Christmas spirit returns to Bethlehem after Gaza ceasefire

Bethlehem, West Bank — At midnight on Christmas Eve, the words of the traditional hymn "The Night of Christmas" will ring out from the grotto of the Church of the Nativity, the site Christians believe Jesus was born. The local lay choir, made up of Catholics, rehearses the refrain: "On the night of Christmas, war is buried, On the night of Christmas, love is born," a line that conductor Joseph Hazboun says carries new meaning as a ceasefire in Gaza holds. "There is always a light and hope is alive," Hazboun said.

After two years of a somber Christmas due to the Gaza war, Bethlehem's streets are filling again. Families are flocking to Manger Square for a Christmas market, festive lights, and music shows for children, signaling that the ceasefire is holding and providing an economic lift. "You can see the town come alive again," said Zoya Thalgia, a Bethlehem resident. "Everyone's happy, everyone’s coming out to celebrate, no matter religion."

Tourism has long been Bethlehem's economic lifeline. About 80% of the Muslim-majority city's residents depend on tourism-related businesses, according to the local government. Yet the Gaza war sent unemployment surging from about 14% to roughly 65%, Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati said earlier this month. In recent years, some churches have staged Nativity scenes that confronted the wounded landscape with rubble and barbed wire as acts of protest.

Even with the ceasefire that began in October, tensions remain high across much of the West Bank. Israel's military has said it is cracking down on militants and conducting frequent raids. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank this year reached their highest level since the U.N. humanitarian office began collecting data in 2006.

Odette Al Sliby, a Bethlehem resident who has sung in choirs since she was seven, said few things compare to singing in the grotto at the midnight Mass. "It’s very holy, the place and the atmosphere and the songs and the words," she said. Singing those songs is a message of hope and a reminder of endurance. "As Christians in the Holy Land, there is a big message of being here," she said.

Christians account for less than 2% of the West Bank’s roughly 3 million residents, a presence that has been shrinking. As poverty and unemployment have soared during the war, about 4,000 people have left Bethlehem in search of work, the mayor said. It’s part of a worrying trend for Christians, who are leaving the region in droves. Across the Middle East, the Christian population has steadily declined as people have fled conflict and attacks. Hazboun said he will pray this Christmas that the Christian population of Bethlehem and of other areas in the region important to Christianity don’t shrink any further. The return of Christmas festivities across the West Bank, including a Christmas market in Ramallah thronged with visitors, is a much-needed break for local children, said Hazboun. While Palestinians in the West Bank are still devastated by the images coming out of Gaza, lighting the community Christmas tree in Bethlehem's Manger Square for the first time in two years earlier this month provided a boost of much-needed holiday joy. "We continue to pray for peace. This is the land of peace, it’s the land where the Prince of Peace was born, and we continue to pray and hope that one day we all will enjoy peace," Hazboun said.