Church bells will ring out in the historic Old City of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, after which the patriarch’s motorcade is set to move slowly to the Biblical birthplace of Jesus.
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The recent violence comes at a time when many Christians travel to Bethlehem, the supposed birthplace of Jesus, for Christmas Eve, making the traditionally joyous celebrations slightly more somber.
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“We met with some Christian pilgrims in Istanbul and they convinced us to celebrate Christmas in the city of Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was born”, said Quane.
“[It was] important to be here, to react and send a message of peace for Christmas”, Italian nun Sister Donatella said, as she walked among a procession of drummers and bagpipe players.
Twal was welcomed by the Latin parish priests and representatives of Bethlehem at the Tomb of Rachel, also known as Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, before making his way to Bethlehem’s main square, where he was greeted by Bethlehem Governor Jebrin al-Bakri, Mayor Vera Baboun and Director of Police ‘Alaa Shibli. What if we could imagine the story of the first Christmas happening today?
The city was quiet on Thursday, although violence raged elsewhere in the West Bank.
Tourism is vital to Bethlehem’s economy, but the downturn this year due to the increased tensions is expected to hit hotel operators, taxi drivers and tour guides hard.
Smaller crowds came out to Bethlehem’s Manger Square to celebrate Christmas Eve, 2015.
“I don’t have a lot of sales”.
It’s a typical scene in Bethlehem’s town square these days, where foreign tourists are conspicuously absent and the vast majority of visitors here are Palestinian families and youngsters.
Celebrating a Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said Christmas was the time to “once more discover who we are”.
Some 60,000 Christians now live in the occupied Palestinian territory, the PLO estimates; while the population of Muslims has grown rapidly in recent decades, that of Christians has remained nearly unchanged.
And a Palestinian was killed during clashes with Israeli forces at a refugee camp in the West Bank, health officials said.
Israeli soldiers inspect the vehicle of a Palestinian, who Israeli army said drove into three Israeli soldiers and a paramilitary border policeman, near the Israeli Tapuach checkpoint south of the West Bank city of Nablus. They omitted to mention that the most immediate threat came from Palestinian terror. “When they stay in Palestine, they can walk in the street in the evening after they finish their schedule, see all the souvenir shops, everything they want and they need, this will help to overcome the problem”.
“You don’t feel there’s Christmas”, he said.
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“It’s very nice. We went to church service earlier, to the mosque”. There’s a nice energy.
