Paul Calvert spoke with Hanan Manoly, the City Manager from the Beit Sahour Municipality, about the history of the area connected to the Shepherd's Fields, how they will be celebrating Christmas this year, as well as good news stories and challenges.

Paul: Are the residents proud of the fact that this is where the angels visited?

Hanan: Of course. The resident of Beit Sahour is always proud of his origin and this is our story. This is the origin of the name of the city of Beit Sahour, it's called the City of the Shepherds. We are proud of our origin and we are working very hard to keep this story. We believe in this story and we are working always with all the pride that we are the origin of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Paul: The angels brought good news. Is there good news coming from Beit Sahour today?

Hanan: It's a very critical time now. We are affected by the political situation of the whole area, and as you are here since many times, you know that there is deterioration in the political and economic situation, but the best thing is that the municipality is doing its best.

There are some projects that are implemented in the city, especially in street rehabilitation. Also, we are working now in developing our plan to the city, the municipality, with many people from the local community; the people are very happy because they are sharing the municipality, the work, toward developing their city.

We are very near from the Christmas time and this is by itself something amazing for us. We are preparing ourselves for that event. We do not have a lot, you know it's a new municipality, it's a youth municipality and they have the energy and they are trying very hard to work and they are willing to work and we are expecting a lot from them.

Paul: What is your prayer for the future of Beit Sahour?

Hanan: I hope after developing our plan, we will be able to implement and achieve our objectives that will generate from our plan and which were developed by the city. I hope that we will be able to achieve these objectives and achieve the programmes and projects that we are planning for.