The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, occupied West Bank, has new ideas for Christmas decorations as the season of festivity nears.
Abandoning the conventional Christmas ornaments and Christmas tree decoration, the church has instead created debris symbolising the current destruction in Gaza. A pile of concrete pieces around an olive sapling can be seen in the setup, with a baby doll representing a trapped child under debris in the center.
“While genocide is being committed against our people in Gaza, we cannot celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this year in any way. We don’t feel like celebrating.,” the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem’s pastor Munzir Ishak told Anadolu Agency.
“Our message to ourselves is this: God is with us in this pain. Christ was born in solidarity with those in pain and suffering. God is with the oppressed,” he said.
“Secondly, we wanted to tell churches worldwide: ‘Unfortunately, Christmas in Palestine is like this.’ Whether Christian or Muslim, this is the situation we are going through in Palestine. We are exposed to a genocide war targeting all Palestinians. Unfortunately, when we think of the birth of Baby Christ, we think of the babies brutally killed in Gaza,” he added.
Earlier last month in November, the Christian leadership in Bethlehem announced they will not have Christmas celebrations in the West Bank this year in light of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza which has resulted in killing more than 16,000 people.
In a letter, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have unanimously agreed to cancel the commemoration of Christmas to conform to the spiritual significance of the holiday while Palestinians are being brutally killed by Israeli forces.
City officials in Bethlehem also took down Christmas decorations in solidarity with Palestinians.
