For the Christian population of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem there is little to be merry about this yuletide. Once a booming tourist-driven success, the city has been in a slump since the start of the intifada three years ago. Tourism has all but evaporated and with it the jobs on which many had depended. Israel controls all entry and exit points in to the city often forcing people to wait for hours to pass. It’s little wonder that so many, both Christian and Muslim, are emigrating.

It’s not just Bethlehem. Bir Zeit, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Beit Jala – across the West Bank heartland the Christian population is draining away. Within the next decade or so the holy sites of Christianity, the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre will become museums rather than living places of worship.

Where is the outcry? Why are Christians in the West silent? Is it Holocaust guilt? It’s certainly good that many Christians have turned against anti-Semitism. However past wrongs committed by European Christians against European Jews don’t justify present wrongs by Israeli Jews against Palestinian Christians.

I’m not religious; in fact I’m an out and out atheist. However it upsets me to see the demise of the Christian people of the Holy Land. Shouldn’t those of you who are Bible believers be more upset than me?