Bank.154 Moreover, Bethlehem is not only becoming increasingly disconnected from the rest of the West Bank, but is also facing internal disconnection between different urban areas and villages within the governorate itself – a result that directly corresponds to the Israeli imposed system of bypass roads and a fractured public transport system. All of this is combined with large swathes of Palestinian land subjected to the Israeli process of de facto and de jure annexation.155 This has transformed Bethlehem into an increasingly strangled, isolated enclave, besieged by Israeli colonies and surrounded by superior transportation infrastructure established exclusively for IsraeliJewish colonizers. 3.1.1. Bethlehem and Jerusalem: The Fragmentation of Twin Cities The territorial fragmentation that Israel has perpetrated throughout Palestine is particularly evident in the severing of the relationship between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Long considered twin cities, Bethlehem had wellestablished and significant cultural, social and economic ties to Jerusalem. With Bethlehem, as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem as the site of his crucifixion, the route between the two cities has formed an integral part of the historical religious Pilgrimage Route for hundreds of years.156 Attracting thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year, this has developed into a substantial tourism sector, forming one of the most important industries for the Bethlehem governorate. More significant from a Palestinian perspective was the social and economic relationship between the two cities. As Jerusalem grew throughout the Ottoman period, the demand for supplies increased, and Bethlehem, with its fertile agricultural lands and geographic proximity, continued to grow an interdependent relationship to Jerusalem. Traders from Bethlehem and its villages of Al Walajeh and Battir, among others, provided the Greek and German colonies in Jerusalem, as well as the Baq’a and Qatamon neighborhoods with 154 PCBS, “The Labour Force Survey Results 2019,” webpage, 13 February 2020, available at: http://www. pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=3666# [accessed 28 February 2020]. 155 BADIL, Israeli Annexation: The Case of Etzion Colonial Bloc (Bethlehem: BADIL, 2019), 6, available at: http://badil.org/phocadownloadpap/badil-new/publications/research/in-focus/EtzionBlocIsraeliAnnexation.pdf 156 PLO - Negotiations Affairs Department, “Palestine’s Heritage Under Occupation – In Focus: Bethlehem’s Denied Potential,” media brief, 4 December 2018, available at: https://www.nad.ps/en/media-room/ media-briefs/palestines-heritage-under-occupation-focus-bethlehems-denied-potential [accessed 28 February 2020]. 49