By Julia Frankel and Jalal BwaitelThe Related Press
BETHLEHEM, West Financial institution (AP) — Bethlehem is gearing up for a subdued Christmas, with out the festive lights and customary Christmas tree towering over Manger Sq., after officers in Jesus’ conventional birthplace determined to forgo celebrations because of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The cancellation of Christmas festivities, which usually draw hundreds of holiday makers, is a extreme blow to the city’s tourism-dependent financial system. However joyous revelry is untenable at a time of immense struggling of Palestinians in Gaza, mentioned Mayor Hana Haniyeh.
“The financial system is crashing,” Haniyeh advised The Related Press on Dec. 15. “But when we evaluate it with what’s taking place to our individuals and Gaza, it’s nothing.”
Greater than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed and greater than 50,000 wounded throughout Israel’s blistering air and floor offensive towards Gaza’s Hamas rulers, based on well being officers there, whereas some 85 p.c of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The conflict was triggered by Hamas’ lethal assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel wherein militants killed about 1,200 individuals, most of them civilians, and took greater than 240 hostages.
Since Oct. 7, entry to Bethlehem and different Palestinian cities within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution has been troublesome, with lengthy strains of motorists ready to go navy checkpoints. The restrictions have additionally prevented many Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.
Metropolis leaders fret concerning the influence the closures have on the small Palestinian financial system within the West Financial institution, already combating a dramatic fall in tourism for the reason that begin of the conflict. The Palestinian tourism sector has incurred losses of $2.5 million a day, amounting to $200 million by the tip of the yr, the Palestinian minister of tourism mentioned Dec. 13.
The yearly Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem — shared amongst Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox denominations — are main boons for the town, the place tourism accounts for 70 p.c of its yearly revenue. However the streets are empty this season.
With most main airways canceling flights to Israel, over 70 resorts in Bethlehem have been pressured to shut, leaving some 6,000 workers within the tourism sector unemployed, based on Sami Thaljieh, supervisor of the Sancta Maria Resort.
“I spend my days ingesting tea and occasional, ready for purchasers who by no means come. Right this moment, there isn’t a tourism,” mentioned Ahmed Danna, a Bethlehem store proprietor.
Haniyeh mentioned that whereas Christmas festivities have been cancelled, spiritual ceremonies will happen, together with a conventional gathering of church leaders and a Midnight Mass.
“Bethlehem is a vital a part of the Palestinian group,” the mayor mentioned. “So at Midnight Mass this yr, we are going to pray for peace, the message of peace that was based in Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born.”
George Carlos Canawati, a Palestinian journalist, lecturer, and scout chief, referred to as his metropolis “unhappy and heartbroken.” He mentioned his Boy Scout troop will conduct a silent march throughout the town, in mourning of these killed in Gaza.
“We obtain the Christmas message by rejecting injustice and aggression, and we are going to pray for peace to return to the land of peace,” mentioned Canawati.
The keenness of Bethlehem’s Christmas festivities have lengthy been a barometer of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Celebrations had been grim in 2000 in the beginning of the second intifada, or rebellion, when Israeli forces locked down components of the West Financial institution in response to Palestinians finishing up scores of suicide bombings and different assaults that killed Israeli civilians.
Occasions had been additionally tense throughout an earlier Palestinian rebellion, which lasted from 1987-1993, when annual festivities in Manger Sq. had been overseen by Israeli military snipers on the rooftops.
The sober temper this yr isn’t confined to Bethlehem.
Throughout the Holy Land, Christmas festivities have been placed on maintain. There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 within the West Financial institution and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, based on the U.S. State Division. The overwhelming majority are Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, the usually bustling passageways of the Previous Metropolis’s Christian Quarter have fallen quiet for the reason that conflict started. Retailers are boarded up, with their house owners saying they’re too frightened to open — and even when they did, they are saying they wouldn’t have a lot enterprise.
The heads of main church buildings in Jerusalem introduced in November that vacation celebrations can be canceled. “We name upon our congregations to face sturdy with these going through such afflictions by this yr foregoing any unnecessarily festive actions,” they wrote.
On the altar of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran church, a revised nativity scene is on show. A determine of child Jesus wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh is perched atop a pile of rubble. The doll lies beneath an olive tree — for Palestinians, an emblem of steadfastness.
“Whereas the world is celebrating, our kids are below the rubble. Whereas the world is celebrating, our households are displaced and their houses are destroyed,” mentioned the church’s pastor, Munther Isaac. “That is Christmas to us in Palestine.”
