It will be a sad and silent night in Bethlehem.
Jesus’ hometown canceled its annual Christmas celebrations out of respect for the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, nearly three months into the war between Israel and Hamas.
Bethlehem – or Beit Lechem, located in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank – is usually flooded with pilgrims and other celebrants in late December.
This year, however, the festivities are reduced to a nativity scene at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church of a baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh, surrounded by debris, NPR reported.
A similar installation will also be placed in Manger Square before Sunday, which is Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, the Church of the Nativity, which dates back to the 6th century, included barbed wire and figures wrapped in tarp in its nativity scene.
The church is virtually empty, as the usual 6,000 daily visitors to Bethlehem at Christmas have dwindled to fewer than 1,000 in a month, the Washington Post reported.
The mood of sadness was the joint decision of multiple Palestinian Christian leaders, who met last month to cancel public celebrations in light of the war in Gaza.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa greets the faithful in Manger Square, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, last year. AP A Christmas grotto installation with covered figures standing among rubble surrounded by barbed wire is displayed outside the Church of the Nativity. REUTERS Installation of a scene of the Nativity of Christ with a figure that symbolizes the baby Jesus lying among the rubble, in reference to Gaza. AP
As a result, the usual parade of 28 Boy Scout troops accompanying the Latin Patriarch’s procession into the city will be reduced to a silent troop with Bible verses about peace and possibly photographs of Gaza children, the Washington Post added.
The scaled-down holiday comes just a year after Christmas returned to Bethlehem in full swing in 2022, following two years of scaled-down festivities due to COVID-19.
Christian leaders in Bethlehem openly condemned Hamas’ surprise terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and at least 240 others taken hostage.
“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 that caused the loss of lives of nearly 1,400 Israelis and citizens of other nations, and call for the immediate release of all civilians held hostage,” a group of Bethlehem clerics wrote in a letter. to President Joe Biden last month.
A Palestinian changes candles in the Church of the Nativity on December 23. REUTERS
Hamas’ atrocities, however, do not justify what the group called “collective violence” against civilians in Gaza, who have now been under siege by the Israeli army for nearly three months, the letter said.
“It is impossible to celebrate when so many – on both sides – have lost so much,” Rami Asakrieh, a Franciscan friar and pastor of St. Catherine’s Church, told the Washington Post this week.
“We canceled the festivities as a sign of solidarity with the victims of war,” explained Asakrieh, who signed the letter to Biden.
In his annual Christmas address, Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nanania criticized Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” the Washington Post said.
The head of the local chamber of commerce, Samir Hazboun, also criticized what he called the “moral failure of the West” to reduce the killing of Gaza civilians, the outlet continued.
A priest walks through the empty Church of the Nativity, traditionally considered the birthplace of Jesus Christ. AP
“If Jesus had been born today, he would be born in Gaza among the rubble,” said the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, as he stood next to his church’s rubble-covered manger.
“Who can sing ‘Joy to the World’ today?” he lamented, adding that the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable after his parents – Mary and her husband Joseph, a Jewish man living under Roman rule – could not find accommodation is “a story that we, the Palestinians, we can understand”.
While the usual religious and festive activities have been greatly reduced, the traditional mass will continue to be read to commemorate the main Christian holiday, Asakrieh told the Washington Post.
“We need the Christmas message more than ever,” he insisted. “We need peace and love. “We need the light.”
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn