NABLUS, West Bank — In the best of times, or even in just normal times, or even in just normally tense times, Christmas is an especially festive season in the West Bank, where thousands of Palestinian Muslims and Christians join pilgrims to visit the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem.
But this year, violence and upheaval have overwhelmed the holiday season, making it difficult to offer public expressions of cheer across the West Bank. The Rev. Simon Hijazeen of St. Justin’s Latin Church in Nablus did not decorate his church and parish home in colorful lights this year. It was clear why: His neighbor’s daughter, Maram Hasouna, 19, was killed trying to stab Israeli soldiers. Her family members hung a large banner with her picture from their apartment building, just down the street from the church. “They are our neighbors and we are sympathetic to their grief,” Father Hijazeen said.
The singular nod of the tiny Christian community in Nablus to the season was to raise a large tree, decorated with shiny baubles and topped with a Palestinian flag, in the middle of a traffic intersection in the northern West Bank city.
Palestinian Christians this year are dimming their festivities amid a grim mood as the West Bank lurches through an uprising that has seen attacks and violent demonstrations. Palestinians using knives, guns and vehicles have killed 19 Israelis, an American student and a Palestinian resident of the West Bank over the past three months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed during the same period, about two-thirds of them in carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks. Others were killed during violent clashes with Israeli forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and demonstrations along the Gaza border.
On Thursday, Israeli forces killed three young Palestinian men who they said were trying to carry out attacks. In one episode, a Palestinian tried to ram his vehicle into soldiers near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, lightly wounding a man before he was shot dead. Another tried to stab a soldier with a screwdriver at a checkpoint. Another Palestinian stabbed a man and woman in the Jewish settlement of Ariel, wounding both, officials said, before he was shot.
The decision to tone down Christmas was the initiative of Christian leaders in different towns, to show solidarity with their fellow Palestinians, residents said. Christian leaders said they asked their parish members not to honk their cars in traffic-blocking processions. (Arabs traditionally organize noisy convoys for celebratory events.) They asked for no fireworks. And definitely, “no Santa,” Father Hijazeen said firmly.
“It’s not a plot to deny Christians from celebrating,” said Bernard Sabella, a Palestinian Christian legislator and associate professor of sociology at Al Quds Open University. But, he added: “We are living in very tense times.” Others fulminated against the decision, saying that the Christian minority constantly felt obliged to show its allegiance in a society that is becoming more conservative and more Islamic.
“We worry that somebody will criticize us,” said Abir Hanna, 50, the principal of St. Joseph Latin Patriarchate School in Nablus. “We are sensitive to this kind of thing, maybe because we are a minority.”
Christians make up an estimated 1 percent to 2 percent of the West Bank’s 2.7 million Palestinians, though their numbers have been shrinking for at least a century because of low birthrates and decades of high emigration. Some residents of the West Bank, Christian and Muslim, have complained that Christian leaders are overreacting.
In Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government, Christian leaders decided there would be no tree, and no decorations on the streets. “Are they worried that ISIS will come and get us?” snapped one Christian greengrocer. “It’s just wrong; they shouldn’t have done it,” said Jane Hawash, 48, of the Christian village of Beit Sahour, who said it set a worrying precedent.
It was a “political message to the world,” said Ramallah’s mayor, Musa Hadid, a Christian, defending the decision that he said was meant to highlight “the conditions faced by the Palestinians, as a result of the current situation imposed by Israel’s occupation.” Not everyone complied. Upscale shops and those around Ramallah’s old quarter, home to many Christians, still decorated their shops with tinsel, green wreaths, plastic Santa Clauses and played piped Arabic Christmas music.
In Bethlehem, red and white lights blanketed the cobblestone area around the Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus. Nearby, the municipality raised an enormous tree with shimmering lights on Dec. 5, but like other Palestinian cities, refrained from fireworks. “Instead of the fireworks, we rang the bells of the Nativity Church,” said Vera Baboun, the mayor of Bethlehem. “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,” she said, “from the city of peace that lives without peace.”
It was the correct decision to tone down celebrations, said Akram Shahin, the father of Malek, 19, who was killed on Dec. 8 during an Israeli raid of the nearby Dheisheh refugee camp, a tightly packed ghetto with twisting, narrow alleyways.
“Nobody is asking Christians to not celebrate Christmas,” Mr. Shahin said. “That is their right. But parties, marching bands, fireworks — it was all inappropriate.”
“How can you be happy when I am sad?” he asked, sitting near a poster announcing his son’s death. “If you don’t feel what I am feeling, then you aren’t a part of this people.” Still, ignoring a request to not have the traditional marching band, troops of boisterous scouts marched through Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, as they traditionally do for Christmas, blowing on trumpets, banging drums and waving the national flag.
The toned-down Christmas added to Bethlehem’s existing woes. The high concrete walls of Israel’s separation barrier, covered in graffiti and black stains from gasoline bombs, hem the town in on three sides, stripping away lands and constricting movement. Tourists must use a specific Israeli checkpoint to enter. On a recent night, around a dozen motorists waited about an hour at the checkpoint for their turn to pass, as two soldiers rifled through their vehicles, even questioning one resident as to why he had purchased a Santa Claus outfit.
On a recent cold, damp night in Bethlehem leading up to Christmas, there were a handful of foreign tourists, who appeared outnumbered by journalists and hawkers selling Santa hats emblazoned with “2016” in flashing lights. A few dozen Palestinians milled about the square. Among them was a group of 19-year-old women, all studying physics at the nearby Bethlehem University, decked in long coats, bright head scarves and snapping selfies.
It was kind of lame this year, the women said, but said it could only be thus, with the situation so volatile across the West Bank.
Still, said Aya, “There are kids who should be happy. They should have smiles drawn on their faces.” Her friend interjected: “People should be celebrating.”
Aya paused. “Yes, but perhaps without all the outward decoration this year.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/world/middleeast/israel-palestinian-christians-bethlehem.html?ref=world
