The city of Bethlehem will not celebrate Christmas’s impending birth on December 25, in contrast to other Christian believers throughout the world.
Being the historical birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem, a Palestinian town in the West Bank located 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem, is crucial to the Christian narrative.
Every year on December 25, people commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, which occurred in 350 CE.
Bishop William Shomali, the General Vicar and Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem, explained that the Israel-Gaza conflict was the reason behind the decision to postpone the Bethlehem Christmas celebration, according to the Mail Guardian. To quote him:
“How can we celebrate Christmas when thousands of Palestinians got killed and injured and thousands of houses were destroyed in Gaza?”
According to an NPR article, Christian denomination leaders in Palestine met in November to deliberate on the cancelation collectively, citing the devastating war in Gaza that began on October 7.
On October 7, surprise air, sea, and land strikes against Israel were spearheaded by the Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
