Christian communities in Palestine have announced the cancelation of Christmas celebrations, including the lighting of the Christmas tree in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Prophet Esa (as), due to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The heads of the main Christian churches, including Bishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, have decided to cancel the festive aspects of Christmas, including festivals, celebrations and decorating and lighting Christmas trees, while preserving the religious dimensions of the holiday.
Although the Christmas tree will not be lit in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there are initiatives in some churches to light a tree in the colours of the Palestinian flag or with titles bearing “Justice and Peace.”
Instead of a Christmas tree, Palestinians in Bethlehem have built an artwork comprised of barbed wire and decorations made from debris symbolising the destruction in Gaza near the Church of the Nativity, built on a cave where Prophet Esa (as) is believed to have been born.
In the city, the streets have not been decorated with lights as in previous years and the Christmas tree in front of the Church of the Nativity is not illuminated. While the courtyard of the Church of the Nativity is filled with visitors every year, this year it is almost empty.
Christians represent a small percentage of the population in Gaza, with about 1,000 living in the besieged coastal enclave, the majority of whom are Greek Orthodox, while a much smaller percentage are Roman Catholics, Baptists and other Protestant denominations, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
A bigger Christian population lives in the West Bank while most Palestinian Christians live in the diaspora having been dispossessed by Israel over the last 100 years.
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Since October 7 grief and desperation have overtaken the Gaza Strip in a season that is usually marked by merriment, as Israel continues its unrelenting attacks on the besieged enclave, where one Palestinian Christian Ibrahim Al-Amash summarised the sombre situation by saying: “There is no holiday spirit here in Gaza.”
During the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, a large number of Christians in the Strip have been killed and injured by Israeli airstrikes and direct shooting operations by the Israeli army.
“At the beginning of the war, we took refuge in the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza City, but the church was targeted by Israeli warplanes which resulted in the killing and injuring of a large number of people,” Amash, 45, told Anadolu Agency.
“There is no safe place for Christians or Muslims here in Gaza,” he said. Amash expressed the “fear of genocide” saying: “There are new massacres every day. I have lost many relatives and friends to this war. I have never witnessed destruction of this magnitude before in my life. This is the most vicious war I have ever witnessed. I don’t know what to say. There are dead people everywhere.”
He explained that the Christian community is very small in Gaza.
“In this war, we are threatened with annihilation by Israeli bombing. As the birthday of Jesus Christ approaches, the hearts of the Christians in Gaza and the rest of Palestine are nowhere around the holiday spirit,” said Amash, stressing that “even if the bombing stops, we will not celebrate, we will only pray for the end of the war, for peace, so that people can return to their homes.”
An Israeli sniper recently killed a mother and her daughter and injured seven others in the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, said the local Latin Catholic Church authority.
The incident was deplored by Pope Francis, who suggested that Israel was using “terrorism” tactics in Gaza.
This is not the first incident in which Christian places of worship were targeted.
The Israeli army targeted on October 21 the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza, which is the oldest Orthodox church in the city, killing at least 18 Christians, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The army also targeted the Orthodox Cultural Centre in the Rimal neighbourhood in southwestern Gaza City, which led to the destruction of large parts of the centre.
British MP Layla Moran said in a statement on X last Friday that some of her relatives were among the 300 victims trapped in the Catholic Church in Gaza City.
“My family in the Catholic Church in Gaza city are reporting white phosphorous and gunfire into their compound,” said Moran.
“Soldiers are at the gates and there was a fire when they hit one of the (already dysfunctional) generators. There is no water left. There are 300 people there. We don’t know why this is happening. Are they going to be expelled from a church just days before Christmas??!” she added.
SOURCE: AA
