Bethlehem Handicrafts is the first olive wood store in the USA with an online market that ships worldwide, a workshop in Bethlehem, and an operator of Christian pilgrimages.
To the east of the Church of the Nativity is a small road that gently goes down to the fields of Boaz. It was here that the Shepherds were told by the Angel Gabriel that the Prince of Peace had been born unto the world, in a field along the path that the Three Wise Men had taken both into Bethlehem and out of it.
It is also here that the modern Christian community of Beit Sahour exists; the largest Christian village in the Holy Land where they planted their olive trees and slowly built their homes out of hand-hewn stone.
Over time, many families including our family, the Bannoura family, learned to beautifully hand carve religious artifacts from olive wood, as Christian pilgrims came to the Holy Land in greater numbers and desired items to remember their pilgrimage with.
This skill has been improved upon and passed down from father to son for many generations in our family, with each generation adding new stylistic ideas and new means to improve the crafting, until we reached where we are now; masterly finesse.