-to-work orders Friday morning.
An interesting event during the Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem was the arrival of a 32-year-old Englishman. Francis Clark-Lowies who walked 7000 Kilometers for a year-and-a-half from London to Bethlehem for Christmas eve.
Clark-Lowies arrived at the Allenby Bridge on Friday. He told Tourism Ministry spokesmen that he set out in August 1975 and made his way through Europe and then continued by way of Turkey, Syria and Jordan. With the exception of the English Channel and the Bosphorus he walked all the way to Bethlehem. His 15-kilo knapsack contained clothing, sleeping bag and cooking equipment. He intends to stay in Israel for three months and work as a volunteer in a kibbutz.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
