Still, the town does its best to take advantage of its place in Christian history, going so far as to link the Christmas nativity story to the fact that it houses the West Bank's best maternity facility.
The placement of a maternity hospital in Bethlehem is no accident, said Jacques Keutgen, director of the Holy Family Hospital, situated just half a mile from the Church of the Nativity which marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
"This is the birthplace of Jesus Christ, so it is very important that people here have the possibility to deliver safely and in peace," he said.
One wing houses the Palestinian territories' only intensive care unit for severely premature babies. The hospital also specializes in multiple births.
The hospital has been a Bethlehem institution since 1882. Political violence caused it to shut in 1985, but the Sovereign Order of Malta, a lay Roman Catholic order, reopened it as a maternity hospital in 1990.
The old building hosts advanced facilities. One wing houses the Palestinian territories' only intensive care unit for severely premature babies. Its 18 incubators often hold tiny babies born as much as three months early. The building's stone corridors surround a courtyard with a statue of Mary and Jesus amid rows orange trees.
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