Christmas 2023: what is the place where Jesus would have been born today?

This 2023, Christmas in Bethlehem, the city where he was born Jesus According to Christian tradition, it will not be the same as previous years.

The spirit of the festival is overshadowed by the bloody reality that Palestine is going through due to the war between the local terrorist group Hamas and Israel, which intensified on October 7.

In Bethlehem, a city of around 30 thousand inhabitants located in the center of the West Bank, there will be no celebrations. Authorities have canceled most holiday events due to the centralized war in Gaza.

No large ornaments, no bright mangers. In the Nativity Squarewhere the main Christmas tree and a human-sized manger once stood, there is now a work of art depicting Mary and Joseph in the rubble behind barbed wire.

Destruction and calls for peace are the infamous protagonists of these 24 and 25 December, which is why it is expected that this Sunday there will not be too many faithful or tourists at the traditional Christmas mass.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballahe stated this Sunday upon his arrival in Bethlehem that “hostilities must end, since violence only generates more violence”.

“The Christmas message is not violence, but peace. We want peace, especially for the Palestinians who have been waiting for it for too long,” he added.

A climate worse than that of covid

The absences are due to security reasons, but also because many Palestinians do not want to celebrate in an atmosphere of death.

During the morning, the inhabitants of Bethlehem, both Christians and Muslims, waved a large Palestinian flag in Manger Square.

“Nobody will come. We opened because it’s Christmas and we had to do it,” she says. Amir Giacaman29 years old, owner of a shop selling nativity scenes and other liturgical art objects.

Giacaman complains of a more marked drop in tourists than during the pandemic: “With covid-19 we have had some bad years, but nothing to do with this“.

The sad reality of the place where Jesus was born

In dialogue with BBC Mundo, Munther Isaacparish priest of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, referred to the current situation with an evocative phrase on the exact place where Jesus was born.

If Jesus were born again in our day”I would do it under the rubble of a house in Gaza“said the Lutheran.

“We want to send a message to the world: this is what Christmas looks like in Gaza and across Palestine. This is Christmas in the place of Jesus’ birth: children murdered, homes destroyed and families displaced,” Isaac concluded.

Beyond the comment about the birth of Jesus in “a house”, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is traditionally cited as the place where the religious leader was born.

Believers claim it was built over the cave, better known as the Bethlehem Gate, where Jesus is believed to have been born.

The situation in Gaza today

The Ministry of Health in Hamas-ruled Gaza announced Sunday that Israel’s bombing and ground incursions into Palestinian territory have caused 20,424 deathsmostly women and minors, since 7 October.

Almost 1,140 people They died on Israeli territory in the unprecedented Hamas attack that triggered the Israeli offensive.

The Israeli army’s bombings also hit churches, where around 1,000 Palestinian Christians have taken refuge.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem denounced last week the death of a mother and her daughter due to gunfire fired by the Israeli army in the only Catholic church in Gaza City.

Main source: AFP/BBC