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/ˈbɛθlihɛm/
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Arabic: بيت لحم Bayt Lahm [beːt.laħm], “House of Meat”
Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם Bet Lehem, [bet ˈleχem], “House of Bread”
Ancient Greek: Βηθλεέμ Greek pronunciation: [bɛːtʰle.ém]
“latin” –> bethleem
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located in the central ‘west bank’ (‘palestine’),
about 10 km (6.2 miles) south of ‘jerusalem’*
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(its population is approximately 25,000 people)
(it is the capital of the “bethlehem governorate”)
(the economy is primarily “tourist-driven”)
(the earliest known mention of the city was in the ‘amarna’ correspondence of ‘1350–1330 BCE’ during its habitation by the ‘canaanites’)
(the ‘hebrew bible’, which says that the city of ‘bethlehem’ was built up as a fortified city by ‘rehoboam’, identifies it as the city ‘david’ was from and where he was crowned as the ‘king of israel’)
(now this makes sense!)
(the jews were anxious to form a myth around the ‘jewish messiah’ so they figured they’d ‘make one’ themselves)
(the ‘New Testament’ identifies Bethlehem as the birthplace of ‘jesus’)
(‘Bethlehem’ was destroyed by the ‘Emperor Hadrian’ during the second-century ‘Bar Kokhba revolt’; its rebuilding was promoted by ‘Empress Helena’, mother of ‘Constantine the Great’, who commissioned the building of its great ‘Church of the Nativity’ in 327 CE)
(the church was badly damaged by the ‘Samaritans’, who sacked it during a ‘revolt’ in 529, but was rebuilt a century later by ‘Emperor Justinian I’)
(‘Bethlehem’ became part of ‘Jund Filastin’ following the ‘Muslim conquest’ in 637)
(‘Muslim rule’ continued in ‘Bethlehem’ until its conquest in 1099 by a crusading army, who replaced the town’s ‘Greek Orthodox’ clergy with a Latin one)
(in the mid-1200s, the ‘Mamluks’ demolished the city’s walls, which were subsequently rebuilt under the ‘Ottomans’ in the early 16th century)
(control of ‘Bethlehem’ passed from the ‘Ottomans’ to the ‘British’ at the end of ‘World War I’)
(‘Bethlehem’ came under ‘Jordanian’ rule during the ‘1948 Arab-Israeli War’ and was later captured by ‘Israel’ in the “1967 Six-Day War”)
(since the ‘1995 Oslo Accords’, ‘Bethlehem’ has been administered by the ‘Palestinian Authority’)
(‘Bethlehem’ now has a Muslim majority, but is still home to a significant ‘Palestinian Christian’ community)
(Bethlehem’s chief economic sector is tourism, which peaks during the ‘Christmas season’ when ‘Christians’ make pilgrimage to the ‘Church of the Nativity’, as they have done for almost 2,000 years)
(‘bethlehem’ has over ’30 hotels’ and ‘300 handicraft workshops’)
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-“rachel’s tomb” (an important jewish holy site) is located at the northern entrance of ‘bethlehem’-
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*👨🔬🕵️♀️🙇♀️*SKETCHES*🙇♂️👩🔬🕵️♂️*
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥