BACK	RELIGION: Four Million Prepare To Trek To Bethlehem

Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, at least four million pilgrims are expected to flock to his traditional birthplace to celebrate the momentous event. If Catholic Pope John Paul II visits, the number may swell to 10 million.

With that many people flooding hotels, Palestinian officials in the present day town of 50,000 say that, barring a miracle, the only way to accommodate so many will be to set up tents or pursuade the local population to open their doors.

''We simply don't have enough room to accommodate all of these people,'' said Norma Marcus, the public relations officer at Bethlehem's municipality running the millennium celebrations. ''We would have to evacuate everybody from Bethlehem and turn it into a giant hotel.''

But, then, a little problem like the prospect of no room at the inn never deterred anyone in this town before. This time, they've undertaken the huge task of renovating the city so that, even if it there won't be enough hotel space, Bethlehem will look a little bit more like the popular image of the town as imagined from the Bible.

Today, pilgrims who visit Bethlehem are often shocked to find that their concept of a quaint town filled with shepherds and wise men does not exist. Instead, when they get to Manger Square, the plaza next to the traditional site of Jesus' birth, they find a parking lot jammed with noisy tourist buses and billows of exhaust fumes.

The urban disorder, and the sight of Palestinian police toting Kalashnikov assault rifles outside a nearby police station, overwhelms the fourth century Byzantine Church of the Nativity built over the grotto where Jesus is said to have been born.

But by Christmas 1999, the one that will usher in the year 2000, all this is slated to disappear. In its place, pilgrims will find a peaceful Arabesque plaza lined with cypress trees and cool water fountains. Stone steps will form a graduated platform for a choir. A small museum and bookstore will replace the Palestinian police station, once the area headquarters of the Israeli army.

The project is being funded with a 3.5 million dollar donation from the Swedish government. And it's not the only one. City planners have earmarked dozens of plans for hotels, restaurants, gift shops -- even basic infrastructure such as streets and water pipes -- to prepare the town for the millennial celebrations.

The planning began in the wake of the 1993 peace deal the Palestinians signed with Israel. Shortly afterward, European countries and Japan pledged to defray some of the estimated 250 million dollar price tag attached to the year 2000 celebrations.

The donations will help rehabilitate Star Street, the route taken traditionally taken by the followers of the Latin Patriarchate on Dec. 25 and by the Greek Patriarchate twelve days later, the day the eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas.

The old Bethlehem market and seven of the city's crumbling medieval archways will also be rebuilt. And city planners hope to rehabilitate 16th and 17th Century Ottoman reservoirs, and the 4th Century Church of the Nativity.

''This is a dream come true for the people of Bethlehem,'' said Michel Nasser, the project coordinator for the Bethlehem municipality. ''We hope to see everything in place just over two years from now.''

The changes will make it easier for the town to get into the holiday spirit, say the planners. Until Christmas 1995, Bethlehem was under Israeli military rule and tension in the city ran high, even at Christmas time. Security checkpoints around Manger Square and a withered Christmas tree stuck behind the fence of the army headquarters dampened the festive mood, they said.

Since then, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has been in charge of the city. By the year 2000, if peace negotiations with Israel continue, the town may be part of a larger Palestinian state on the West Bank.

But if the expected number of pilgrims turn up, political issues will take a second place to matters of accommodation. Palestinians will still be dependent on Israeli air and seaports to bring the pilgrims in and at the moment, those can handle only about three million comfortably -- one million less than the minimum expected.

Once they get here, finding a place to stay will be difficult. Bethlehem now has only 850 hotel rooms available, with another 250 under construction. Even counting hotel rooms in Jerusalem, Nazareth and other parts of the Galilee that are likely destinations for Christian pilgrims, the number is woefully inadequate, say tourism spokesmen.

To cope with the overflow, Israel is already talking about building camp sites in the Galilee. Its ministry of tourism is promoting out-of-the-way tour packages that will take pilgrims to lesser-known sites, such as the Galilee road that Jesus took on the way to Capernaum, to ease the burden placed on the more famous holy places by the arrival of so many visitors.

In Jerusalem, the ministry is discussing partially funding the excavation and renovations of a fifth century church discovered three years ago in time for the millennial celebrations. The church, on property now owned by the Greek Orthodox church, was built over the traditional resting place of Mary on her way to Bethlehem.

Both Palestinians and Israelis are hoping that the celebrations will be a boon to tourism in an area where political instability and sporadic violence has caused a sharp drop in visitors in the last 18 months.

Particularly in Bethlehem, which has suffered from the image of Palestinian youth battling Israeli soldiers stationed near Rachel's Tomb at the entrance to the city, organisers hope the millennium celebrations will be a chance to promote the portrait of an ancient biblical town.

''Tourists who come to Bethlehem are usually whisked in and out,'' said Marcus. ''This is a tremendous opportunity to show the world the real face of Bethlehem, the people, the place, the image in the Bible.'' (END/IPS/DHO/RJ/97)