Bethlehem souvenirs — from China?
Tourists should check labels to make sure rosary beads are locally made
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Christmas is approaching and pilgrims and tourists have begun to arrive, crowding the souvenir shops that line the narrow streets and alleys of Bethlehem, the biblical town revered as Jesus’ birthplace.
But when visitors choose to take a piece of the Holy Land back home with them, they better check the labels. Many souvenirs — including the West Bank town’s trademark rosary beads — are imported from abroad, mainly China.
A small number of souvenir shops are trying to fight the trend, stocking their shelves almost exclusively with locally made products. Shopkeepers say that while their wares may be more expensive, the quality is much better and they help the local economy.
“I’ve got nothing that is made overseas except for one thing, that’s the magnets. It’s something that sells for cheap and people want them,” said Bassem Giacaman, owner of the Blessings Gift Shop and The Olive Wood Factory. “Everything else is made locally so I can keep the local economy working.”
Some 120,000 people are expected to visit the Holy Land this season, half of them Christian, according to Israel’s Tourism Ministry.
Many will visit Bethlehem, where globalization has left its imprint like everywhere else. Foreign-made crafts, especially Chinese ones, have come to represent a big part of the market here.
While there are no official statistics, local businessmen estimate that nearly half of the products, perhaps more, are imported.
Giacaman keeps just a few imported products in his store, most of them hidden in a small box beneath a counter. He takes them out to show customers and compare them to Palestinian crafts.
“This is a plastic Jesus baby made in China and this is a ceramic one made in Bethlehem, and these are the olive wood rosaries that I make and the Chinese ones,” he said, proudly showing what he said was the superior craftsmanship of the locally made goods.
Trying to sell only Palestinian-made products comes with challenges.
“Maintaining consistency and quality, the right lead time, figuring how much production capacity the producers can give,” are some of them, explained Samy Khoury, founder and general manager of the Visit Palestine Center, which promotes a “Made in Palestine” label. Then there’s the issue of price. Maher Canawati, owner of the Three Arches souvenir shop, sells locally made gifts, but he keeps room for imports as well.
“We have to carry all kinds of merchandise in our shop because we have different markets and different pilgrims with different budgets,” said Canawati, whose family has provided services to pilgrims since the 16th century.