The annual Christmas tree lighting took place this weekend in Bethlehem. Thousands of people came to the city’s Manger Square, which is perched atop a line of hills south of Jerusalem, to participate in the event.
Bookended by a large mosque and the city’s Church of the Nativity, this is a historic square. The Christmas tree, which towers over the square and is as tall as the church, was covered in lights with a red star on top. A stage was erected below, and during the ceremony, as in years past, there was singing, strobe lights, and festivities.
Christmas festivities have been mostly cancelled over the last two years because of the war in Gaza. With Hamas starting the warfare on October 7, 2023, there was pressure on Palestinian Christians to cancel their celebrations.
This is not the first time Hamas has sought to ruin Christmas. It has started several wars over the years, with the result being that the Christian community in Bethlehem is then told that it has no choice but to cancel the holiday in “solidarity” because of “suffering” caused by the conflict.
The interesting thing about Hamas’s wars that led to Christmas being cancelled in the Holy Land is that Hamas never cancels Islamic holidays for its wars or the suffering it causes.
For instance, Ramadan in 2024 continued as usual in Gaza. Israel was even pressured to have a kind of de facto ceasefire in March 2024 so that Gazans could celebrate Ramadan as normally as possible. Christians had to cancel Christmas in Bethlehem for the Hamas war in Gaza, but for some reason, Ramadan got a month of peace.
Numerous media outlets covered the Christmas tree lighting event in Bethlehem this weekend. DW News wrote, “Manger Square, long venerated as Jesus’ birthplace, came alive again after two quiet years marked by the war in Gaza. Thousands from across the occupied West Bank and Israel gathered for the Christmas tree lighting.”
Christmas in Bethlehem returns as the city recovers tourism industry
The Associated Press had a longer article covering the local festivities. “After two bleak holiday seasons, families and vendors fill Manger Square again as Bethlehem cautiously rebuilds its tourism lifeline, even as West Bank tensions, checkpoints, and violence temper hopes for recovery and peace.”
Pilgrims and tourists alike have slowly returned to Bethlehem. However, there is still much hardship in the city.
According to the Associated Press, “The unemployment rate jumped from 14% to 65%, mayor [Maher Nicola Canawati] said. Poverty soared, and about 4,000 people left in search of work.”
Similarly, the BBC noted, “For two years during the Gaza war, all public celebrations for Christmas were cancelled in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where Christians believe Jesus was born.”
“It’s been a bad two years of silence; no Christmas, no jobs, no work,” Canawati said. “We’re all living here from tourism, and tourism was down to zero.”
The BBC noted that people continue to make it seem as though Christians celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem is “controversial.”
Based on the article, “The mayor accepts that the idea of resuming celebrations was not without controversy, as suffering continues in Gaza, including for those in its tiny Christian community, many of whom have relatives in Bethlehem.”
Note that it is never said that the celebration of Ramadan or Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) or any of the Muslim holidays is “controversial.”
Only Christian holidays are presented in this way. No one tells Gazans or people in Jenin not to celebrate Islamic holidays.
Yet Christmas in the city where Jesus was born is “controversial.”The war on Christmas after the Hamas attack in 2023 was not confined to Gaza and the West Bank. In Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, the celebrations were also cancelled in 2023 in solidarity with the war. Assad was a known Hamas and Iran ally.
Arab News reported that in Syria, “Christmas cheer has deserted the streets of Syria’s cities, where the main churches have limited celebrations to prayers in solidarity with Palestinians suffering war in Gaza.”
Syriac Catholic archbishop of Aleppo, Mor Dionysius Antoine Shahda, said in 2023, “This year, the main square is almost empty, and no Christmas decorations are in sight.”
The attempt to cancel Christmas every year is not solely due to Gaza. In 2015, The Guardian noted that there was also pressure on Christians not to celebrate.
“Lights and decorations have been limited to a few streets, and an annual Christmas Eve firework display has been cancelled.”
In 2017, the authorities found a new reason to cancel Christmas. They claimed they had to cancel it because of the US decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Once again, Muslims were not asked to cancel their holidays; only Christians were pressured to do so.
Christians were told in the West Bank and Gaza to only conduct quiet prayers – no celebrations. In 2020 and 2021, there was greater pressure on Christians to cancel events due to COVID-19.
In essence, in the last decade, it appears Christians in Bethlehem have been pressured to cancel their holidays almost every year.