Bethlehem cancels Christmas as Israel-Hamas war rages on

The city of Jesus’ birth has canceled its annual Christmas celebrations out of respect for the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, nearly three months into the war between Israel and Hamas.

Bethlehem – or Beit Lechem, located in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank – is typically flooded with pilgrims and other celebrants in late December, NPR reported. 

This year, however, the festivities are pared back to a razor wire-protected nativity scene at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church of an infant Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh, surrounded by rubble.

A similar installation will also be placed in Manger Square before Sunday, which is Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, the Church of the Nativity – which dates back to the sixth century – is practically empty as the usual 6,000 daily visitors that descend on Bethlehem at Christmastime has trickled down to less than 1,000 in one month, the Washington Post reported.

The mournful mood was the joint decision of multiple Palestinian Christian leaders, who came together last month to cancel the public celebrations in light of the war in Gaza, NPR explained.

As a result, the usual parade of 28 Boy Scout troops accompanying the Latin Patriarch’s procession into the city will be reduced to one, silent troop holding Bible verses on peace and possibly photographs of Gazan children, the Washington Post added.

Christian and secular leaders in Bethlehem have vocally condemned Hamas’ surprise terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed about 1,200 people and saw at least 240 others taken hostage, the Washington Post noted.

They are also disturbed by the war in Gaza, which is believed to have claimed more than 20,000 lives – according to unconfirmed reports from the Hamas-linked health agency in the region.

In his annual Christmas speech, Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nanania slammed Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” the Washington Post said.

The head of the local chamber of commerce, Samir Hazboun, also criticized what he called the “moral failure of the West” to curtail the killing of Gazan civilians, the outlet continued.

“If Jesus were born today, he would be born in Gaza amid the rubble,” the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, said while standing over his church’s rubble-strewn nativity.

“Who can sing ‘Joy to the World’ today?” he lamented, adding that the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable after his parents – Mary, and her husband Joseph, a Jewish man living under Roman rule – are unable to find lodging is “a story we Palestinians can understand.”

Rami Asakrieh, a Franciscan friar and pastor of St. Catherine’s Church, told the Washington Post that while the usual festivities are canceled, mass will still be observed.

“We canceled the festivities as a sign of solidarity with the victims of the war,” Asakrieh explained.

“[But] we need the Christmas message more than ever. We need the peace and love. We need the light,” he insisted.