The cradle of Christianity was rocked by an unholy punch-up when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

The ancient place of worship, built over the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.

The brawl apparently began when Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church after the Christmas Day celebrations.

Armenian priests claimed that the ladders encroached on their portion of the church, which led the two sects to exchange angry words which quickly turned to blows.

Witnesses said that the robed and bearded priests scuffled for more than an hour using fists, brooms and iron rods as weapons.

Photographers who came to document the annual cleaning ceremony instead recorded the entire event.

Five priests were lightly injured in the melee, which was eventually broken up by a dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen. Two of the policemen were hurt in ending the brawl.

Victor Batarseh, the Mayor of Bethlehem, said that he has had to intervene in the past to ensure that the cleaning of the Church happened in an orderly fashion. “As usual the cleaning of the church after Christmas is a cause of problems,” he said.

Even priests were not immune from the tensions that fill life in the West Bank, said local shopkeeper Fayed Sahiri. “We live in a very tense, very afraid way under the occupation. It is unavoidable,” he said.

The outbreak of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in late 2000 and the fighting that followed has clouded Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for years, battering the tourism industry that is the city’s lifeline.

It is not the first time that a ladder has led to fisticuffs among priests in the Holy Land. In the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem’s Old City, a ladder still stands as a reminder for all priests to watch their tempers.

One hundred years ago, the ladder was erected by a priest attempting to repair damage done during an earthquake. Another sect accused the priest of trespassing and a fight broke out.

When the dust settled, the priests decided to leave the ladder as a reminder to the future keepers of the Church to solve their disputes in a more Christian fashion.

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