Christmas celebrations cancelled in Bethlehem: Jesus’ birthplace

Churches in Bethlehem announced on Sunday the cancellation of Christmas celebrations in the Palestinian city where Jesus was born.

The Church of Nativity in the West Bank would usually be bustling with tourists and pilgrims from all over the world.

However, none of this scenery will be present this year as Israel attacks the Palestinian people.

Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, said in the announcement that the “Christmas story is a Palestinian story.”

“It talks about a family from Nazareth who is forced by the Roman Empire to evacuate from the North of Palestine that is Nazareth to the South that is Bethlehem,” he explained.

“Jesus was born to a displaced family… He was born in a manger,” he added.

Raheb also related King Herod’s order of killing children in Bethlehem to the 8,000 Palestinian children Israel killed in five weeks.

“The weeping that is heard today in Gaza resembles very much the weeping that was heard in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.”

The West is celebrating Christmas as they gather around their ornamental trees at home, while they call for the wiping out of Jesus’ birthplace.

The Israeli occupation forces have been committing atrocious war crimes supported by people who claim calling for world peace.