Carols filtered through loudspeakers and drifted across Manger Square, but few Christmas Eve pilgrims were on hand to hear them in this biblical town, where soldiers seemed to outnumber celebrants. A driving rain, a Palestinian general strike and heavy Israeli security kept crowds slim. As darkness fell, troops with automatic rifles stood guard on rooftops, including that of the Church of the Nativity, which marks the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been born. The few visitors who spent the afternoon in Bethlehem huddled under Manger Square's arcade, outside shops closed down by striking Palestinians. In other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, five Palestinians were reported wounded, one in a clash with troops and four in a clash with an Arab village official accused of collaborating with Israel, Arab reports said. Israel radio quoted security sources as saying a family feud was behind the incident. Two Arabs also died and three others were wounded as they ``handled an explosive device'' in the small West bank village of Marj en Naja, an army spokesman said. The army had no further details. Bethlehem was quiet. Arab municipal officials canceled the traditional Christmas parade in an expression of solidarity with the year-old uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Slogans written on Bethlehem walls by the uprising's PLO-backed leadership ordered Palestinians to stay at home. But Israeli authorities went ahead with a choir concert before midnight Mass in St. Catherine's Church. Several hundred tourists and Christian pilgrims attended the performance, but the number was a considerable drop from the thousands who normally attend. ``Silent Night,'' sung in German and English by the Pueri Youth Chorus from Geneva opened the concert. Also on the program was another Swiss choir, two choirs from Spain and one from the Shiloh baptist church in Washington, which sang ``Let My People Go.'' The choir director, Charles W. Fleming, said the song was chosen to speak out for freedom from oppression all over the world. ``The idea is that people should be free. Christ came to bring us that freedom,'' he said. Official ceremonies began Saturday with the arrival of Michel Sabbah, the bishop of Jerusalem, in the afternoon. Sabbah, the Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, was greeted in Manger Square by the Israeli military governor of Bethlehem, Lt. Col. Shaltiel Levy, and the city's mayor, Elias Freij. The visitors and pilgrims who watched the bishop arrive near the Mosque of Omar were far outnumbered by journalists and hundreds of Israeli police, troops and plainclothes officers. A leaflet issued earlier this week by the PLO-backed underground leaders of the uprising called for a general strike on Christmas Eve, and complained of Israeli participation in the Christian ceremonies. But Israeli officials said they felt it was important to maintain the practice _ more than a century old _ in which rulers of the region greet church leaders as a symbol of the protection offered to minority Christians in the largely Moslem Middle East. The practice was followed by the British and Turkish rulers of Palestine. Sabbah, who is the first Palestinian appointed bishop of Jerusalem, was led into the church by traditional Moslem guards wearing red fezzes and carrying curved swords. Hundreds of people crowded into the church to attend after strict searches by Israeli security guards. More than 100 stood outside in the rain to watch the mass on a large screen set up on the wall of the Manger Square police station. Holy water was sprinkled at the doorway of the Church of the Nativity as the bishop, preceded by altar boys, entered amid a clowd of incense smoke. The midnight Mass, led by Sabbah, is held each year in St. Catherine's basilica next door because the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where Christ was born, is run by the Greek Orthodox church. The Greek Orthodox celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6, the Epiphany. Israeli troops blocked all streets around Manger Square, and pilgrims had to walk blocks to reach it. Before they could enter, they had to pass through metal detectors and were searched by Israeli security forces. Virginia Lankton, of Lansing, Mich., said she did not mind the heavy security because ``I realize it is for my own safety.'' She said her husband died recently and she came to the Holy Land at Christmas to realize a life-long dream. ``I was alone and I thought this was a good place to be, instead of being home alone,'' she said. Father Stephen Doyle, a Franciscan priest who is assistant rector at the nearby ecumenical institute, said he was discouraged by the deployment of many Israeli soldiers and police around Manger Square. ``It's extremely depressing to see something like this the day before we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace,'' said the Philadelphia-born priest. There was no violence in heavily-guarded Bethlehem, but in Nablus, 25 miles north, a 21-year-old Arab man who was shot in the head by soldiers last week died of his wounds Saturday. Doyle said he thought most Arab Christians from the West Bank would probably not attend midnight Mass because of the heavy security, but likely would fill the church on Christmas morning. About 35,000 Palestinan Christians live in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in the the 1967 Middle East war. At least 334 Palestinians have been killed during the revolt. Fourteen Israelis also have been killed.
