local christians like john tawil say they feel a special tie to their faith. >> being a christian in bethlehem is something wonderful because it's the place where jesus was born. >> reporter: but the 2,000-year-old christian community here has been diminishing at an alarming rate. and some question whether christianity can ultimately survive in the land where it began. >> the places are important, but you need these places to come alive and you cannot do that without indigenous palestinian christians in the holy land. >> reporter: the overwhelming majority of christians here are arabs. they were among the hundreds of thousands displaced in 1948, when the state of israel was established, and in the wars that followed. for decades now, palestinian christians have continued to emigrate at disproportionately high rates, and their birth rates are much lower than those of muslims. roughly 150,000 christians live in israel proper -- about 2% of the population. in the palestinian territories, it's estimated that christians make up just over 1% of the population. there are also small christia