The World - News from Dec. 17, 1986

Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij said that 1986 will be a bad year for Christmas in the Holy Land. “The Americans are just not coming,” Freij said from his office overlooking the Church of the Nativity and Manger Square as workers completed trimming a 36-foot Christmas tree in the square. The mayor said the decline in foreign tourist revenues started in 1985 because of fears of terrorist attacks in the Middle East and then accelerated in 1986 as the value of the dollar declined. “This year, since January until today, there is a drop in the number of tourists of about 30%, even from last year,” he said.