BATTIR – Bethlehem is preparing for a subdued Christmas, without the festive lights and traditional Christmas tree that overlooks the manger square, after officials at the traditional birthplace of Jesus decided to forego celebrations due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The cancellation of Christmas festivities, which normally attract thousands of visitors, is a major blow to the city's tourism-dependent economy. But joyful celebration is untenable at a time of immense suffering for Palestinians in Gaza, said Mayor Hana Haniyeh.
“The economy is collapsing,” Haniyeh told The Associated Press on Friday. “But if we compare it to what is happening to our people and Gaza, it is nothing.”
According to health authorities there, more than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 injured during Israel's fierce air and ground offensive against the Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip, while about 85% of the territory's 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was sparked by Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.
Since October 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of drivers waiting to pass through military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented many Palestinians from leaving the territory to work in Israel.
City leaders are concerned about the impact of the closures on the West Bank's small Palestinian economy, which has already struggled with a dramatic decline in tourism since the start of the war. The Palestinian tourism sector has suffered daily losses of $2.5 million, which will reach $200 million by the end of the year, the Palestinian tourism minister said on Wednesday.
Bethlehem's annual Christmas celebrations, celebrated together by Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox denominations, are a major blessing for the city, where tourism accounts for 70% of annual income. But this season the streets are empty.
With most major airlines canceling flights to Israel, over 70 hotels in Bethlehem were forced to close, leaving about 6,000 employees in the tourism sector unemployed, according to Sami Thaljieh, manager of the Sancta Maria Hotel.
“I spend my days drinking tea and coffee and waiting for customers who never come. Today there is no tourism,” said Ahmed Danna, a shopkeeper from Bethlehem.
Haniyeh said that although Christmas celebrations were canceled, religious ceremonies would take place, including a traditional meeting of church leaders and a midnight mass.
“Bethlehem is an essential part of the Palestinian community,” said the mayor. “That is why this year at Midnight Mass we will pray for peace, the message of peace that was founded in Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born.”
George Carlos Canawati, a Palestinian journalist, lecturer and scout leader, called his city “sad and heartbroken.” He said his Boy Scout troop would conduct a silent march through the city in memory of those killed in Gaza.
“We receive the message of Christmas by rejecting injustice and aggression, and we will pray for peace to come to the land of peace,” Canawati said.
The enthusiasm for Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem has long been a barometer for Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Celebrations were somber in 2000 when the second intifada, or uprising, began when Israeli forces sealed off parts of the West Bank in response to Palestinians carrying out numerous suicide bombings and other attacks that killed Israeli civilians.
Times were also tense during an earlier Palestinian uprising that lasted from 1987 to 1993, when annual celebrations at Manger Square were monitored by Israeli army snipers from rooftops.
The sober mood is not just limited to Bethlehem this year.
Across the Holy Land, Christmas celebrations have been put on hold. According to the US State Department, there are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in the Gaza Strip. The vast majority are Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, the normally busy corridors of the Old City's Christian quarter have become quiet since the war began. Stores are boarded up and their owners say they are too afraid to open – and even if they did, they say they wouldn't do much business.
The leaders of major churches in Jerusalem announced in November that holiday celebrations would be canceled. “We call on our communities to stand strong with those struggling with such hardships and to refrain from unnecessary festive activities this year,” they wrote.
A reworked nativity scene is displayed on the altar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethlehem. A figure of the baby Jesus sits enthroned on a pile of rubble, wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh. The doll lies under an olive tree – a symbol of steadfastness for Palestinians.
“While the world celebrates, our children lie beneath the rubble. While the world celebrates, our families are displaced and their homes destroyed,” said the church’s pastor, Munther Isaac. “This is Christmas for us in Palestine.”
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