While the ceasefire continues, Christmas has returned to its place of birth after the Christmas tree in Bethlehem was decorated for the first time since 2022.
However, while thousands celebrate the holidays in Bethlehem, Israel continues its raids across the West Bank and people still die in Gaza. Still, thousands gathered in Manger Square to celebrate the holidays. In previous years, the city cancelled the Christmas festivities out of respect for the thousands of people killed in Israel’s genocide on Gaza.
As reported by the New York Times, Manger Square in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem is full of families celebrating the holidays as a giant Christmas tree was lit in the plaza. The tree replaces a nativity scene used during the ongoing war showing baby Jesus amid rubble and barbed wire, symbolizing the devastation in Gaza, placed there by the Evangelical Lutheran Pastor, Rev. Munther Isaac.
Christmas is not a Western story – it is a Palestinian one.
“This Christmas, our invitation to the global church — and to Western Christians in particular — is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live. If the…
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) December 24, 2025
The holiday celebrations were led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, who traveled to Bethlehem from Jerusalem traditional Christmas procession, while calling for “a Christmas full of light.”
During the celebration, scout bands from across the West Bank towns marched through the streets, their bagpipes draped with tartan and Palestinian flags. Palestinian Christians performed the traditional Palestinian dance known as dabke, wearing Christmas hats.
Meanwhile, since the start of the Gaza “war” Israel has carried out regular raids across the West Bank, arresting thousands of Palestinians and restricting movement between towns. According to Palestinians, the intensified military presence, with its checkpoint delays and road closures, have the effect of paralyzing the tourism sector on which Bethlehem’s economy depends.
Explaining our Chirstmas manger on the rubble. “If Jesus were born today, he would be born in Gaza under the rubble.” Christmas in Bethlehem pic.twitter.com/qGeqj29HiC
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) December 7, 2023
This Christmas, the vast majority of those celebrating were local residents, with only few foreign visitors there to celebrate. Due to the genocidal war on Gaza, unemployment in Bethlehem has surged from 14 percent to 65 percent, according to Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati. Meanwhile, with the economy badly hit, around 4,000 residents left Bethlehem in search of work.
While holiday celebrations return to Bethlehem, the IDF continues its raids and military incursions across the occupied West Bank, despite a fragile “ceasefire” in Gaza which started in October and has seen Israeli forces violating the so-called peace.
Palestinian Christians perform the dabke (Traditional Palestinian dance) for Christmas in Bethlehem. pic.twitter.com/K3T4xC3fEO
— Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) December 24, 2025
Meanwhile, it isn’t just the IDF, as attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians continue at a new record level since the UN humanitarian office started recording data in 2006. The lawless settler attacks include killings, destruction of property, attacks on Palestinian livestock and beatings, often with the protection of the IDF.
According to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, more than 570 Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, under police protection. Local Palestinians note that these incursions violate the longstanding status quo governing Islam’s third-holiest site.
In ongoing action, Israel’s security cabinet has signed off plans to formalize 19 illegal settlements across the West Bank, which Palestinian officials say deepens a decades-long practice of land theft. Meanwhile, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries condemned this new move on Wednesday.
“We call on Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements,” said a joint statement released by the UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.
“We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but also risk fuelling instability.”
