War against the festival of love: In the birthplace of Jesus, the daycare child lies under the rubble

Instead: silence. Mourning. Fury. “We cannot celebrate now when our people in Gaza have to suffer so much,” Michel Awad (44) told Blick on the phone. The Christian from Bethlehem, a suburb of Beit Sahour, runs a small travel agency in the Holy Land and recently opened a small brewery with his brother near the place where Jesus was born. But the taps of the “Christmas beer” remain dry and no tourists come. And the residents of Bethlehem no longer dare to go out at night because of the Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets.

The celebration at the end of the year: For Bethlehem, this is more of a mourning ceremony. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Caritas Children’s Hospital, where babies and children have been receiving medical care since 1978 thanks to Swiss donations.

Pile of rubble instead of a nativity scene

“We have set up a hotline where our team of physicians are trying to help,” said Shireen Khamis, spokeswoman for the children’s hospital. “Shortly after the outbreak of the war it was hardly possible to reach our hospital.” Bethlehem, even in peacetime surrounded on several sides by the nine-meter-high Israeli wall, is closed off from the environment. The journey to the hospital, where the poorest receive free care, has become too long and too dangerous for many.

In 2022, the hospital’s 250 employees treated a total of 47,356 children. The share of those who cannot afford the modest deductible for hospital treatment is likely to rise again this year, says Shireen Khamis. The medication is still sufficient, the finances are still sufficient. “But if the war continues like this for months, things will become tight,” says the Palestinian.

The children’s hospital refrains from Christmas decorations and celebrations. No songs, no decorations, no performances. Only the church service. And this year it is completely different in Bethlehem than usual.

For example, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Pastor Munther Isaac. Instead of a traditional nativity scene, there is a pile of rubble and rubble next to his altar. In the center stands a child Jesus, wrapped in a keffiyeh, the Palestinian scarf.

Bethlehem is threatened with bankruptcy

“As the world celebrates Christmas, children are being murdered, homes destroyed and families displaced in Jesus’ homeland,” writes Pastor Munther Isaac on his X profile. “We cannot celebrate when children are slaughtered.” This year’s nativity scene should be a reminder of all this suffering. And that Jesus himself is there for those who need it most.

Bethlehem, the settlement on the edge of the Palestinian West Bank that has grown to nearly 60,000 residents in recent decades, has seen many difficult Christmas celebrations. During the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Israeli snipers monitored events around the Church of the Nativity. During Covid, the nearly two million international visitors who flock to Bethlehem annually, on whom about three-quarters of the city’s population is financially dependent, were eliminated.

“It was not as difficult as it is now to keep hope,” says travel entrepreneur and brewer Michel Awad. More than 70 hotels had to close temporarily and around 6,000 employees are on the street. ‘The economy is in free fall. Although that is of course nothing compared to the suffering of our people in Gaza,” Bethlehem Mayor Hana Haniyeh told the AP news agency.

“We don’t want to feel alone”

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism estimates the loss to be suffered by the end of the year as a result of the war at hundreds of millions. “The biggest problem is that we don’t know when the tourists will come back,” says Michel Awad. “All the rockets, all the violence ensure that the entire region is perceived as very unsafe. We are hospitable people.”

Bethlehem will hold a midnight mass in the large Church of the Nativity. A silent celebration to pray for peace. And Shireen Khamis of the Children’s Hospital in Bethlehem asks something else: “Please don’t forget us.”