Christmas canceled in Bethlehem as churches mourn 20,000+ Palestinians murdered by Zionist Jews in Gaza
In "mourning and honor" of Palestinians killed [by Zionist Israeli Jews, whom the pope calls "terrorists"] in Gaza, the city of Bethlehem in the illegally occupied [by Israelis] West Bank, Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has announced the cancellation of traditional Christmas festivities.
In Bethlehem, DN! is joined by Dar al-Kalima University President Reverend Mitri Raheb. Rev. Raheb relates the story of Jesus, a refugee whose mother had no place to safely give birth, to the plight of displaced Gazans facing a dearth of medical care.
"The Christmas story actually is a Palestinian story, par excellence," he tells DN!, yet "we don't hear the Christian community actually doing much about the atrocity [being carried out by Jewish Israel] in Gaza today."
As the world turns its back on Israel's ongoing genocide, Rev. Rehab says he fears this could be "the end of the Christian presence in Gaza."
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Bethlehem holds sombre vigil for Christmas in shadow of Gaza war | ABS-CBN News
Most years, Bethlehem basks in the central place it holds in the Christian story of Jesus' life, born there in a stable because there was no room for his parents at the inn, and placed in an animal's manger, the humblest of all possible beds.
Some 2,000 years later, Christian pilgrims usually flock to the reputed location of that stable in Bethlehem's Byzantine-era Church of the Nativity, where most Christmases there are joyful displays of lights and trees in Manger Square.
But with Israel's campaign in Gaza having exterminated more than 20,000 Gazans (71% of them children and women) according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, the mostly Palestinian population of Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank (illegally occupied by Israeli Jews stealing land from Palestinians) are in mourning, too.
Hamas says 200 killed in 24 hours of Israeli strikes on Gaza
This year they decided to have no large tree, the usual centerpiece of Bethlehem's Christmas celebrations because of the carnage taking place only 50 km away.
And in place of the usual nativity scene, as Christians call the traditional display of figurines representing the holy family, Bethlehem churches this year placed the models amid rubble and razor wire in solidarity with the victims in Gaza.
Christians make up about 2 percent of the population across Israel and the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Zionist Israeli Jews, according to Protecting Holy Land Christians, a campaign organized by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, with a smaller proportion in Gaza.
(Production: Sinan Abu Mayzer, Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh, Lara Afghani, Hyunyoung Yi)
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