(Photo: Getty/iStock)

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Tourists are slowly returning to the Holy Land, but it will be some time before the region is back on its feet after the pandemic, says Friends of the Holy Land's Brendan Metcalfe. He speaks to Christian Today about the ongoing challenges for the region caused by the pandemic.

CT: What impact has the pandemic had on the Holy Land?

Brendan: When we last spoke, we didn't know back then how long the lockdowns would last. In the end, tourism and pilgrimages didn't really get going again until around May/June this year and visitor numbers still aren't anywhere near the record numbers of 2019 when 4.5 million tourists came to Tel Aviv, around half of whom would have visited the West Bank and Bethlehem.

The impact has been that Christians - who were most reliant on pilgrimages because their businesses were built around this - had to find other ways to survive and that sadly meant many of them seeking work as a labourer in Israel. That includes people with qualifications who had good jobs.

That has led to the added impact of the restaurants and hotels opening up now struggling to get the qualified staff they had before because many of them are still in Israel where they can earn about three to four times what they would in the West Bank.

CT: What is Friends of the Holy Land doing to support Christians in the region?

Brendan: We have a couple of programmes in place to help them stay so that they don't have to move away, and that means being less reliant on tourism. Our scholarship programme provides school leavers with vocational training in things like IT skills, carpentry, plumbing, how to be an electrician. And we are also providing scholarships to nurses, paying 50 per cent of their course fee - and it's a four year course, so it's a significant contribution and makes a big difference to someone who might not otherwise be able to study nursing. But these kinds of qualifications will enable people to stay because there is a lot of work available in these trades - there is a shortage of nurses - and so if they're not reliant on tourism then it means that if something like Covid happens again, they'll be able to survive.

CT: How much of a problem is unemployment?

Brendan: There was an interesting survey done last year by the Palestinian Authority which found that around 55 per cent of recent graduates from university were unemployed. Within the Christian community, around half of the population is under 25 and over half of that age group is unemployed. Some of those young people will have university degrees but either the subject is oversubscribed or it's not particularly attractive to an employer. That's why we are focusing on vocations that enable young people to go straight into work so that they can be financially independent and stay in the Holy Land.

CT: How hard was it for the Christian souvenir shops, tour guides and other tourism workers who were out of work for so long during the pandemic?

Brendan: The harsh reality is that there's no safety net so if you don't have any income, then eventually you don't eat. During the pandemic, some agencies like us stepped in to provide basic needs, and at the local level parish churches did a lot to help people out. But sadly most people used up pretty much all of their savings and other resources and sold whatever they could sell and borrowed what they could from other family members. They're in a lot worse financial shape now and are very financially vulnerable. Add to that the regional pressures from oppression, tensions and the violence against Christians that is on the rise, none of which really makes the headlines because the world's attention has been elsewhere, like on the war in Ukraine.

CT: How long do you think it will be before Bethlehem fully recovers - if ever?

Brendan: Bethlehem was still pretty much locked down during Christmas 2021, with only local visitors from Israel, Jordan and Egypt able to visit. So this is the first Christmas where it has been fully re-opened to tourism. Since September, we've seen more visitors coming, which is good, but not at the sort of levels we saw in 2019, which was a record year.

It's not just the fact that people are more nervous about travel; there's also an economic crisis in the UK, the US and other places so people can't afford to go on pilgrimage. And because of fuel prices, airfares have gone up and it's a lot more expensive to go now than it was in 2019.

In addition to that, there's less capacity now than there was before because some of the hotels and restaurants closed down for good during the pandemic, and in the UK some pilgrimage operators have closed down.

CT: What can people do to help?

Brendan: There's a lot of things people can do to help. Visiting is one of the things we encourage people to do but it's not the only thing and during the pandemic we spent a lot of time generating prayer and spiritual resources for our website, like reflections and prayers to accompany the liturgical season. We would encourage people to read the news and visit our website and our 12 Days of Christmas reflections to understand what the needs are and what the situation is so that they can pray for a solution.

The other thing to do is to create awareness and educate others on what's happening in the Holy Land. We're always thankful for a donation if people have the capacity to, but it's just as important to us that people speak to their friends and family or in their parishes about what's happening because it just doesn't hit the headlines.

But we owe it to these Christians because they're remaining in the land where Jesus walked and conducted his ministry, where he died and was resurrected to save us, and they're doing that as a witness to us. This is where it all started. What would it be like if in a couple of years' time all of these holy places were just museums? We need to be concerned and think about it and raise awareness and shine a light on the darkness.

To donate to Friends of the Holy Land's Christmas appeal, click here.