ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Tens of Palestinian protesters, some of them festively dressed as Santa Claus, clashed on Tuesday (December 23) with Israeli security forces in Bethlehem, a day before the beginning of Christmas celebrations in the West Bank city revered as the birthplace of Jesus.<br/> <br />The demonstrators gathered at Bethlehem checkpoint to protest against "an occupation that controls our lives, and surrounding us with the apartheid wall," a press release by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said.<br/> <br />Israel started building the barrier, a mix of metal fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls, in 2002 in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. It says the barrier keeps its citizens safe from militants.<br/> <br />Around 50,000 Palestinian Christians, including 17,000 Catholics, live among 4 million Muslims in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Gaza. They say Israel's checkpoints and separation barrier cut them off from their neighbors and hol
