Beit Sahour

Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur (Arabic: بيت ساحور pronounced Bayt Saahoor (help·info); Palestine grid 170/123) is a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population was of approximately 14,000 in 2017,^[6] consisting of approximately 80% Christians (most of them Greek Orthodox) and 20% Muslims.^[7]

Christian tradition holds Beit Sahour to be the site of the Annunciation to the Shepherds.^[8] There are two enclosures in the eastern part of Beit Sahour that are claimed by different Christian denominations to be the actual ‘Shepherds Field’: one belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, and the other, the Catholic site, belonging to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The mainly Christian Palestinian inhabitants are being pressured by encroaching Israeli settlements, with one housing development threatened with demolition.^[8]