Agence France Presse
Dec 27 2007

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – Seven people were injured on Thursday
when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute
over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up
ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church,
which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have
been born.

But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests,
according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows
quickly followed.

For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each
other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who
had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded
the whole event.

A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate
the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.

"As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of
problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he
has offered to help ease tensions.

"For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less
calmly," he said. "It’s all finished now."

The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem’s Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity,
each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.

The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians
believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after
Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.