Bethlehem city is an Arabic city with a long history that dates back to 1872. It was established and inhabited by the Canaanites around 2000 BC, and was called Beit Eilo Lahama, which means “house of the God Lahama,” who is the god of food and sustenance, according to the Canaanites, in connection with this name, the city’s name in Arabic indicates the meaning of food as well (house of meat). It is said that the reason for naming the city by the house of this God is that cattle and sheep used to breed and graze heir, due to the large number of fertile and grazing lands. It is also worth noting that the
meaning of the city name in the ancient Aramaic language was “the house of bread.”

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, about 6.2 miles south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000, The important holy site of Rachel’s Tomb is at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

The earliest known mention of Bethlehem was in the Amarna correspondence of 1350–1330 BCE when the town was inhabited by the Canaanites. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Bethlehem was destroyed by the Emperor Hadrian during the second-century Bar Kokhba revolt; its rebuilding was promoted by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who commissioned the building of its great Church of the Nativity in 327 CE. The church was badly damaged by the Samaritans, who sacked it during a revolt in 529, but was rebuilt a century later by Emperor Justinian I.