It took only a few hours on December 6 for residents of Bethlehem to realise Christmas was back. Thousands of people turned up for the tree-lighting ceremony and concert in Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity, which is said to be the site where Jesus was born.
The unexpectedly large number of attendees has built up anticipation for the main events, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. For more than two years, the Gaza war emptied the city of tourists and pilgrims, a void that felt particularly sad during the festive season. The elaborate lights, crowded streets and loud hymns of the tree-lighting ceremony were a sign for many of real hope.
Buoyed by the success of the day, Levon Kalaydjian, who helped to organise the concert, told The National that “everybody was touched, it was something people felt they needed”.
“During the last two years, there were prayers in the church, but nothing felt the same. Even at home, many people didn't decorate a Christmas tree. They didn’t feel that they could celebrate with the war going on,” he said. “Many people here have lost family members and friends, so Christmas cannot be 100 per cent the same, but at least there is hope.”
These mixed feelings are felt across the Holy Land, where Christians are celebrating the festive season with more confidence.
In Jerusalem, Christmas markets dot the city, both in the Palestinian east and Israeli west. In Nazareth, a glittering tree towers above the streets, as in the other cities and towns with Christian populations.
In Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, two Christmas trees stand metres from where Jewish settlers in the summer attacked agricultural land next to a centuries-old church, drawing condemnation from local Christians and even the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a pro-Israel, pro-settler Christian Zionist.
Despite the prominent coverage given to the assault, the Palestinian territory, including its small but important Christian community, faces escalating settler violence.
The most striking example of the fragile hope this Christmas has brought is in Gaza, where a tiny Christian population clings on after two years of deadly war in which many members of the community were killed and injured.
In a grand, decorated reception room of the Vatican’s Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa gave his impressions of his most recent trip to Gaza, which he made at the end of last week.
“What we felt compared to the last time I was there, about six months ago, was the desire to return to life. The atmosphere was completely different … They wanted to celebrate Christmas joyfully,” he said.
“Of course people are still living in tents, in miserable conditions, most schools are still closed, there are problems in the hospitals. All the questions that were put aside these past two years are coming out. What about us? What about the future? What about our children?”
This was a busy year for the Italian cardinal, who has lived in the Holy Land for more than three decades. He was a favourite in the papal conclave. He also made headlines on previous trips to visit Gaza’s Christians, making him a hero for many, ready to take major risks to highlight the plight of Gazans. It also built his reputation as a highly effective diplomat, able to convince Israel to grant him access to Gaza while so many foreign humanitarian workers and all foreign journalists are barred from entering.
He largely avoided answering direct questions about the fragile politics of Gaza today. Despite the ceasefire, the strip still endures regular and deadly Israeli strikes, and US President Donald Trump’s vague plan to rebuild is suspended in ambiguity, waiting for an ill-defined second phase to begin.
“I hope that the Trump plan will continue. I know that it’s not as simple as people think but it’s the only road map we have,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said. “We are convinced that Gaza needs to turn the page and to have a completely different future. The use of violence ... we saw the result it brought. We are against all this.”
He spoke more freely in his role as a member of the clergy, taking lessons this Christmas from the suffering the Holy Land has endured so acutely over the past two years.
“If you look at situation it’s very difficult to talk about hope, but at Christmas we celebrate the meaning of hope. Jesus, when he entered into history, didn’t wait for history to be better, or for the human situation to be favourable, he entered into history as it was. That’s also a lesson for us. You have to enter into life as it is.”
