Radio Hayah spoke with Hanan Manoly from Beit Sahour municipality

what is beit Sahour famous for ?

Radio Hayah    Hanan how important is the Beit Sahour Municipality  to the community ?

Hanan      You know that the municipality is committed to the daily services that should be provided to the community , these daily services are of many kinds , such as infrastructure development solid waste management ,the protection of the government properties the public markets , the sewage network surfaces, monitoring construction and licensing process of the buildings, implementation of the projects that are generated from the strategic and development plan of the city also they are a big cooperation with the local community and the civic organizations the municipality is also responsible for planning and economic development so mainly they are responsible to develop the daily services in kinds and in quantity .

Radio Hayah     Does it take a  lot to run the municipality ?

Hanan    Yes of course ,especially the municipalities in Palestine suffer usually from the financial crisis , there are a lack of financial sources so they have to do big thoughts  in order to be able to provide the people with the best kind of services in the city .

Radio Hayah     Now is beit Sahour mainly a Christian community ?

Hanan       I will prefer to tell you that beit Sahour population is about 15,000 people with a majority of Christians in the city the Christians in the city is about 75-80% of the people the rest are Muslims but really I should say here that there is a very very good relation between Christians and Muslims in Beit Sahour, they work together , they celebrate together , they plan together   also there are families relations vey good families relations between both societies but the majority are Christians .

Radio Hayah       Now what is beit Sahour famous for ?

Hanan      Beit Sahour is well known as the city of the shepherds its famous because here in the shepherds area the first announcements of the birth of Jesus Christ was here, from Here we have the shepherds area when the angel appeared to the shepherds there in the area and he asked them to follow the star and to go to Bethlehem where they can meet the child Jesus Christ in the Nativity church in the cave which is located now in the nativity church .So we are famous because we are considered as the second touristic city in Bethlehem governorate after Bethlehem , we are famous for this story .

Radio Hayah       What can people see today of the shepherds fields ?

Hanan       In the shepherds fields in terms of the religious establishments there are the orthodox shepherds fields church and the Catholic Shepherds field church also there are many archeological sites full of significant  historical and biblical sites, there are ruins from Roman byzantine and you can there recognize caves, the ruins from which you can understand the story and the fact of the shepherds.

Three of the shepherds we are talking about to whom the angel  announced the birth of Jesus Christ were buried in the west side of the cave and  there tombs are still visible also there are many churches  that were build over and inside the caves of the area .

Radio Hayah     Can you see sheep today ?

Hanan     Not a lot , you can recognize them in Spring there are sheep in the area , you now the shepherds field area is the green area in the city so you can sometimes recognize the sheep in the area especially at spring .

Radio Hayah     Now you also have Mary's well , tell us a little bit about Mary's well .?

Hanan    It  is one of the deepest and most important well which is located in the center of the city , Jacob and Son of Isaac who of course was the son of Abraham is believed to have dug this well , it is said that Virgin Mary while traveling to Egypt passed by it and since she was thirsty she asked a woman if she would draw water for her, the woman was afraid and she refused but the water in the well overflowed by itself , the cistern is famous for the scene of many miracles in addition to the site of a visitation by the virgin Mary but it is good to mention here that this is a place that is visited by both Muslims and Christians , it is visited by all the community .

Here they believe in that story and they believe especially the sick people or the people with special needs or the people they come usually to the well , they drink from the water of the well  and they believe that miracles will take place if they do such things .

Radio Hayah     Now is beit Sahour mainly build on tourism ?

Hanan    Yes of course the most effective part in our economy , local economy is the tourism it really constitutes approximately 40 to 50 % of the local economy of the city  but tourism , I mean all tourism  I mean all tourism activities , hotels , restaurants , and also the hand crafts , we have approximately 175 olive wood workshops in the city and they are familiar in making olive wood , embroidery , mother of pearl , the problem is the poor producers usually faces problems in marketing their products, this is our problem but in Beit Sahour we have many hotels the capacity is about 295 rooms in the whole area we have 700 beds which  excludes separate houses where solidarity groups and individual people sometimes sleep in the houses , in the local houses also  we have many many restaurants the capacity is about 1600 person per meal at one time which is considered to be a good number in the city also there are many annual events in the city of Beit Sahour and the visitors and tourism and pilgrims sometimes come to attend these events so the tourism industry, Beit Sahour depends on local industry here not only local also foreign industries and nearly 2 million visitors have visited the city of Beit Sahour in 2016 .

Radio Hayah       Now do you have special events at Christmas time ?

Hanan     Of course it’s the amazing time in the year , as I said the majority are Christians and they celebrate Christmas time there are many events but the most important one is the lighting of the Christmas tree , This Year it will take place on the 9^th of December , we have a lot of visitors not only local visitors but also from the Palestinian behind the green line. Usually we have 15,000 people at the event and also there are many festivals there is the beit Sahour Shepherds night it takes place on the 25^th 26^th and 27^th of December  3 days of celebrating , Dancing Dabka (dancing) cultural events and many many other kind of tasks also there is Lamlama festival, Lamlama festival usually takes place and funded by the municipality and the local organization it is called the Bethlehem fair trade artisans , its 3 days of Bazaars , cultural events , Dabka (Dancing) folklore and also there are many spaces for the local handcraft maker to  take place, to sell their product , local food , local clothes many many amazing events so you are all invited to attend these events with us .

Radio Hayah       How do Beit Sahour residents celebrate Christmas ?

Hanan       As I told you first lighting the Christmas tree is the beginning of the Start of Christmas , it’s the start of the Christmas time but there is also the 25^th of December there is the Christmas day before the day on the 24^th of December all of the people go to Bethlehem and walk along the Star Street , they want to meet the Patriarchate who will have a mass in the nativity Church this is usually one day before the Christmas day , there is a March on the 24^th of December it goes from Bethlehem to Beit Sahour towards the Shepherds fields also still there are a lot of family visits at Christmas time, The people go to the relatives and they spend good times with them also beside the events that I told you about before .

Radio Hayah   Are the residents proud of the fact that this is where the Angels Visited .?

Hanan     Of course , the resident of Beit Sahour is always proud of his origin his rootedness and this is our story , this is the origin of the name of the city of Beit Sahour its called the city of the shepherds , we are proud of our origin and we are working very hard to keep this story, We believe in this story and we are working always with all the pride that we are the origin of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ .

Radio Hayah        Are there any folklore stories connected with the story ?

Hanan   There are many folklore tales but implemented by maybe the schools  maybe the civic organizations in the festivals in the annual festivals especially at Christmas time, mainly a schools .

Radio Hayah     Now the Angels brought good News , is there good news coming from Beit Sahour today ?

Hanan       You know it’s a very critical time now we are affected by the political situation of the whole area and  as you are here since many times you know that there is deterioration  political and economic situation but the best thing is that the municipality is doing its best, Now there are some projects that are implemented in the city especially in street rehabilitation also we are working now in developing our plan to the city  the municipality with many people from the local community , the people are very happy because they are sharing the municipality the work toward developing their city ,we are very near from the Christmas time and this is by itself is something amazing for us , We are preparing our self for that event . We do not have a lot but we are working , you know it’s a new municipality , it’s a youth Municipality and they have the energy and they are trying very hard to work and they are willing to work and we are expecting  a lot from them .

Radio Hayah     What is your prayer for the future of Beit Sahour ?

Hanan    The Future of Beit Sahour , I hope after developing our plan we will be able implement and achieve our objectives that will generate from our plan and which were developed by the city I hope that we will be able to achieve these objectives , we will achieve the programs and projects that we are planning for .