UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations yesterday released a report blaming Israel for the worsening situation in Bethlehem, in effect naming the Jewish state as responsible for the plight of Christian residents there.

The report, titled “The Changing Face of Bethlehem, December, 2004,” raised suspicions among Jewish activists that the timing was meant to stoke emotions near the Christmas holiday.

The report’s writers, the U.N.’s office for coordination of humanitarian affairs and the office of the coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East, “are looking at the economic impact of the conflict in a number of Palestinian cities, and Bethlehem is only one,” said U.N. spokesman Stephan Dujarric, who refused to comment on the timing of the release.

“Knowing the U.N., releasing it right before Christmas probably is no accident,” said Ken Jacobson, the assistant national director of the Anti-Defamation League. He also criticized the report for referring to the dwindling Christian community in Bethlehem only in passing, and blaming it solely on Israeli measures in response to the latest intifada.

The report documents Israeli roadblocks, expansion of settlements, the building of the defensive barrier, and other measures, citing them as the reason for loss of jobs in the region of Bethlehem, mostly in the tourism industry, but also in agricultural fields such as olive oil manufacturing. Since September 2000, which marks the beginning of the second intifada, one-tenth of Christian residents have fled, leaving the Bethlehem Christian population at an all-time low of 9.3% of the total residency, according to the report.

It ignores, however, a larger trend of flight of Christians from the Middle East, as well as a general trend of Christian emigration from the West Bank along the decades. The Christian population in the West Bank was cut by 50% since 1948, when it fell under Jordanian rule. In Bethlehem, the Christian population stood at 80% in 1948. According to Israeli census numbers, when Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority took control of most urban population of the West Bank, 15% of the population was Christian. Now it comprises less than 2%.

“To simply ignore the impact of Islamization in the whole region in this report shows that the U.N. once again is not being serious,” Mr. Jacobson said.

The new report concentrates on the years since the second intifada, highlighting the Israeli measures and ignoring measures favoring Muslims taken by the Palestinian Authority.

While highlighting the hardships the separation barrier causes for Arab residents of Bethlehem, the report downplays the fact that the barrier, meant to isolate Israel from terrorism emanating from cities in the West Bank, is not yet completed in the zone separating Bethlehem from neighboring Jerusalem. As a result, suicide bombers that came from Bethlehem were responsible for a large number of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities in the latter parts of the intifada.

According to Israeli spokesmen, planning the route of the fence is being done in consultation with religious leaders, including representatives of Christian denominations. The report, however, highlights temporary Israeli restrictions of access to religious holy sites.