Bethlehem, West Bank — For the past two Christmases, John Juka’s family restaurant has looked like any Bethlehem business: shuttered and eerily empty.
Note: Video from a previous report.
But on Saturday evening, the city was bustling with families and lit up with strings of red lights, a hopeful change in a Palestinian city that has been reeling since the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Christmas celebrations are slowly returning to the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
While the ceasefire remains fragile in Gaza, Palestinians hope the celebrations will be a step towards a more peaceful future in a region rocked by tragedy.
“It’s not like it was before the war,” said 30-year-old Goka. “But it seems like life is coming back.”
The Muslim-majority city booms at Christmas
Tourism and religious pilgrims have long been the main economic drivers of Bethlehem. About 80% of the Muslim-majority city’s population lives there, according to the local government.
These profits are passed on to communities throughout the West Bank, a region that has long been characterized by economic instability.
Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Kanawati said: “When we have 10,000 visitors and pilgrims sleeping in Bethlehem, this means that the butcher is working, the supermarket is working, and everyone is working.” “There’s a ripple effect.”
This economic lifeline disappeared when war broke out in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Bethlehem authorities canceled major Christmas celebrations during the Israeli retaliatory attack on Gaza, in which the Ministry of Health reported that more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army has intensified its operations in the West Bank, including communities near Bethlehem.
The city’s mayor said that the city’s unemployment rate jumped from 14% to 65%. Poverty rates rose, and about 4,000 people left the country in search of work.
A United Nations report last month said the West Bank was experiencing the most severe economic contraction ever, citing ongoing Israeli military operations.
Now the residents of Bethlehem are seeking to return.
“The decision we have made is to reignite the spirit of Christmas and ignite hope,” the city’s mayor said. “I think this sends a great message to the whole world that we Palestinians love life and are eagerly looking forward to a peaceful solution.”
Some tourists are coming back
Crowds lined with heavily armed police cheered on Saturday after prayers calling for peace and parents hoisted their children on their shoulders as a towering Christmas tree lit up Manger Square, near the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
For families like the Gokas who struggled to keep their businesses afloat during the war, the sight of the crowds was a deep breath after years of uncertainty.
The family opened the restaurant serving traditional Palestinian cuisine in 1979. With many businesses in Bethlehem faltering during the recent war, the family wondered how long they could last.
In August, as ceasefire negotiations gained momentum, Joka said he began seeing visitors walking the streets, and his family decided to reopen their doors. “Finally, tourists feel safe to return,” he said. “We hope to see peace in our future.”
Kanawati said that tourist visits to the city reached their highest levels in November since the start of the war, and reservations indicate that hotels will have an occupancy rate of about 70% during Christmas.
However, only a few foreign tourists were among the hundreds who gathered in Bethlehem Square, and residents said the celebrations were no longer as big as they used to be.
Tensions in the West Bank
Issa Montas (29 years old), a resident of the West Bank, said that the tensions in the region cast a shadow on the celebration of the holiday.
While Bethlehem has long been a religious haven of relative calm, violence and military raids regularly occur nearby. The Israeli army said it was taking strict measures against activists in the West Bank and responding to any aggression.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that its forces shot dead two Palestinian men who it said tried to run over soldiers with their vehicle at a security checkpoint in Hebron, south of Bethlehem. Palestinian health authorities confirmed the death of at least one person.
Military checkpoints have turned movements into sometimes one-day endeavors. Montas, who paints houses in Jerusalem for a living, said he traveled six hours from his home in Ramallah, less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, just to get to Bethlehem.
Meanwhile, Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have reached their highest levels since the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs began collecting data in 2006, peaking in recent months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is dominated by far-right supporters of the settlement movement, said that the perpetrators of the attack were “a bunch of extremists.”
Montas spoke frustrated. He said of the settlers: “I see a lot of violence, but no one can stop it, not even the Israeli army or police can control it. They allow them to do it.” “It’s as if everything I say will be useless because no one cares.”
Still, he expressed cautious hope on Saturday, as children ran between groups of street vendors and a mix of Christmas and Arabic music floated above the crowds.
“This (celebration) is not just for us. It is for everyone. Christians, Jews and Muslims,” Montas said. “This Christmas is for everyone.”
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