Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem’s Manger Square on Christmas Eve as families heralded a much-needed boost of holiday spirit. The giant Christmas tree that was absent during the Israel-Gaza war returned on Wednesday.
The city where Christians believe Jesus was born had cancelled Christmas celebrations for the past two years. Manger Square instead had featured a nativity scene of baby Jesus surrounded by rubble and barbed wire in homage to the situation in Gaza.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, kicked off this year’s celebrations during the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, calling for “a Christmas full of light”.
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Arriving in Manger Square, Pizzaballa said he came bearing greetings from Gaza’s tiny Christian community, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday. In the devastation, he saw a desire to rebuild.
“We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,” he told thousands of people, Christian and Muslim.
Despite the holiday cheer, the impact of the war in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is acute, especially in Bethlehem, where around 80 per cent of the Muslim-majority city’s residents depend upon tourism-related businesses, according to the local government.