Al Jazeera, a Muslim-owned news organization with a strong bias, says "Palestinians hope the first Christmas tree lighting ceremony in three years will encourage tourists to return to the city, which has been undergoing a severe economic crisis."
It says "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 have been cancelled."
But now, they say, there's a "glimmer of hope."
Upon what do they base their hope?
Be informed, not misled.
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 be lit for the first time since 2022.
Al Jazeera says:
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.
“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.
When you abandon the Boy Child in the manger, now grown, resurrected, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, a lot of things don't work.
The Times of Israel has a different take on Bethlehem, but the bottom line is the same: Money.
Tourism and religious pilgrims have long been a prime economic engine for Bethlehem. Around 80 percent of the Muslim-majority city’s residents live off it, according to the local government.
Those earnings ripple out to communities across the West Bank, a territory long marked by economic precarity.
Too much room in the inn.
“When we have 10,000 visitors and pilgrims sleeping in Bethlehem, that means the butcher is working, the supermarket is working, and everybody is working,” said Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati. “There’s a ripple effect.”
Still, he expressed cautious hope on Saturday as children ran through packs of street vendors and a mix of Christmas and Arabic music floated over the crowds.
Mr. Montas, a local painter, said, “This [celebration] is not just for us. It’s for everyone. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim.”
“This Christmas is for everyone.”
The New York Post noted that “We’re very happy to have the tree, first thing, and to see foreigners in Bethlehem and to be able to celebrate Christmas in its true spirits,” local jewelry designer Nadya Hazboun told the BBC.
“This is where it all started, so this is where we can send the message to the world of what really Christmas should be about.”
There is also something else happening in Bethlehem.
Via CBN:
In Bethlehem, the city known as the birthplace of Jesus, there's something else to celebrate this Christmas. The Nativity Encounter is a new project designed to share the story of Jesus with those who live where the story began.
As Christmas Day approaches, volunteers from the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem are welcoming visitors into what organizers call the Nativity Encounter, a walk-through journey bringing the story of Jesus' birth to life.
What's different about this project, though, is its focus. The encounter isn't just for the thousands who visit each year; it's for those who live here year-round
Pastor Steven Khoury of First Baptist told CBN News, "The demographics of Bethlehem changed quite a bit. About a 22 to 23-year period. We saw Christianity in Bethlehem go from being the majority, close to 80% and 20% Muslim population to today, 22 to 23 years later, depending, completely swapped."
Khoury added, "The good thing is, we discovered that the Muslim population in Bethlehem is very open. So we see and know there’s opportunity."
That means the story of the Shepherd's Field, where angels first announced the Messiah's birth, and the very identity of Christ's birthplace, remains largely unknown among the city's population.
A Muslim woman who lives in Bethlehem told us, "Now, there are many things we didn't know, for example, the birth of Christ – we frankly didn't have that background that one knows. So, we learned so many things, and honestly, the kids also saw them. I mean, we hadn't even left the tent yet, and the kids started asking: 'Mom, what is this? Mom, what is this?'"
Pastor Khoury explained that the vision for the nativity encounter came during a ministry trip, where he saw an openness to the gospel.
"I'm in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world," he recalled. "I see they're building bridges between a Muslim and a Christian community. Came back to Bethlehem, the birth(place) of Jesus Christ, where I live, I minister. And we said, 'Why can't we do the same thing to help bring Jesus into the eyes and the hearts of both the Muslims and the Jews in Israel in a creative way? 98.7% of the country will never set foot inside of a church. Well, what do we do to bring Jesus creatively?'"
Pastor Khoury's wife, Sherry, noted, "Let's tell the story, and to tell the story through the perspective of someone who had a personal encounter, not just in the activity that you see, but something you feel in your heart."
Together, Steven and Sherry began shaping a bold and timely idea: a biblically accurate and immersive journey through the Christmas story.
Sherry observed, "This whole encounter really needs to come from the shepherd's perspective, because the shepherd is someone that represents someone humble in life. Someone you know could be maybe be cast to the margins of society. And there are a lot of young people in the Arab community, especially the Christian Arab community, that maybe feel marginalized."
For many locals, this is changing how they see their own hometown and its importance.
One volunteer stated, "There's like a lot of reactions because there's, like, so many different kids coming through...younger kids, older kids. But I will say their main reactions are very, like, shocked because they weren't expecting to go through and experience what they experienced."
A young boy described what others his age would see in the encounter. "I felt a feeling of joy and peace because I was seeing Bethlehem, approximately 2000 years ago, and I felt how the shepherds were 2000 years ago, and how the Christmas story happened with them, and how Jesus came," he said.
Organizers say the nativity encounter is opening new doors into local schools, with students coming onto the field.
Pastor Khoury told us, “One of the things that's new this year is we have, roughly, one thousand students from all of the different K-12 schools going through our Nativity Encounters. And this is something new. You know, it allows us to sow a very impressionable seed into their lives at a very early and impressionable age.”
Takeaway
In a place where Jesus is celebrated globally yet often forgotten locally, this project reminds people that the story of Jesus began right here in their town and changed the world.
O little town of Bethlehem is alive and well, and telling its story---the greatest story ever told.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Hopeful. Be Joyful. Be Prayerful.