Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has cancelled Christmas this year. For the first time since modern celebrations began, the birthplace of Jesus will not decorate the Manger Square tree.
In the original first Christmas story, Joseph and Mary were turned away from the inns, as all the rooms were full. This Christmas, the rooms of all the hotels in Bethlehem are empty, and local businesses are suffering because no Christian pilgrims, usually from America and Europe, wanted to travel to what is increasingly looking like a war-zone, as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) constantly raid the Occupied West Bank territory like Jenin.
"In our homes we can celebrate, but in our hearts we are suffering," said Ibrahim Dabbour, a Greek Orthodox priest. "How can we decorate a Christmas tree?"
The Israeli government has a plan to transform Christian sites at the Mount of Olives into a national park. The future of ancient churches and Biblical sites is uncertain because Israel wants to ultimately turn them all into tourist attractions for profit after they have gotten rid of the Christians.
The war in Gaza and West Bank raids
The IDF raids and attacks in the Occupied West Bank, with subsequent arrests, were going on well before, but have intensified after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which killed over 1,000 Israelis.
Heads of various churches in Jerusalem, the Occupied West Bank, and Jordan have made a collective decision to make this Christmas a somber one, in solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, and the death toll now above 17,000 and rising daily in the Israeli war on Gaza.
Christmas is a public holiday in the Muslim-majority Jordan, with many city squares and shopping malls feted with seasonal decorations. But congregations throughout the country will now forgo the traditional festivities of public tree lighting, Christmas markets, scout parades, and distribution of gifts to children.
American Evangelical Zionists
"We have a role to speak to our friends in the West," said David Rihani, president and general superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church of Jordan. "Jesus did not teach us to blindly side with anyone against another."
He referred to a viral video of Tennessee-based pastor Greg Locke calling on Israel to turn Gaza into a "parking lot" and to blow up the Dome of the Rock to make room for the Third Temple and usher in the return of Jesus. Local evangelicals of the Holy Lands, Rihani said, refuse to be associated with such Christian Zionism.
John Munayer, a Jerusalemite Palestinian who belongs to the small Palestinian Evangelical Church, said that the harassment of Christians, which has increased especially over the past six months, has international ramifications.
"In the international Christian world there are those who passionately support Israel, those who identify with the Palestinian struggle against the occupation, and a great many who are somewhere in between," Munayer said. "I go around international conferences and communities. The violent events move the needle and make many people question what the right attitude is toward Israel, and toward Jews."
Palestinian Christians under attack by Israelis
From April 2 to May 10, 2002, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank was besieged by the IDF. On April 7, 2002 Vatican City warned Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations. On April 20, 2002 the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem called upon Christians worldwide to make the upcoming Sunday a "solidarity day" for the people in the church and the church itself, and called for immediate intervention to stop what it referred to as the "inhuman measures against the people and the stone of the church".
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