2023-12-25 09:11:28
Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militia Hamas has turned Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born according to the Bible, into a ghost town. The Christmas celebration used to fill this place with visitors, but today there is practically no one.
Since November, the Bethlehem authorities had decided to reduce the Christmas festivities to a minimum in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
LOOK: More than 160 dead in Gaza in the last 24 hours and more than 20,400 since the start of the war
As a chain report explains CNN, this year the decorations that previously adorned the neighborhoods of Bethlehem have been removed. Parades and religious celebrations were also canceled. In the center of the city, the traditional enormous tree in Manger Square is conspicuous by its absence. This square remains empty and is only guarded by numerous Palestinian security agents.
General view of the Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity, in the city of Bethlehem, in the West Bank, December 23, 2023. (EFE/EPA/WISAM HASHLAMOUN). Palestinian police officers deploy in front of a bank branch in Manger Square in the biblical city of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on December 24, 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP).
For the children of Gaza
“This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there is only darkness,” John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years, told the AP agency.
He said he always comes to Bethlehem for Christmas, but explained that this year was especially somber as he watched the nativity scene in Manger Square, where a baby Jesus wrapped in a white cloth remembered the hundreds of children killed in the bombings in Gaza. That child is not in a manger, but among ruins and wires that represent the Palestinian enclave.
In Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity, a nativity scene surrounded by rubble and wire is displayed in solidarity with the people of Gaza. (EFE/EPA/WISAM HASHLAMOUN).
The wooden figures of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the cow and the donkey and the May Kings complete the scene, as in any nativity scene in the world, but on pieces of concrete and rubble.
“It is a sign of solidarity with our children who are dying every day,” the Reverend Munther Isaac, one of the religious of the Lutheran Church of Christmas, told the EFE agency.
The war broke out on October 7 after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. That day, the Islamists also kidnapped some 240 people, of whom 129 remain captive in Gaza.
In response, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas and launched an air, sea and land offensive against Gaza, ruled by Hamas since 2007. The Israeli retaliation leaves at least 20,424 people dead, mostly women and children.
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city located in the center of the West Bank, about 9 km south of Jerusalem and nestled in the Judean Mountains. Since December 1995 it has been administered by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
The location of Bethlehem. (AFP).
Since October 7, Israel has restricted movement in Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities in the West Bank, with military checkpoints allowing entry and exit, affecting Palestinians trying to go to work, CNN reported.
Tourism left Bethlehem
“We cannot justify taking out a tree and celebrating normally, when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to,” Ala’a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem restaurant, a local restaurant, told the AP on Sunday. family located a few steps from the Plaza del Sebre.
Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. “Normally you can’t even find a chair to sit on, we’re packed from morning to midnight.” This year there was only one table occupied, by journalists taking a break from the rain.
The businessman said that his restaurant operated at around 15% of its normal capacity and that he could not cover operating costs. He estimated that even when the war ends, it will take another year for tourism to return to Bethlehem normally.
AP explained that the cancellation of the Christmas celebrations represents a hard blow to the local economy, since tourism represents 70% of Bethlehem’s income, almost all of it during the days of Christmas.
Young people walk in front of the Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on December 20, 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP).
A similar story is that of Amir Michael Giacaman, who opened his shop, “Il Bambino”, which sells olive wood carvings and other souvenirs, for the first time since October 7. There have been no tourists and few residents have money because those who worked in Israel have had to stay home, the AP said.
“When people have extra money, they go buy food,” his wife, Safa Giacaman, told the AP. “This year we tell the Christmas story. We celebrate Jesus, not the tree, not Santa Claus,” she added.
“Our message every year at Christmas is one of peace and love, but this year it is a message of sadness, pain and anger before the international community for what is happening and happening in the Gaza Strip,” said the mayor. of Bethlehem, Hana Haniyeh, in a message.
CNN spoke with Rony Tabash, a third-generation store owner who has lost customers.
Tabash’s store offers souvenirs and figures carved from olive wood, it is one of the few that remain open, out of a desire to support the skilled artisans who make their merchandise.
“We have never seen Christmas like this,” Tabash told CNN. “For three months, honestly, we haven’t had a single sale… I don’t want to lose hope.”
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