Christmas Eve celebrated in Bethlehem
Festivities lift spirits after difficult year
BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Several thousand Christian pilgrims on Wednesday flocked to the biblical town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations at the traditional birthplace of Jesus, lifting spirits after a year of conflict and failed peace efforts.
The central Manger Square was decked out in white and yellow lights and a towering Christmas tree.
Scout troops played bagpipes, horns and drums, and bands from around the world performed on a stage, singing Christmas carols and original Christmas rock ballads, mostly in English. A recording of “Feliz Navidad” blasted through the speakers, too.
A Palestinian host welcomed members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community, who were permitted to cross through Israel to the West Bank, eliciting whistles and applause.
“My son and I and my husband came for Christmas to see, you know, be right here where it all took place,” said Irene Adkins, 63, from Lorain, Ohio, as she sat in a Bethlehem visitors center. “It feels wonderful.”
The celebrations brought a boost of holiday cheer to the area after a difficult year. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed last spring, and Israel battled Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during a 50-day war over the summer. Elsewhere in the region, the Middle East’s dwindling Christian community has suffered persecution at the hands of Islamic State extremists.
For residents of the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, an independent state is as elusive as ever. The Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto that Christians believe is the site of Jesus’ birth, was flanked by the towering Christmas tree and a large poster in Arabic and English that read “All I want for Christmas is justice.”
“Our message this Christmas is a message of peace like every year, but what we added this year is that all we want from Christmas is justice. Justice for our people, justice for our case and the right to live like all other people in the world in our independent state without the occupation,” said Palestinian Tourism Minister Rula Maayah.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, led a procession from his Jerusalem headquarters into Bethlehem, passing through Israel’s concrete separation barrier, which surrounds much of the town.
In his homily at Midnight Mass, Twal called for Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land to “live together as equals with mutual respect,” according to a translation by his office.