Origin and Development of Bethlehem and its Municipality, 1880-1967
Publisher: Turbo Design, Ramallah
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Bethlehem Area
ISBN-13: 9789950851153
Description: Since the preservation of history and heritage is a goal that all individuals soar to achieve, this study aims to cover a critical and important period in the lives of our people; a period that continues to witness their giving and cooperation. These people are the Behtlehemites who carried the banner of that period across generations in order to preserve and protect its heritage.   
What triggered this study was the lack of sources, documents and data from that period due to the burning down of archives at the Bethlehem Municipality during the First World War and the popular revolt against the British Mandate in 1938. The aim of this study is to recount and describe the city of Bethlehem during the historical period 1880-1967, passing through the stations that witnessed and experienced the transformation of Bethlehem from a village to a Qasaba, the formation of Al Nahiya (Bethlehem district), the creation of Al Mukhtar position, the establishment of the Elders council, and finally, the origins and emergence of the Bethlehem Municipality. Along this journey, the study will interpret the political, administrative and social circumstances and developments, which impelled the Ottomans, the British and the Jordanians to issue and emanate protocols, regulations, laws, instructions and different procedures.
The objective of succeeding political authorities that occupied the land was to introduce municipalities and their inhabitants merely as extensions and followers of the dominant regime in order to control the population and the course of events. The Ottomans’ objective was to infiltrate people and extensively involve them in administrative matters in order to track them down and collect taxes. The British, on the other hand, limited community participation and activities in order to reduce the effectiveness of the municipalities, and hindered the implementation of development works in the city. The Jordanians adopted the same approach, whereby the municipalities became centers that adhere to the central authority and serve its interests and objectives first and foremost, in order to ensure that they do not become independent institutions with their own goals and activities.
During the European presence in the middle of the nineteenth century, Bethlehem used to be a large town enriched with olive groves, grapevines, almond trees, fig trees and grain fields. It was also renowned for its wine and honey. At that time, the city flourished, and during the middle of the sixteenth century, according to Scolch, skilled laborers were sent to the city of Jerusalem where they developed a specialization in construction. During the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century, it was estimated that 792 industrialists, merchants, and small young traders were working in Bethlehem, among them 30 builders, 215 stone cutters, 50 quarrymen, six wall polishers, 40 porters to transport stones and lime, eight carriage owners, 129 producers and vendors of goods made from mother-of-pearl, olivewood and Moses Dead Sea stone, 10 cheese factories, 41 mills including a steam mill, and 62 traders of sheep, wheat, vegetables, fabrics, clothing, bakeries and butchers, in addition to 20 shoe-makers, 20 plumbers, 20 blacksmiths, seven goldsmiths, and four barbers.

During that period, one quarter of the Bethlehem population depended on agriculture and farming, while the rest of the population engaged in handicrafts production, namely religious souvenirs, such as crucifixes, rosaries made of olivewood, beads imported from the Arabian Peninsula, seashells imported from the Red Sea, and Moses stone, which was excavated from the area around the Dead Sea. Bethlehem merchants were the first people to establish trade and commercial relations with Europe and America through the assistance of Catholic monasteries.
 Some Bethlehemites owned shops that sold and traded with Bethlehem-made products in many cities such as Paris, Manila, Kiev, Port of Prince in Haiti, and Singapore. They used to travel by sea through the port of Jaffa, heading towards Marseille in France. The Handal brothers, Jeries and Ibrahim, were the pioneers in selling products of mother-of-pearl overseas and in the World Trade Fair in New York in 1853. Other Bethlehemites went on a three-month journey to participate in the Philadelphia Industrial Fair in the United States in 1886. The Dabdoub Brothers, Gabriel and Michael, participated in the Chicago Fair in 1893. There were also Bethlehemites who participated in the Saint Louis gallery in the U.S. in 1904. It is worth mentioning that the Dabdoub family owned shops in the Philippines, and the Kattan family owned ones in Kiev, Russia.