Many people cannot mention Israel without thinking of Bethlehem – where Jesus, the King of Kings, was born. The occasion is still celebrated almost everywhere in the world during December as Christmas Day, which could be loosely translated as “the day Christ was born”. With millions of Catholic followers all over the world, almost every child knows that Christmas originated in a manger in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem sits almost smack dab in the center of Israel, just beside Jerusalem. It offers a view of the Dead Sea and the mountains beyond it. The inhabitants of the city are predominantly Moslem and Christian Arabs who depend on holy pilgrimages and tourists for much of their livelihood. They make religious handicrafts out of olive wood and mother-of-pearl, which are snatched up by religious souvenir hunters mostly for their sentimental value alone. Tourists and souvenir hunters are advised to haggle for better prices from the vendors. Bethlehem is still the trade center for many of the surrounding towns and nomads who live in the area as it has been for centuries, but much of the currency earned here comes from tourism.
During the Holy Crusades, Bethlehem was held in reverence by the Crusaders. While the Christian armies occupied Jerusalem, they still crowned their kings in Bethlehem mainly due to the cultural and religious significance of the city. At present, many visitors flock to the city to see the place where Jesus was born, which is now said to be in a grotto under a church built by Constantine in 333 AD to commemorate the place. Another must-see site in Israel, the church is aptly named the Church of the Nativity.
Basically, Bethlehem is in the Palestinian West Bank, not israel, it’s ‘Muslim’ not ‘Moslem’. So you have taken no care towards Muslims as the West Bank is very much so Palestinian and you are probably American due to your incapability to realise that you spelt Muslim horrib;y wrong.
Actually, “Moslem” and “Muslim” are not Arabic words. They are transliterations of Arabic into the English alphabet. Prior to standardization, the word was spelled both ways as can be seen in textbooks as late as the 1980s. Such transliterations can be tricky. Consider the vast number of spellings of “Muammar Gaddafi” (this happens to be the accepted Wikipedia and Google spelling). “Muslim” has now become the standard spelling. So, the error should be of greatest offense to English speakers than to Muslims.