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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bethlehem Has Changed, But Not For Better

Aired May 01, 2002 - 06:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Bethlehem has changed, but not for the better. CNN's Jason Bellini looks at the fabled town during the Church of the Nativity standoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost a month has passed since Bethlehem was effectively shut down, locked down and closed up to all except the Israeli military and a few journalists who are themselves limited in their mobility.

Like most days of late, the streets are quiet, dirty and nearly empty, the 24-hour curfew confining all but the most desperate, determined or restless.

To imagine the magnificence of the town as the people here remember it, you have to view it from a distance, where the skyline is marred only slightly but a smoke of smoldering garbage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before first of all, it is a city (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and all of the people all over world, they are coming to visit the nativity church, where Jesus was born. And it is a really beautiful town.

BELLINI: No one has taken down the decorations left over from the millennium festivities, though events of the last month crushed the town's dreams of a peaceful new century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no meaning. It's become not paradise. It's hell.

BELLINI: In the town where Christians believe their savor, Jesus, was born, the structures and the symbols are still in place. People here still consider theirs a holy city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 10 churches are here, you have to see (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and you have to see 10 mosques here. All of them live together.

BELLINI (on camera): Aside from the nativity church, which is the most famous one, Bethlehem is a city full of churches, like this one right here. This is the Lutheran Christmas Church. We have been knocking on the door now for a good five minutes or so. No one has answered us. We don't know if anyone is inside. Perhaps there are people there, and they are just too afraid to come out.

BELLINI (voice-over): One woman we met felt it not too big a risk to sit on her doorstep with her children to get some fresh air, she said. I asked her to tell me who lives in Bethlehem.

(on camera): Are people who live here wealthy?

"These are middle class and poor people living here," she said. Now, we are all in the same place, a place famous as the birthplace of the prince of peace, now grabbing the world's attention for a very different reason.

Jason Bellini, CNN, Bethlehem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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