Often evoking biblical imagery, today this town in the central West Bank embodies one of the starkest examples of Palestinian life under occupation.
It is not only the site of Jesus’ presumed miracle virgin birth, but also some of the region’s most walled off, physically segregated districts.
Bethlehem is home to nearly 25,000 Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian. Lying right on the border of some of Israel’s most formidable border walls, it is a symbol of the divide that has existed in that country for decades now, despite pressure from the international community to resolve what has been one of the most enduring conflicts of the past century.