"No Christmas, No Santa": Celebrations Halted In Bethlehem, Birthplace Of Jesus Christ
Christmas celebrations have been cancelled this year and the thousands of tourists and pilgrims who would normally fill Manger Square are nowhere to be found.
The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.
"The city is empty from happiness"??
"The city is empty from happiness, from joy, from kids, from Santa. There is no celebration this year," says Madeleine, a resident of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
¡°This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there¡¯s just darkness,¡± said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the thousands of children killed in the fighting in Gaza.
Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.
Severe blow to tourism
The cancellation of Christmas festivities is a severe blow to the town¡¯s economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of Bethlehem¡¯s income ¡ª almost all of that during the Christmas season.With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. Local officials say over 70 hotels in Bethlehem have been forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed.
¡°We can¡¯t justify putting out a tree and celebrating as normal, when some people [in Gaza] don¡¯t even have houses to go to,¡± said Ala¡¯a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem Restaurant, a family-owned falafel restaurant just steps from the square.
Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. ¡°Normally, you can¡¯t find a single chair to sit, we¡¯re full from morning till midnight,¡± said Salameh. This year, just one table was taken, by journalists taking a break from the rain.
Israel-Gaza conflict
Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel¡¯s air and ground offensive against Gaza¡¯s Hamas, according to health officials there, while some 85% of the territory¡¯s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas¡¯ deadly assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.
The Gaza war has been accompanied by a surge in violence, with some 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.
The fighting has affected life across the West Bank. Since Oct. 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied territory has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.
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