Christmas preparations have always been the best, says Nuha Tarazi, as she places a bowl of Christmas cookies on the kitchen table. But this year is very different: there are no Christmas decorations in her house.
“We always looked forward to the holidays every year,” says Tarazi, a retired English teacher. She has not received permission from the Israeli authorities to visit her relatives in Gaza for six years. “Who wants to think about Christmas celebrations now with what’s happening?” she says.
At Christmas, her relatives from Gaza City were normally allowed to visit her in the occupied West Bank. Tarazi was born in Gaza, but has lived in Beit Sahour, a neighboring city of Bethlehem, for decades. Many people here have family and friends in the Gaza Strip, where there is still a small Christian community.
For festivals such as Christmas or Easter, Israeli authorities generally granted coveted exit permits to Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip, isolated since the Islamist group Hamas has ruled for 17 years.
A different Christmas
However, it was never clear whether permits would arrive and many times not all members of a family were allowed to leave. Some years, the number of exit permits was very limited, depending on the political situation. But at least there was hope of seeing each other during the holidays and spending time together.
Now, however, everything is different again. Israel’s Erez border crossing has been closed since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel and the subsequent armed conflict. This means that the route to the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem is closed.
Tarazi is also in mourning: her sister was killed in October in an Israeli attack on a building on the grounds of the Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City. According to a statement from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, 18 people died in the attack, many of whom had sought refuge there.
“I’m here alone and I don’t know how to face it. My thoughts only revolve around what is happening there in Gaza,” Tarazi says, struggling to maintain her composure, adding that she couldn’t even be at the funeral. Her constant concern for her other siblings and relatives keeps her awake day and night, as communication is also difficult. “The only thing that helps me is going to my garden, seeing my flowers and taking care of them,” she says.
No Christmas celebrations
Nuha Tarazi is not the only one who doesn’t feel like celebrating Christmas this year. In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, there will also be no Christmas festivities. The Manger Square, in front of the Church of the Nativity, normally packed with thousands of local and foreign visitors during the Christmas season, is empty. The city has not put up the large Christmas tree or the traditional manger, and Christmas decorations and lights are nowhere to be seen.
“There is no party atmosphere, there are no celebrations for what is happening in Palestine, in Gaza,” says Basel, who sells grilled chicken on Star Street, which leads to Manger Square.
“Normally there are a lot of people from all over the world, from different religions, but there is no Christmas atmosphere,” says Yara Alama, who lives in Bethlehem. “You feel like you can’t feel any joy about the war and what’s happening to the people in Gaza.”
The Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born, is also unusually empty and quiet. There are no long lines of people waiting to visit the narrow grotto in which a silver star marks the sacred place.
First COVID-19, now a war
Issa Taljieh, born in Bethlehem, has been a parish priest of the Greek Orthodox Church for 12 years. In all the time he’s been there, he says, he’s never experienced such a sad Christmas. “People are saddened by what is happening in Gaza,” he says. “It is the first time I have seen the Church of the Nativity, the place where Jesus was born, so empty. “Even during COVID-19 there were still people from here who came and celebrated Christmas with us.”
During the pandemic, until last year, when Bethlehem celebrated Christmas again, foreign visitors were not able to travel to the city and, as a result, its tourism industry, on which it relies heavily, was greatly affected. Since the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, access to the city, which is already isolated from Jerusalem by the Israeli separation wall, has become even more difficult. The Israeli Army has placed barriers on many access roads, which people have to cross on foot and cars can only circulate during certain hours.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 491 Palestinians have also died in the West Bank, more than any year since the agency began recording victims in 2005. In Israel, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7. Some 129 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.
“We need Christmas now”
Issa, a priest whose name means “Jesus” in Arabic, tries to help his congregation in these difficult times. “We cannot celebrate in Bethlehem while people are dying there in Gaza, while their homes are destroyed, they are left homeless, without food, without a safe place and in the middle of winter. We must include them in our prayers and pray for peace and security,” he states.
Although the festivities in the city are canceled, the Christmas liturgies in the Church of the Nativity will be celebrated. On December 24, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem will enter Bethlehem, but this year without the musical accompaniment of the Palestinian scout groups. The traditional midnight mass will also take place. About two weeks later, Orthodox communities will celebrate their Christmas festivities, following their own calendar.
With the current suffering and desperate situation in the Gaza Strip, it is important to draw strength from faith, says Rami Asakrieh, pastor of the Latin parish of St. Catherine’s Church in Bethlehem.
“We need Christmas now. Yes, it will be a celebration without music, without scouts, without festivities,” she states. “But it is important that we maintain religious rituals, that there is a message of peace from this city to the world, a message of peace that emanates from the birthplace of Jesus.”