Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem this year are expected to be more muted than ever. Just a few weeks ago, the town where Jesus was born over 2,000 years ago was the scene of heavy fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces. Cratered roads and bullet-ridden walls still testify to the fierceness of the battles. Pictures of dead and wounded residents are plastered everywhere.
The traditional cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian officials to create a safe and pleasant atmosphere for holiday tourists is nowhere to be seen. Public decorations in Manger Square are being kept to a minimum this Christmas, in line with the somber mood. For the first time in many years, foreign choirs are not expected to sing festive carols there on Christmas Eve. Even the traditional midnight mass at nearby St. Catherine’s church will be more subdued than usual, say Roman Catholic officials.
The deep crisis gripping the Lord’s land was illustrated in the annual Christmas message delivered on Thursday by Roman Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah. Although an Arab himself, he heavily criticized both Palestinian and Israeli leaders for leading the region to the brink of full-scale war. The bishop’s strongest words seemed to actually amount to a thinly veiled denunciation of Yasser Arafat’s justification earlier this week of Islamic suicide attacks. Arafat told a gathering of Palestinians in Ramallah on Tuesday that he would “gladly sacrifice 70 martyrs for one dead Israeli.” Bishop Sabbah said, “What we need today in the Holy Land is not leaders who teach us to make war and ask their people to accept sacrifices, including their lives, but leaders who have visions of justice and peace.” But he also denounced Israel, citing a long list of what he termed “continuing injustices in the Holy Land.”
Despite the violence and gloom engulfing the biblical Promised Land this Christmas, a few rays of hope can be spotted in the darkness. Christmas celebrations are planned to go on as usual in at least one place in Bethlehem – the First Baptist Church led by Palestinian pastor Naim Khoury.
Having boldly told Arab militiamen affiliated with Arafat’s PLO Fatah movement that they could not use his premises to shoot at nearby Israeli positions, Pastor Khoury says he is determined to make this Christmas as joyful as possible for the 120 or so families in his growing congregation. This decision is “despite the fact that nearly 90 percent of my people are suffering from unemployment.” He added that many of the breadwinners normally work in the collapsed tourism industry.
Known to both Arab and Jewish believers living in the Holy Land as a man of great integrity and faith, Pastor Khoury said God had recently told him to prepare 300 festive Christmas sacks for the many children in his congregation. He went ahead and did so, even though he had precious little money to purchase presents for the sacks.
While visiting the Jerusalem YMCA earlier this week, Pastor Khoury ran into a couple of visiting Christian acquaintances who used to live on the Mount of Olives above the historic walled Old City. Chris and Craig Keitz of Oklahoma City are among the small band of American pilgrims who have ignored State Department travel warnings and come to the land to celebrate Christmas. They had a special reason for traveling at this troubled time – a desire to bless stressed-out Jewish, Arab and expatriate believers by distributing some of the money that their late father left them in his will.
Without knowing about their secret mission, Pastor Khoury mentioned his nearly empty Christmas sacks. The brothers smiled at each other, as the same thought quickly crossed their minds. They would provide the necessary funds so that he could purchase holiday gifts. Indeed, the grateful pastor said they had given him enough money to buy two weeks worth of food for his struggling families, noting it will be a bright Christmas after all for his needy congregants.
Throughout this difficult year of unprecedented terrorism and death, Pastor Khoury said Christian aid agencies in Jerusalem and believers throughout the land – many of them Israelis – had been sending money to his people. He testified that his grateful congregants had been “blessed by the giving spirit of Christmas all year long.” The fact that their brethren – and their Lord – have not forgotten them gives the Bethlehem residents tremendous hope and courage to carry on, he added, despite the growing gloom all around them.
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