It is good news that Bethlehem is recovering from the pandemic and has been hosting thousands of visitors for the celebration of Christmas in the traditional birthplace of Jesus in Eretz Yisrael. I was puzzled, however, by the Dec. 25 article placing Bethlehem in "the occupied West Bank."

Bethlehem is located in Area A, thus part of the roughly 40 percent of Judea and Samaria, which was turned over to the Palestinian Authority near the start of the Oslo process. (Jordan, then called Transjordan, captured Judea and Samaria in the course of its 1948 invasion of Israel and renamed those areas the "West Bank.")

Bethlehem has thus been governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Israel, for nearly three decades.

Alan Stein

Netanya, Israel and Natick, Mass.

The writer, formerly a long-time resident of Connecticut, is President Emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting)