Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, have been canceled again this year due to war in Gaza, and the thousands of tourists and pilgrims who would normally fill Manger Square are nowhere to be found.
The famous Christmas tree, usually in the middle of the square, is not there. There are no carols or Christmas market stands.
Israel’s war against Hamas has been raging for nearly 15 months, and there is still no end in sight. Repeated ceasefire efforts have stalled.
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, the mostly Palestinian population of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank is in mourning, too.
Tourism in Bethlehem has plummeted for Christmas
Since the war began, tourism to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank has plummeted. And after Israel barred entry to most of the 150,000 Palestinians in the West Bank who had jobs in Israel, the Palestinian economy contracted by 25 percent in the past year.
The yearly Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem—shared among Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox denominations—are usually major boons for the city, where tourism accounts for 70 percent of its annual income. But the streets are empty this season.
The number of visitors to the city plunged from a pre-COVID high of around 2 million visitors per year in 2019 to fewer than 100,000 visitors in 2024, Jiries Qumsiyeh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian tourism ministry said per the Associated Press.
According to the Christmas story, Mary was forced to give birth to Jesus in a stable because there was no room at the inn. Today, nearly all of Bethlehem’s 5,500 hotel rooms are empty.
The city’s hotel occupancy rate has plunged from around 80 percent in early 2023 to around 3 percent today, said Elias Al Arja, the head of the Bethlehem Hoteliers Association. At his own hotel, the Bethlehem Hotel, he said he has laid off a staff of more than 120 people and retains just five employees.
Families leave Bethlehem
Almost 500 families have left Bethlehem in the past year, Mayor Anton Salman told the Associated Press. And those are just the families who moved abroad with official residency visas. Many others have moved abroad on temporary tourist visas and are working illegally, and it’s unclear if they will return, Salman said.
Canceling Christmas festivities is one way to draw attention to the difficult situation in Bethlehem and across the Palestinian territories, said Salman. “This year we want to show the world that the Palestinian people are still suffering and they haven’t the joy that everybody else in the world having,” said Salman.
Christians are a small percentage of the population. There are about 182,000 in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department.
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