History of Bethlehem

lehem's inhabitants faced unemployment, compulsory military service, and heavy taxes, resulting in mass emigration, particularly to South America. An American missionary in the 1850s reported a population of under 4,000, nearly all of whom belonged to the Greek Church. He also noted that a lack of water crippled the town's growth.

Modern era

Bethlehem was administered by the British Mandate from 1920 to 1948. In the United Nations General Assembly's 1947 resolution to partition Palestine, Bethlehem was included in the special international enclave of Jerusalem to be administered by the United Nations. Jordan annexed the city during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Many refugees from areas captured by Israeli forces in 1947–48 fled to the Bethlehem area, primarily settling in the what became the official refugee camps of 'Azza (Beit Jibrin) and 'Aida in the north and Dheisheh in the south. The influx of refugees significantly transformed Bethlehem's Christian majority into a Muslim one.

Jordan retained control of the city until the Six-Day War in 1967, when Bethlehem was occupied by Israel, along with the rest of the West Bank. Following the Six-Day War, Israel took control of the city. In 1995, Israel turned it over to the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Oslo peace accord.

Extensive Israeli settlements have been since built around the city; they are subject to Israeli, not Palestinian, legal authority. According to Leila Sansour, Bethlehem residents are confined to less than 13% of their original pre-war land. A majority of the forty-odd Israeli settlements surrounding Bethlehem is built on land confiscated from Christian, not Muslim, Palestinians.

Palestinian control

On December 21, 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem, and three days later the city came under the complete administration