The Mosque of Omar is located at the intersection of Paul VI Street and the famous Manger Square, this mosque was constructed in honor of the second Caliph of Islam, Omar ibn al-Khattab.
Caliph Omar was a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad and eventually became his father-in-law as well. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the 7th century AD Caliph Omar visited Bethlehem and is said to have prayed in the southern aisle of the ancient Basilica of the Nativity, the renowned church built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ.
In an act of religious tolerance and coexistence, Caliph Omar issued the Pact of Omar, which guaranteed that the Basilica of the Nativity would remain a Christian place of worship even under Muslim rule. This pact also stipulated that Muslims would only be permitted to pray individually within the church, and that the traditional Muslim call to prayer (the Adhan) could not be sounded from the church's walls.
Centuries later, as the Muslim population of Bethlehem grew, the need arose for a dedicated place of Islamic worship within the city. In 1860, the Greek Orthodox Church generously donated the land upon which the Mosque of Omar was then constructed. This original mosque structure was later expanded in 1954 to accommodate increasing numbers of worshippers, particularly including Muslim refugees who had been exiled to Bethlehem in 1948.