Christmas is cancelled in Bethlehem in solidarity with the people of Gaza

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Christmas is traditionally a boom time in Bethlehem. Crowds of tourists and pilgrims usually throng the streets, keen to visit where Jesus is said to have been born.

This year, however, the roads are empty, the shops shut, and Manger Square, the town’s centre, will be silent. The Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Mary is believed to have laid her firstborn among the animals in the stable, is normally busy with visitors by now. Not this year. One reason is business. Pilgrims from around the world are staying away.

For those who do make the journey, there are far more checkpoints, installed since the attack, to negotiate. But there is more to the decision by the town to cancel Christmas.

Church leaders and the city council decided in November to abandon festive celebrations as a mark of solidarity with the people of Gaza.