For a second year running, there is no Christmas cheer in the birthplace of Jesus.
The ongoing war in Gaza, and more recently in Lebanon, has stopped the usual influx of thousands of Christian pilgrims to Bethlehem.
This year there are hardly any.
Despite being overwhelmingly Muslim, the Palestinian city’s lifeblood has long been Christian tourism.
News agency Reuters reports Bethlehem’s Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity, is largely deserted.
Souvenir shops are shuttered and, just like last December, there are no plans to put up the city’s traditional Christmas Tree with its bright lights.
“During these difficult times that our Palestinian cities are going through, especially in the Gaza Strip, it is difficult to show any signs of joy and happiness,” said Issa Thaljieh, an Orthodox priest who ministers at the Nativity Church.
Many Christian families who make up around 10% of the city’s population are preparing to leave.
They are demoralised by the tourist slump and the constant threat of violence across the West Bank.
In the last year of British rule over the region in 1947, around 85% of Bethlehem’s population was Christian.
Seventy years later it was 90% Muslim.
Many of them are also planning to emigrate.
Munther Isaac, a pastor at Bethlehem’s Lutheran Church, says they are also sick of the insecurity of their finances and their personal safety.
“(There is) the fear that this war might extend to areas in the West Bank, especially after the arming of Jewish settlers and an announcement of the possible annexation of the West Bank,” he said.
Alaa Afteem, who runs a falafel restaurant in Manger Square, said one of his cousins had recently moved to Australia.
Photo: Yousefsh / Shutterstock.com (Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity)
