Buzzoca

Bethlehem in the West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, today marks the second somber Christmas Eve in the face of war in the Gaza Strip.

The enthusiasm and joy that typically pervade the Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank at Christmas are far removed from the festivities that mark the season.

The festive lights and giant tree that normally decorate Manger Square were not erected, with the site also lacking the usual crowds of foreign tourists that normally flock to the area.

Palestinian scouts paraded silently through the streets instead of their usual brass band. Some carried a sign that read, “We want life, not death.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces set up barriers next to the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born, and a worker cleared out rubbish bins.

“The message of Bethlehem is always a message of peace and hope,” said Mayor Anton Salman.

“And in these days, we are also sending our message to the world: peace and hope, but insisting that the world must work to end our suffering as the Palestinian people.”

The cancellation of the Christmas festivities is a serious blow to the city’s economy, as tourism is responsible for around 70% of Belém’s revenue, almost all of which comes from the Christmas season.

Salman said unemployment was around 50 percent, higher than the 30 percent in the rest of the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Finance Ministry.

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, walked through the city and witnessed the closed shops and empty streets, expressing hope that the coming year would be better.

“This must be the last Christmas so sad. I bring you the greetings, the prayers, of our brothers and sisters in Gaza,” Pizzanballa told hundreds of faithful gathered in Manger Square, where tens of thousands of people would normally gather. .

Pizzaballa celebrated a special pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday at the Church of the Holy Family, but in Gaza City.

“I saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster, but I also saw life. They don’t give up, so we don’t give up,” he said.

The city’s visitor numbers have fallen from a pre-Covid-19 high of around two million visitors a year in 2019 to fewer than 100,000 visitors in 2024, said Jiries Qumsiyeh, spokesman for the Palestinian Tourism Ministry.

Bethlehem is an important center in the history of Christianity, but Christians make up only a small percentage of the approximately 14 million people scattered throughout the Holy Land.

There are about 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department.

While the war in Gaza has deterred tourists and pilgrims, the conflict has also caused a surge in violence in the West Bank, with more than 800 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and dozens of Israelis killed in attacks by Palestinian militias.

Since the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities in the West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of drivers waiting to pass through Israeli military checkpoints.

The restrictions have also prevented some 150,000 Palestinians from leaving the territory to work in Israel, causing a 25% contraction in the local economy.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials, and about 90 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced. Authorities say more than half of the dead are women and children, although they do not say how many are civilians and how many are combatants.

In the October 7 attack on southern Israel, Hamas-led militias killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 250 hostages.