Andrew F. Bush is the director of the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice at Bethlehem Bible College. He is also the pastor of the East Jerusalem International Church in Jerusalem.
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the holy place of Jesus’s birth, is unusually silent these days, save for the thunder of warplanes overhead. Its historic sanctuary is empty in the early morning when I enter to offer a prayer for peace. The small cave on a lower level is the humble space in which the Prince of Peace was born. The pilgrims who typically wait in long lines to descend into this sacred place fled Bethlehem at the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, after the murder of around 1,200 Israelis and the commencement of the bombing of Gaza.
FILE PHOTO: A view shows the deserted area outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, as the conflict wreaks havoc across the tourism sector, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 11, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File PhotoAMMAR AWAD/Reuters
As the war has emptied pilgrimage sites, it also has drained the vitality of daily life in Bethlehem. The tourist shops with carved olive wood and Armenian pottery souvenirs are shuttered, and hotels and restaurants are closed. This is a severe setback for the local economy in Bethlehem, which had just recovered from the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to a shop owner, he told me with tears in his eyes how deeply the loss from war will be felt in small businesses such as his own.
In addition to the loss of the tourist economy, the increasingly frequent closings and agonizingly slow waits at checkpoints on the roads out of Bethlehem – and all the major cities in the West Bank occupied by the Israel Defence Forces – have further restricted local economies. This is in addition to the 10-metre-high wall that encircles three-quarters of Bethlehem, which has restricted travel for most Palestinians since its construction in 2002.
Yet, Palestinian society is noted for sumud or steadfast perseverance. Today, despite the upheaval of war, Bethlehem municipal workers are repairing a mundane median on a main street, laying a new electric line, and planting trees in the freshly turned soil.
The heaviest weight, though, is not economic but rather the sorrow people feel because of the death of nearly 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom are women and children. Numerous residents of Bethlehem have relatives in Gaza. When Palestinians fled their homes during the war in 1948, families were divided, becoming refugees in Gaza and the West Bank. Because of travel restrictions, these separated families are rarely able to visit each other in person. Their separation is keenly felt, sharpened by the uncertainty about who will be the war’s next victims.
During the onslaught of the Israeli attacks, the Palestinian Christians in Gaza sheltered in the historic Holy Family Roman Catholic Church – last weekend, Roman Catholic officials said an Israeli sniper killed a mother and daughter who were sheltering there. Palestinian Christians have also been sheltering in the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox church. When that church was partially destroyed by an Israeli missile, killing 18 Christian women, men and children, it was a terrible blow for their relatives in Bethlehem. Their sorrow is expressed by Rose Murra, one of the Palestinian Christian students at my Bible college, who wrote this prayer to Jesus: “We ask you to be with our people in Gaza, to protect them under their broken homes. Please be with the mothers, fathers, and their children. Our hearts are broken because so many people have died.”
In solidarity with all who are suffering from the war, the churches throughout Palestinian society declared that the Christian community would refrain from public Christmas festivities this year. Christmas is meaningful for Palestinian Christians to express their faith and identity. Forty-foot-high Christmas tree-like structures usually become the focus of public celebrations and Christmas markets. Christian and Muslim families enjoy taking family photos in front of these municipal Christmas trees. This year, Bethlehem’s Manger Square is dark in front of the Church of the Nativity. No Christmas lights twinkle on the public tree display. No church choirs are singing.
Nevertheless, Christians in Bethlehem are trying to rise above the grimness of the season. Recently, a colleague invited me and my wife to enjoy a sumptuous meal of Palestinian dishes with her family, including beef kebabs baked in tahina sauce, chicken spiced with sumac, and seasoned rice. “Let’s celebrate life!” she declared. The strength of resolve to persevere – her sumud – was such an encouragement to us. In the more than 25 years we have served the Palestinian Christian community, their faith and godliness have repeatedly strengthened us in our spiritual journey.
The population of Bethlehem is approximately 22,000. Once the overwhelming majority, Christians now comprise about one in five of the residents. Emigration continues to reduce their presence. A predominant reason for this departure is that families see a bleak future for their children under Israeli occupation. Some have the additional motivation of joining families who have already emigrated. Whereas their minority status in a Muslim-majority society is at times limiting for Palestinian Christians, they live cordially with their Muslim neighbours.
Despite the pull of emigration, many Palestinian Christians intend to stay in the Palestinian Territories. They are committed to having a remnant of the Christian community remaining. Considering themselves as descendants of the first Christians in the Holy Land, they do not want the light of Christian witness, which has shone throughout the centuries, to be extinguished.
Gaza is a different story. There are less than 1,000 Christians in Gaza who live among 2.3 million Muslims. More than half of all houses in the besieged enclave have already been drastically damaged or destroyed. The Christian neighbourhoods are uninhabitable. A considerable number of the Gazan Christian community certainly will be gone as soon as they can emigrate.
If there is something that the Christians in Bethlehem want the church around the world to know, it is that they exist, that their faith is authentic, that they are serving the Lord against all odds, and that they are a vital part of the global church. Bethlehem Christians also would like the wider church to realize that uncritical political support of Israel makes their lives much more difficult. They hope that Christians globally instead will emphasize achieving peace and security for all who live in the war-scarred Holy Land.
The angels declared 2,000 years ago, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem are an example of the kind of faith that could make peace a reality.