Worst Christmas: Bethlehem tourism plummets amid Israel-Hamas conflict

Tourism has plummeted in the Israeli-occupied West Bank's Bethlehem this Christmas season, leaving businesses struggling to keep their doors open as the Israel-Hamas war enters a third month.

Walking through the empty corridors of Bethlehem's Alexander Hotel, second-generation owner Joey Canavati opens doors to vacant rooms. "All empty. All rooms are completely empty," the 34-year-old says.

Before the outbreak of the war in early October, the hotel was overbooked with tourists and pilgrims visiting Bethlehem for Christmas. 

"There was no room in the Inn in Bethlehem," Canavati says, referencing the Christian religion's founding story of Christ's birth in the town. But for Canavati, every single guest has canceled, forcing the family to close the doors of the family-run hotel and lay off 15 of its employees.

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"Everybody lives from tourism here in Bethlehem, and when everything is shut down, the whole city, the whole country is shut down. It's unbelievable. This is the worst Christmas ever," Canavati says.

The Church of Nativity, the traditional place of Jesus' birth, during the Christmas period would normally see queues of tourists and pilgrims at its door, but this year there were few people seen outside.

There will be no Christmas tree in Manger Square as the city will see pared down festivities, with only religious rituals to be observed in the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Two weeks from Christmas, souvenir shops around the plaza were shuttered, but the owners of The Nativity Store said they would keep their doors open despite a scarcity of customers.

"To open the store every day it gives us also power, hope for the future," said Rony Tabash, whose grandfather opened the store in 1927. "We don't want to lose hope because we want a good hope for our future for our children."

Across the square sits Restaurant Afteem, which was opened in 1948 after the Saliba family fled Jaffa during the Nakba, or 'catastrophe' – when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced during Israel's founding.

Fourth generation co-owner, Ala'a Salameh, 42, said the falafel restaurant was serving no more than 10-15 percent of the usual diners and only remained open so their workers could afford to "feed their families."

"So it's not that I like to make money, just to stay alive," Salameh said from inside the restaurant as local residents ate, "and then we are praying for peace... Bethlehem is the city where peace was born, so it should be the messenger for peace to be spread all over the world."

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