Christmas back in Bethlehem. Peace and joy have yet to come

Palestinian Christians are reviving their seasonal public celebrations, hoping to bring light and holiday spirit at the end of a gloomy year in the West Bank

A marching band played carols, a choir sang hymns and the lights adorning a giant evergreen blinked on, as Christmas tentatively returned to Bethlehem’s Manger Square.

For the past two years, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have largely avoided public celebrations of Christmas out of sensitivity to the war in the Gaza Strip. That has meant an absence of the traditional tree-lighting ceremonies, musical performances and elaborate, blindingly illuminated decorations.

With a fragile ceasefire largely holding, Christians in the West Bank, who make up less than 2 per cent of the population there, are trying to revive the holiday spirit.

In Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the streets were adorned with banners in Arabic and English, quoting from the Bible’s Book of Isaiah: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Yet the city’s recent tree-lighting ceremony was a small bright spot at an otherwise sombre moment.

The past year has seen a surge of Israeli extremist settler attacks on Palestinian communities across the West Bank. That reached a record high in October, with 271 attacks, or about eight a day, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Palestinian Affairs, which began keeping records in 2006. Earlier this year, the Israeli government authorised the largest settlement expansion in decades and on Sunday, the Cabinet approved a proposal to authorize 19 more settlements. The United Nations and the International Court of Justice say that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate international law.

In the Bethlehem area, home to one of the largest Christian Palestinian communities, at least 59 Palestinians were injured in settler attacks from the start of the year through November, according to UN data, a figure that is higher than for all of 2024.

Maher Canawati, the city’s mayor, said the recent Christmas event was both a celebration and a statement of hope. “We want peace. We want life,” he said, adding that peace was needed “so we can continue living in our cities and in Palestine.”

Beyond its religious significance, Christmas is important for Bethlehem’s economy. Without the seasonal celebrations, the city’s tourism industry would wither, according to Yousef Handal, 47, a barista at a cafe just off the main square.

“It brings out what the city can offer,” he said. “But I can’t say that the joy of the Christmas spirit is felt.”

That was the mood among many Christian communities in the West Bank this Christmas, amid modest celebrations and muted merrymaking. Many settled for a theme of resilience instead.

“It feels great to be able to see smiles and decorations, and lights up in our streets,” said Yousef Oweis, 23, who was making doughnuts at Ramallah’s Christmas market. “It’s a way the Palestinians say, ‘We are here.’”

In Taybeh, the last all-Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank, community leaders set up a new Christmas market, hoping to replicate the success of the town’s annual Oktoberfest-style beer festival and create an island of light amid the darkness of recent months.

Yet on December 3, the night before the Christmas market opened, Fuad Muaddi, the co-owner of an ecotourism project near Taybeh, said he heard bulldozers on his property. The next morning, Muaddi said, he found a trail leading through his land to a settlers’ outpost. Muaddi filed a complaint with Palestinian authorities. A Palestinian official confirmed that the incident was registered and under review. “We are trying to catch a breath, to be able to go on,” Muaddi said at the opening of the Christmas market.

Later that night, in the eastern part of the village, two cars were set on fire, according to Sanad Sahlieh, an activist who is part of a local group that monitors settler activity.

The Israeli military said that it had sent forces to the area after receiving a report about “several Israeli civilians” setting fire to cars, but that none of the perpetrators were found. Still, the Taybeh market was resplendent with a choir singing songs of peace and vendors selling waffles, shawarma and chocolates. Rene Taye, a school counsellor from Taybeh who lives in Ramallah, said she had returned to her hometown for Christmas, hoping the market would brighten the mood.

“It still feels heavy,” she said, but added that she thought the festivities could lift the spirits of local children, who for years had known only holidays weighed down by politics. “This year they’re able to experience the birth of Christ as a time of joy and a call for continuity.” For two years, the Nativity scene at Taybeh’s Church of Christ the Redeemer showed Jesus lying not on a bed of straw but on a pile of rubble. This year, as a gesture of moving forward, the traditional Nativity is back. “We need to renew our land and our lives,” said Father Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest, in a recent sermon. He called for peace and security in Taybeh, and hoped that people from all over the world could visit the village, “where Jesus was.”

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)