Bethlehem Besieged

Identified in the New Testament as the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem today is surrounded by a landscape dotted with gun turrets and barbed wire. Historic stone and stucco buildings are eclipsed not by its poetic terrain of steep hills and abundant pastures, but by the eight-meter-high segregation wall which snakes over 80 kilometers into the district, used by Israel to illegally annex territory.