The city of Belenin the West Bank, has decided cancel Christmas celebrations this year in full war in the Gaza Stripa bloody conflict that is already settled with nearly 19,000 dead from Israeli attacks against the Palestinian enclave.

Thus, this year the churches will limit themselves to celebrating masses and prayers in sign of unity with Gazawhile hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and the artisan factories of olive wood figurines and crosses, which provide economic support to the majority of the city’s inhabitants, are completely deserted.

If Jesus were born today, it would be among destruction and rubble and, therefore, all the Palestinian churches have decidedgive up celebrations Christmas, in a year in which the region is immersed in one of the most serious war conflicts of the last decades.

In Palestine, cradle of Christianity, about 47,000 Christians live. The city of Bethlehem is home to a large part of the Palestinian Christian community, along with East Jerusalem and Ramallah, although there is also a small community in Gaza. This year, however, the churches of Bethlehem, which Christianity considers the birthplace of Jesus, They have officially canceled all types of celebrations.

No tourists, tree or decorations

In addition to the Old City of Jerusalem, located in the eastern half occupied and controlled by Israel, the city of Bethlehem is the jewel of Palestinian tourism, with some two million annual visitors, including tourists and pilgrims. Half a million arrived there in the high season, from October to December, and of them, more than 100,000 during Christmas week. Last year, Belén received 120,000 tourists during Christmas weekclose to the record of 150,000 in 2019. This year, in full mourning for the war, tourism is almost zero.

Since the war against Hamas began, Israel has cut off access to the main cities of the West Bank and Bethlehem, which lives largely off tourism and pilgrims, faces a dramatic situation, since the impact of the pandemic is added to the closure of borders that is reducing its income to zero. The city is completely closed to visitorsso Christians from places like Jerusalem, Yaffa or Ramallah, who came annually on December 24 and 25, will not be able to do so this year.

Thus, the Manger Square, in front of the Basilica of the Nativity, is completely empty, despite the dates and the Palestinian city has decided not to place its enormous tree there this year, nor open the traditional market Christmas on Estrella Street. Streets They have been emptied of lights and decorations in the Palestinian city, mourning the war in the Gaza Strip, where more than 18,000 Palestinians have died.

Furthermore, the traditional marching band parade on December 24, accompanying the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on his way on foot to Bethlehem to celebrate mass, It will not have instruments and it will be a solemn prayer journey.

The heads and patriarchs of the Churches of the Holy Land – which brings together Catholics, Orthodox, Armenians, Lutherans, Syriacs, Ethiopians, Copts or Melkites, among others – were the first to take the step by announcing in November that This year Christmas would be “solemn, of prayer and fasting” and asked their respective congregations to refrain from “any unnecessarily festive activities.”

A single church in Bethlehem has decided to express its anguish through iconography and has symbolically placed the Baby Jesus in a manger among rubble and destruction. A representation of the suffering of the children of Gaza who are buried under the rubble of their homes.

The Government of Bethlehem, where some 30,000 Christians live, has joined this call and has canceled any festive Christmas activities in the city where its craft and religious souvenir shops, as well as restaurants, cafes and hotels remain closed due to the lack of tourists.