The municipality of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where Christians believe Jesus was born, has decided to cancel all Christmas holidays in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and instead of the traditional decorated Christmas tree, the biblical city has installed a scene symbolic of the Nativity of Christ, which condemns the bombing of Israel , and churches in the city are demanding “an immediate end to the genocide,” News.ro reports.

The Nativity Cave was deserted, with no pilgrims – an unusual thing – in the context when the queue was several hours long at this symbolic time of the year.

“We hope at least that local residents will come (to the midnight service). Usually, due to worldwide bookings, they don’t actually happen. This year, there is no reservation system, so I think the church will be able to host more locals,” Rami Asakrue, priest of St. Catherine’s Parish in Bethlehem, told BFMTV.

A mournful atmosphere in Bethlehem

In Bethlehem, the atmosphere is not holy, but sorrowful, and sometimes angry.

A few days ago, the municipality of the biblical city announced that, in order to condemn the situation in the Gaza Strip, it was not erecting a traditional Christmas tree.

Instead of the usual nativity scene, as Christians call the traditional display of figurines representing the holy family, churches in Bethlehem, as in the case of the Church of the Nativity, this year placed the figurines among the rubble and barbed wire as a sign of solidarity with the people. Gas, Reuters reports.

Little by little, the religious fact is being replaced by political exposure.

In his Christmas sermon, the Reverend Munter Isaac, pastor of the Lutheran parish in Bethlehem, who himself installed the manger in which Jesus is wrapped in a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, called to “stop the genocide.”

“All the people see Jesus in the rubble, like after the bombing (in) the Gaza Strip. We are told about the silence of the world. We want to use the focus on Bethlehem at Christmas to convey this message. We say this even while on duty – stop the genocide immediately,” he told BFMTV.

For the few believers present just a few hours before Christmas, the message is also clear.

“We would like people in France and all over the world to think about us at Christmas, about the land of Jesus, about the Christians of Palestine and the inhabitants of the Holy Land,” emphasizes Osama, a Christian from Palesina. .

According to the Hamas Health Ministry, the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas has resulted in 20,258 deaths in the enclave, mostly children, teenagers and women, and more than 53,000 wounded.

The war was launched in response to an unprecedented October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement that killed about 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to a count compiled by AFP based on the latest Israeli figures. Then about 250 people were taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip.