Christmas: "Bethlehem is sad this year"

Christians in the Holy Land - Christmas: "Bethlehem is sad this year"

A pile of stones lies next to the altar, surrounded by wooden figures. In the middle lies a doll wrapped in a black and white Palestinian scarf, as photos show. Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem wanted to remember the children buried under the rubble in the Gaza Strip, says Pastor Munther Issak. "The idea is that Christ was born among the oppressed and those who are suffering today." The installation is replacing the Christmas tree this year.

Bethlehem in the southern West Bank - according to tradition the birthplace of Jesus Christ - is one of the holiest places for Christians. Masses of tourists usually flock through the Old City and to the world-famous Church of the Nativity at Christmas time. But this year, the Gaza war is overshadowing Christmas in the Holy Land.

No Christmas decorations

The large Christmas tree that usually stands in front of the Church of the Nativity during Advent is missing. The heads of the churches in Jerusalem had already decided in November that there would be no Christmas decorations in the Holy Land due to the war.

However, the midnight mass in Bethlehem with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on the night of December 25 is to take place.

"Bethlehem is sad this year," says priest Munther Issak, whose church is just a few minutes' walk from the Church of the Nativity. "We are all sad and suffering because of what is happening in Gaza."

The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other groups on October 7 in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. More than 1200 people were killed. Israel responded with massive air strikes and, since the end of October, a ground offensive in the area. According to the health authority controlled by the Islamist Hamas, more than 18,000 people have now been killed.

Fear of an expansion of the war

Pastor Munther Issak says that the people of Bethlehem are also afraid that the war will spread. There is also strong economic pressure because many people work in tourism. Access to the city is extremely restricted due to Israeli army roadblocks, according to Palestinians. Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In the Holy Land, Christians form only a very small minority: around 1,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, out of a total population of around 2.2 million. In Israel, Christians make up just under two percent of the approximately 10 million citizens. In the West Bank, they make up around 1.5 percent of the approximately 3.2 million Palestinians.

The situation of Christians in the embattled Gaza Strip is the most difficult. Haitham Saba used to prepare for Christmas with his family of four at this time every year, buying decorations, new clothes and sweets. They would then celebrate together in the Greek Orthodox Church in the old town of Gaza, says the 29-year-old.

But this year, he says, he also had to retreat to the church with his Muslim neighbors to protect himself from Israeli air strikes. According to the church, it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in October. It was reported that 18 people seeking shelter were killed.

Christmas in a small circle

Four Christians were killed in the massacre in Israel on October 7 - 21 Christians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, according to Father Nicodemus Schnabel, Abbot of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem.

The Old City of Jerusalem, with its small stores, also lacks the illuminated Christmas trees, Christmas decorations and the usual masses of Christmas tourists. Instead, people are celebrating Christmas in small groups this year, says Schnabel. "Everything that's religious is taking place, everything that's been cut away is what's around it," says the Benedictine monk. "It's about an intimate Christmas, where the birth of Jesus Christ takes center stage." Whether there will be a tree in the church at Christmas has not yet been decided.

The Dormitio Abbey with its store, cafeteria and church is open. Church services and concerts are taking place. "I want people to feel that when they step over the threshold here, a weight is lifted," he says. The concerts are also well attended with 200 or 300 listeners.

As every year, the monks want to walk to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. They always carry a scroll with the names of people who have asked for it. This year, for the first time, there are also names of dead people on the scroll - victims of October 7 and the war that followed, as Schnabel explains. Of Christians, Muslims and Jews. At the request of their relatives. The monk says: "The naming campaign gives comfort to many."