JERUSALEM: Bethlehem is to host the West Bank’s first-ever marathon next month in a race starting at the Nativity Church and taking in several refugee camps, organizers said yesterday.

The brainchild of two Danish women runners, the Palestine Marathon will take place on April 21.

But given the problems of finding an uninterrupted 42-kilometre stretch within Area A, the small portion of the Israeli-occupied West Bank which is under full Palestinian control, those running the full distance will have to do two loops of the town on a course which passes through Aida refugee camp.

“We thought it would be good to have a positive activity to show a different side of life here,” said Signe Fischer, who has been working for a Danish NGO in Jerusalem for several years.

“We wanted to give Palestinians a new type of activity where they can explore their beautiful countryside,” she told AFP, saying the event has no political agenda and has been two years in the planning.

The event is being organized in coordination with an umbrella NGO called Right to Movement and the Higher Council of Youth and Sports.

News of the race emerged a week after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, announced it was cancelling its third annual Gaza marathon after the ruling Hamas movement refused to let men and women run together.

But Fischer said the Palestine Marathon was aimed at encouraging all people to start running, particularly women.