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Christmas reborn in Bethlehem with tourists back after pandemic, lifting spirits
Crowds at biblical city, revered as Jesus’s birthplace, still not at pre-COVID levels, but Palestinian Authority tourism minister says celebrations ‘very different’ from last year
The biblical town of Bethlehem marked a merry Christmas on Saturday, with thousands of visitors descending upon the traditional birthplace of Jesus as it rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic.
Tourism is the economic lifeblood of this town in the West Bank, and for the past two years, the pandemic kept international visitors away.
This year, visitors are back, hotels are full and shopkeepers have reported a brisk business in the runup to the holiday. Although the numbers have not reached pre-pandemic levels, the return of tourists has palpably raised spirits in Bethlehem.
“We are celebrating Christmas this year in a very much different way than last year,” Palestinian Authority Tourism Minister Rula Maayah said. “We’re celebrating Christmas with pilgrims coming from all over the world.”
Throughout the day, hundreds of people strolled through Manger Square for Christmas Eve celebrations. Marching bands pounding on drums and playing bagpipes paraded through the area, and foreign tourists meandered about and snapped selfies with the town’s large Christmas tree behind them.
Cool gray weather, along with an occasional rain shower, did little to dampen spirits, though many people headed indoors to shops and restaurants to warm up. By nightfall, the crowds had thinned.
Daisy Lucas, a 38-year-old Filipina who works in Israel, said it was a dream come true to mark the holiday in such an important place.
“As a Christian walking in the places in the Bible, it’s so overwhelming,” she said. “This is the birthplace of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, that’s one achievement that’s on my bucket list.”
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, arrived from Jerusalem through a checkpoint in Israel’s West Bank security barrier.
“We are living in very difficult challenges,” he said, noting the war in Ukraine and a recent wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. “But the message of Christmas is a message of peace.”
“It’s possible to change things,” he added. “We will be very clear in what we have to do and what we have to say in order to preserve the importance of unity and reconciliation among all.”
Pizzaballa walked through Manger Square, waving to well-wishers before heading to the Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born. Later, he was to celebrate Midnight Mass.
Present-day reality was visible at Manger Square as banners showing photos of Palestinian terrorist Nasser Abu Hmeid were prominently displayed, days after he died of cancer in an Israeli prison clinic after spending some 20 years behind bars.
Abu Hmeid, 51, was a founding member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terror group, the armed wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party. He had been serving multiple life sentences since 2002, after being convicted in the deaths of seven Israelis during the Palestinians’ Second Intifada, or uprising, against Israel in the early 2000s.
