Nicole Jansezian reports on Oktoberfest

TAYBEH - The strains of accordion music by a Bavarian band piped through the fall sky. An announcement for a rugby game followed the performance. Beer songs and beer itself flowed freely.

Oktoberfest was in full swing. But this was surreal-Oktoberfest was not taking place in a European city, but a small Arab town behind a checkpoint, under the shadow of an army base.

In the twisted maze of Israeli and Palestinian towns respectively under Israeli and Palestinian control, where snipers fired at Israeli cars during the Intifadas (uprisings) and many feared to tread, Taybeh is tucked as a small Christian town surrounded by 16 Moslem villages.

Mayor David Khoury took the narrow, pot-hole riddled road toward the main highway where one direction takes you into an Israeli town and the opposite brings you to his. He draped an Oktoberfest poster over the sign that warns Israelis they are prohibited, by Israeli law, to enter territories under Palestinian autonomy.

"This is peace?" asked the mayor of Taybeh. "I want Israelis to feel welcome in my town."

Many Taybeh residents and the mayor himself blame "the occupation" for their economic hardships and say they prefer to live under Palestinian rule, calling themselves Palestinians first, Christians second.

"Sometimes we face problems (with Moslems) because they look at us as different," said Christine Shahin, a Christian student from Birzeit. "But the Jews treat us the same as a Moslem Palestinian."

But politics aside for a weekend, Taybeh showcased its beer and in doing so the mettle of the small Christian town to take a difficult situation and turn it into an economic model in the Palestinian territories. Khoury is a consummate businessman. With an MBA from Boston College and 30 years in the United States as a business owner, Khoury said he returned to his hometown of Taybeh in 2000 to invest in the economy.

The Khoury family started the brewery, founded by David's brother Nadim, in 1995 with the name of the town as the beer's label. David Khoury became mayor in 2005 and said his goals as mayor includes investing in the economy, creating jobs and keeping the town clean. Indeed, the city is clean, welcoming and the brewery has created some jobs for residents.

Taybeh is the only micro-brew in the Middle East. Made from the pure German formula that uses no preservatives or additives, rendering the beer 100 percent natural with malts from Belgium, hops from Bavaria and yeast from the United Kingdom. Taybeh produces three brews: golden, light and dark and just this year unveiled a nonalcoholic version, a beverage more marketable to their Moslem neighbors. Taybeh Beer became the first Palestinian product to be produced in Germany under the Taybeh license.

Because of its natural ingredients and lack of preservatives, the beer spoils quickly so long delays at Israeli checkpoints threaten to ruin the beer as it sits under the sun. This challenge to get the beer from Taybeh to Jerusalem-a mere 20 miles away-has caused the town to turn to tourism. If the beer can't get outside, the town will try to bring the outsiders to them. Maria Khoury, David's wife, relentlessly promotes tourism to the town.

"The Oktoberfest story is really a reflection of how private sector can positively influence and boost the Palestinian economy," she writes in an Internet article. "This is the new challenge in the private sector when you have achieved excellence in Palestine how then can you share it with the world when you are on the wrong side of the Wall?"

Accordingly, Oktoberfest began in 2005. This year, some 12,000 people filtered in and out of this year's festival, enjoying the performances by the local schools, a Bavarian band and the first-ever rugby match between Palestinian teams from Ramallah and Beit Jalla. The festival also featured other local products such as honey, olive oil and embroidery.

Taybeh clings to its Christian roots and its 100 percent Christian population, the only such town in the Middle East. But it doesn't mean the Christians are staying-the population has dwindled from 12,000 to 2,000 in about a decade.

Called Ofra in the Old Testament and later Ephraim in John 11:54, the town has been occupied by Christian Arabs for hundreds of years, Khoury said. His own family claims about 12 generations there. The village has kept its unique identity as Christian for 2,000 years. Khoury wants to keep it that way and to improve life for its citizens.

"I wanted to make a modern Palestine," Khoury explained his return to combat an astonishing 60 percent unemployment rate in the town. "Taybeh is now on the map."