Around the world, people are singing joyous carols celebrating the birthplace of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago – but few realize that his life story and the cradle of Christianity lies in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. 

However, the Christmas spirit is absent this year in the Holy Land as the Gaza Strip lies in ruins and the West Bank has been ravaged by conflict and Israeli bombardment.

Many of the 1,000 Palestinian Christians in Gaza have lost their homes or been killed alongside their muslim neighbors – and that's led to senior church authorities toning down the annual celebrations to mark the birth of Christ, in the land where he was born.

In early December, Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem asked Christians in the Holy Land to refrain from "unnecessarily festive" Christmas activities "due to the thousands killed – and in prayer for peace," said its president, pastor Munir Kakish. "We will only hold traditional services and devotionals on the meaning of Christmas."

The Catholic churches in Galilee followed suit, as did the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land. Municipal authorities in the West Bank city also decided to cancel all public festivities. 

Father Ibrahim Faltas, a senior Franciscan friar, said a Christmas in the shadow of the Gaza conflict will go on "without the fanfare and without too many lights" – even in the town where Christ was born. 

"We have never seen Bethlehem like this, not even during the time of COVID," he said. "The town is empty, sad."

In happier times, a huge Christmas tree would be erected in Nativity Square, where the church holds religious services and festive events attracting Christians from around the planet.

But as people elsewhere put on their Christmas lights, Bethlehem will not decorate the Manger Square tree – for the first time since modern celebrations began.

Christians in the Holy Land: A brief history 

It's all too easy to oversimplify the situation as a conflict between a Jewish-led Israeli government and the Islamist Hamas group. But the reality is far more complicated in a region that has been the cradle of several major religions – including Christianity.

There are around 185,000 Christians in Israel, of which 80 percent are designated as Arabs, many of them identifying as Palestinian. And in 2009, there were thought to be 50,000 Christians living in the Palestinian territories – mostly in the West Bank, around Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with around 3,000 in Gaza. 

By last year, this latter number had dropped to just over 1,000 – and with the conflict claiming lives almost indiscriminately, this number is almost certainly now down into three figures.

Palestinian Christians have not had their misery spared by their religion. Many fear Gaza's ancient Christian community could be completely wiped out by the war. 

On October 20, hundreds of Christians and Muslims were sheltering in the 12th-century Saint Porphyrius church when an Israeli missile brought down part of the complex, killing 18.

The Pope himself, leader of the global Catholic church, has felt obliged to get involved when on December 16, Nahida Boulos Anton and her daughter Samar Antoun were shot dead by an IDF sniper while sheltering inside the grounds of the Holy Family Church - the only Catholic church in Gaza.

"They were shot in cold blood," said a statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic regional body. "One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety." Several others were also shot and wounded as they tried to help.

At his weekly blessing, Pope Francis referred to this statement when he said "I continue to receive very grave and painful news from Gaza," Francis said. 

"Unarmed civilians are the objects of bombings and shootings. And this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns." 

He also referred to the Patriarchate's statement that a convent of nuns, of an order founded by Mother Teresa, being damaged by Israeli tank fire.

"Some would say 'It is war. It is terrorism.' Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,"  Francis said. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson had no immediate comment on the pope's words, saying the incident is under review.

Bethlehem and the West Bank 

Bethlehem is nestled in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and home to as many as 50,000 Palestinian Christians. It is close to Jerusalem and steeped in Christian history – many of the Bible stories are set here or the neighboring towns of Nazareth or Galilee. 

However, since 1967, the West Bank – around 150 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide – has suffered an Israeli occupation and consistent violent land-grabs by illegal Israeli settlers. For decades there have been clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, killing hundreds and displacing thousands as over half a million illegal Israeli settlers have moved in. 

Enormous walls have been erected, dividing up the territory and cutting off the Palestinians from their land and their neighbors. Bethlehem has suffered too, with Israel erecting a wall not unlike the one that once ran through Berlin, Germany. Israel insists the wall is for security against Palestinian political violence – but most Palestinians see it as a symbol of racial segregation and Israeli apartheid.

Triggered by Hamas' October 7 killing and kidnapping spree of more than 1,200 people, the Israeli counter-offensive into Gaza has seen the killing of over 20,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children.

Tensions in the West Bank have also escalated. Many Jewish settlers have seized an opportunity to ramp up violence and land grabs, which the Israeli Defense Force does little to stop. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have been quashing protests in the West Bank, resulting in the death of more than 300 Palestinian residents and the arrest of another 3,500 who will likely spend Christmas behind bars, many held without charge. 

However, for many Christians in the region, the deaths of 20,000 people – many of them children – has been especially gruelling, dampening any appetite for Christmas celebrations.
 

From celebration to mourning

In previous years, December have brought church leaders together in Bethlehem to inaugurate the pre-Christmas Advent season – a major tourist draw and revenue stream for the area. But this year the streets and plazas of the beautiful ancient town are empty and sombre – leaving Franciscan friar Faltas distraught.

"The city is empty, sad – as all the cities in Palestine are sad, along with other cities in the world from what is happening," he said. "We saw how martyrs, how many children, women, the elderly, the people who were martyred in this crazy war." 

Faltas also mourned the loss of traditional pilgrims to Bethlehem at this time of year.

"We were supposed to see the lighting of the tree in Bethlehem," he said. "This used to be a world event, people used to come from around the world to witness the lighting of the tree, and to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, but Bethlehem is sad today due to the war and what is going on in Gaza."

Christian leaders will still hold services over Christmas, but the emphasis will be humanitarian leaning on the traditional Christian love and support for the less fortunate. 

"We will celebrate in sobriety, that means without the fanfare and without too many lights, in the most spiritual way and more in the families than in the square," said Father Francesco Patton, Custodian of the Holy Land.

Solidarity and kinship

The Palestinians' shared pain has encouraged one pastor in Bethlehem to highlight the impact of the war to his church this Christmas by building a nativity scene in a war zone.

"We saw that this grotto is an expression to the meaning of the holiday; the birth of Jesus with the sufferers; Jesus' solidarity with every oppressed person," said Pastor Munther Isaac, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.

"And we said that if Jesus were born today, he would be born in Gaza under the rubble. We see the picture of Jesus in every child under the rubble in Gaza, so this is a letter of solidarity with our people in Gaza and an expression of the meaning of Christmas: God is with the suffering and the oppressed.  

"This year there won't be Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem and in Palestine, and the reason is that it is hard or it is even impossible to celebrate and our people in Gaza are going through a genocide as well as the heinous killing against the people and children of Gaza. The heads of Churches of Jerusalem issued a statement and asked everyone that celebrations this year be limited to prayers and religious rituals."

The pastor has replaced the nativity scene's traditional wooden crib with rubble, saying "This is a letter of solidarity with our people in Gaza."

Those in the West Bank are suffering too. The Palestinian Health Minister said this week that 260 people had been killed and 3,200 wounded in the West Bank during the conflict. 

Residents of all faiths miss the gathering of Christian pilgrims and the traditional Christmas cheer – but as local Nabil Giacaman explained it was not appropriate this year. 

"What makes Bethlehem colorful are pilgrims," said Giacaman. "So when Bethlehem is empty it is sad and of course this time the war against our brothers in Gaza. This war is against us all, we are close to Christmas but we have no mood to celebrate the holidays because of our brothers in Gaza. We say to the world it is enough."

Fellow resident Maher Canawati also mourns for his fellows in Gaza.

"Unfortunately the atmosphere is not so good," he said. "You can see sadness in people's eyes. Also the presence is not as it used to be before the war. Everyone is thinking about how we can do things to help our people in Gaza and to send a cry to the whole world for total ceasefire in Gaza."