Palestinians hope first Christmas tree lighting ceremony in three years will encourage tourists to return to the city, which has been undergoing a severe economic crisis.
Between Israel’s genocidal war on people in Gaza and near-daily Israeli assaults on Bethlehem and other cities across the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have endured great suffering over the past two years. They have had little to celebrate, and for the past years, all public Christmas celebrations were cancelled.
But Saturday brought a glimmer of hope to the crowds who gathered in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, outside of the Church of the Nativity, to watch the Christmas tree there be lit for the first time since 2022.
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The lighting of the Christmas tree “was really some cheer that everybody needed”, said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Bethlehem.
“I haven’t seen the square filled in quite a long time, and it was filled to the brim. Families were here, dignitaries, people who came from across the occupied West Bank and even Palestinian citizens of Israel.”
Bethlehem’s Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are “usually a lot rowdier and a lot more cheerful with dances and songs”, said Odeh.
However, this year’s two-hour celebrations were “subdued”, with “only hymns and prayers for peace”, she added.
Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, is also suffering from a severe economic crisis, with many businesses that have been around for generations forced to shut their doors due to severe Israeli restrictions that cut it off from the rest of the world.
“Members of the family have moved to other countries just to keep living and support the others here. Of course, you can’t cover high expenses, high rent,” business owner Jack Gaccaman told Al Jazeera.
Hotels like Bethlehem’s Manger Hotel, just a few steps from the Nativity Church, have had very few guests for two years.
Some of them are just scraping by thanks to the occasional customer.
“Otherwise, here, it will be a disaster. When you abandon a car for two years, it will not work again. And this is what we did,” hotel owner Fares Banak told Al Jazeera.
Unemployment and poverty have risen across the occupied West Bank during the last two years.
“Unemployment is at 34 percent and the number of people living under the poverty line has increased. More than 40 percent are struggling to survive,” Samir Hazboun, a representative of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, told Al Jazeera.
Bethlehem has also suffered from a historic drop in tourism.
According to the city’s Chamber of Commerce, Bethlehem experienced a 90 percent drop in its number of visitors compared with two years ago. It adds that, during this period, the city lost $1.5m a day.
At least Palestine boasts a long Christmas season – marking the significant date of December 25 for Western Christians and January 6 and 7 for Armenian and Eastern Orthodox Christians, respectively – finally culminating in the tree coming down on January 20.
Despite this year’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony being more subdued than in the past, Odeh said Palestinians in Bethlehem see it “as an opportunity to – on the one hand – give their kids some joy, but on the other tell the world that Bethlehem is open and ready to receive them” in the hopes of “breathing some life into their strangled economy”.
