Christmas Day Celebration.
Bethlehem (West Bank): Amidst the ongoing war in Gaza, the atmosphere remained gloomy on Tuesday on the occasion of Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ in the West Bank. The enthusiasm that is usually seen in the West Bank during Christmas week was not visible this time. Christmas decorations and huge Christmas trees were missing from Manger Square, as were the crowds of foreign tourists. Palestinian Christians marched peacefully through the streets, unlike earlier marches with full fanfare.
Security forces have set up barricades near the Church of the Nativity. It is believed that this church is built at the place where Jesus was born. The city’s economy has also suffered a lot due to the cancellation of Christmas celebrations. An estimated 70 percent of Bethlehem’s income comes from tourism. Palestinian Tourism Ministry spokesman Jiris Qumsiyah said the number of tourists visiting Bethlehem had dropped from 2 million per year in 2019 before COVID-19 to less than 1 million in 2024. Tourism has been hit hard by increased violence in the West Bank, where more than 800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli shootings and dozens of Israelis have died in terrorist attacks.
Picture changed due to Israel-Hamas war
Access to Bethlehem and other West Bank cities has been limited, and long queues of vehicles have formed to pass through Israeli military checkpoints following the war in Gaza that began following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage in the attack on October 7. Israeli officials believe that about 100 people are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic priest in Bethlehem, pointed to closed shops and empty streets and expressed hope that next year would be better. “Hopefully this will be the last Christmas of this sadness,” he told hundreds gathered in Manger Square.
Many Palestinian Christians said they have been displaced and living in churches with little money since the war began in October last year. “We hope that by next year we will be able to celebrate Christmas in our homes on this day and go to Bethlehem,” said Najla Taraji, a displaced woman who wished for the war to end. Bethlehem is an important center in the history of Christianity, although Christians constitute a small minority of the city’s approximately 14 million residents. According to the US State Department, there are approximately 1,82,000 Christians in Israel, 50 thousand in the West Bank and 1,300 in Gaza. Apart from this, Christmas was also celebrated in other parts of the world.
Christmas celebrated in France and Syria also
Crowds of tourists gathered at the reopened Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the capital of France. In 2019, the medieval historical site Notre Dame Cathedral was closed due to a massive fire. Since then, for the first time a mass prayer meeting was organized here on Christmas Eve. Christians living in Syria also celebrated Christmas. A large number of people gathered near a historic religious site in Saidnaya, Syria on Christmas Eve. There has been a recent change of power in Syria and ousted President Bashar al-Assad has left the country.
Christmas was celebrated in America to remember the victims of church school shooting. At City Church in Madison, Wisconsin, lead pastor Tom Flaherty leads a Christmas Eve prayer. Eight days ago, many people were killed in the firing that took place in the school located in the church premises. Apart from this, Christmas was celebrated with joy in India, Spain, Türkiye, Philippines, and Balkan countries. (Language)
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