With no Christmas tree or decorations adorning the Church of the Nativity, revered because the birthplace of Jesus Christ, vacation cheer was absent within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution metropolis of Bethlehem on Tuesday.
However for some, like Jerusalem resident Hisham Makhoul, spending Christmas within the holy metropolis supplied an “escape” from the Israel-Hamas struggle raging for greater than 14 months within the Gaza Strip.
“What we’re going via may be very troublesome and we will not utterly neglect about it,” stated Makhoul of the plight of Palestinians within the besieged territory, which is separated from the West Financial institution by Israeli territory.
“It is an escape… for a number of days, every week or so, not more than this.”
In central Bethlehem, the Terra Sancta Scout Troop, donning crimson scarves, marched down the primary purchasing road the place distributors have been promoting nougat and shawarma.
The candy sound of youngsters singing Christmas carols stuffed the air, a pointy distinction to sombre messages on the banners they held: “We wish life, not dying”, and “Cease the Gaza genocide now!”
For the second yr in a row, Christmas festivities in Bethlehem are overshadowed by the struggle.
A big Christmas tree often stands in Manger Sq., reverse the Church of the Nativity which is constructed atop a cave the place Christians imagine Jesus was born greater than 2,000 years in the past.
However like final yr, Bethlehem’s municipality had determined to go for modest celebrations out of respect for Palestinians struggling in Gaza.
Makhoul stated it was nonetheless necessary for him to spend Christmas time in Bethlehem, which is situated about 10 kilometres (six miles) from his house in Jerusalem, past the separation wall constructed by Israel.
“Though this yr may be very totally different from different years, it nonetheless means quite a bit to us to be right here,” stated Makhoul, who was visiting along with his associate.
Subsequent to a statue of Jerome of Stridon, an early Christian priest who translated the Bible from Hebrew into Latin, Makhoul stated he was glad to see “the comfortable children round and Christian households celebrating”.
– Prayers for peace –
For Christians within the Holy Land, who quantity about 185,000 in Israel and 47,000 within the Palestinian territories, prayer can supply solace and hope for a greater future.
“We will pray and ask God to finish our struggling, to provide this a part of the world the peace that we count on, the peace that Jesus dropped at the world,” stated Anton Salman, the mayor of Bethlehem.
Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem who led mass in Gaza on Sunday, shared an analogous message of hope as he ready to preside over midnight mass in Bethlehem.
“I simply arrived yesterday from Gaza. I noticed all the things destroyed, poverty, catastrophe,” he stated.
“However I additionally noticed life — they do not quit. So you shouldn’t giver up both. By no means,” Pizzaballa added in a speech exterior the Bethlehem Peace Middle, a cultural venue.
“We’re stronger, we belong to mild, to not darkness,” he stated, standing beside a Palestinian flag.
“Subsequent yr we wish to see the largest Christmas tree ever”.
With hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza on the rise in latest days, Bethlehem residents await calm that would see vacationers return in 2025.
Christiana von der Tann, a German lady visiting her journalist daughter who relies within the area, stated it was unattainable for her to utterly escape the battle, whilst a vacationer.
“Final evening, there was a rocket assault in Tel Aviv and it was somewhat scary,” she stated.
Air raid sirens sounded in a single day in Israel’s industrial hub, with the navy saying it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen.
“We needed to go to a shelter room,” stated von der Tann, who was travelling together with her husband.
“That was a particular expertise. You do not neglect that you’re in a rustic at struggle”.
