Palestinian Christians held a somber Christmas vigil in Bethlehem on Saturday, with candlelight hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza instead of the usual festive celebrations at the site where they believe Jesus Christ was born.
Most years Bethlehem is “swamped” with people.
Some 2,000 years later, pilgrims usually flock to the famous site of this stable in the Byzantine-era Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where most Christmases there are cheerful lights and trees in Manger Square.
Christians make up about 2% of the population in all of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories
But as Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, the mainly Palestinian population of Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank is also in mourning.
This year they decided not to have a big tree, the usual focus of Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations, because of the massacre that took place just 50 kilometers away.
And in place of the usual nativity scene, Bethlehem churches this year placed figures of Mary and Jesus among the rubble and barbed wire in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
“This Christmas is coming to Bethlehem differently. Today Bethlehem, like every other Palestinian city, is mourning. We feel sadness,” said the city’s mayor Hanna Hanania, lighting a candle in Manger Square.
