No Christmas cheer in Bethlehem for second year amid war on Gaza

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem marked a sombre Christmas for the second consecutive year in solidarity with Gaza, where the Israeli onslaught has killed 45,000 people in over a year.

No festive lights or Christmas trees were put up in the city as the holy day for Christians was limited to religious rituals and prayers. 

Manger Square, the centre of Bethlehem traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, was unusually quiet.

“Every year, there are scouts, a choir, decorations, a tree is raised, carols are sung, and celebrations take place,” Father Issa Thaljieh, a Greek Orthodox parish priest in Bethlehem, told Middle East Eye. 

“But this year, Christmas arrives in a sad and gloomy manner, without any signs of joy.”

The usual crowds of tourists and pilgrims were also absent, said Thaljieh. 

He added that the call from Bethlehem to Gaza this year is one of “patience, steadfastness, prayer, hope, and consolation”.

Munther Isaac, a Christian pastor from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, described the mood in the city as full of sadness and anger but also solidarity and steadfastness.

"There is sadness and anger because of the complicity of the world in allowing the war on Gaza to continue." 

However, he said holding Christmas prayers was an important message of defiance. 

“Our determination to continue with Christmas, even without the tree and scout music, is our resistance,” Isaac, who has been outspoken against the war, told MEE. 

“It is our way of saying that we are here, and we will not leave. The policy of the occupation is clear: it is to displace us. But we are determined to stay here.”

The nearly 15-month-long Israel war on Gaza has devastated the besieged territory and threatens to wipe out its 2,000-year-old Christian heritage completely.

With fewer than 1,000 Christians remaining in Gaza, most currently live in either the Holy Family Church or St Porphyrius, a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City.

These two churches are the last sanctuaries for Christians in the war-torn territory.

The community faces a grim future, threatened not only with physical destruction but also with the erasure of its cultural legacy. 

The number of Christians sheltering in Gaza’s churches has dwindled this year, with many fleeing through the Rafah crossing into Egypt before Israel seized control of it in May.

Those left behind - around 650 people - are enduring dire conditions and are on the brink of annihilation, said George Akroush, an official at the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, speaking to the Financial Times.

In his Christmas address last week, Pope Francis condemned the killing of children in Gaza by Israel as “cruelty" as he became more open with his criticism of Israel.

“Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty; this is not war,” he said. 

Earlier this year, he told the CBS network's 60 Minutes: “I speak every night at seven to the Gaza parish… They tell me about what happens there. It’s very tough, very tough… Sometimes, they go hungry, and they tell me things. There is a lot of suffering.”

Israel dismissed the pope’s remarks as “particularly disappointing”, with a foreign ministry spokesperson accusing him of “double standards” and claiming his comments ignored the “fight against jihadist terrorism”.

The spokesperson further criticised the “singling out of the Jewish state and its people”.