Old City, occupied East Jerusalem – In the Christian Quarter, it doesn’t look quite a bit like Christmas this 12 months.
There are nearly no lights, no decorations and no Christmas bushes.
During a standard December, the aged limestone streets and alleys are brightly lit and bustling with pilgrims and locals alike, accompanied by Christmas carols from close by outlets.
On these silent nights and days, the streets are largely empty.
“It doesn’t even feel like Christmas,” mentioned Christo, a soft-spoken Palestinian shopkeeper from inside his Christian memento store stocked with lovely spiritual clothes whereas angelic music performs within the background.
Even COVID-19’s financial devastation and the second Intifada’s blood-curdling violence didn’t have an effect on Christmas celebrations in Jerusalem to such a level. Many Palestinian Christians say this Christmas in Jerusalem is unprecedented for a way devoid it’s of Christmas pleasure.
“In the first and second Intifada, we had some difficult times,” mentioned Bishop Emeritus of the Lutheran Church Munib Younan, 73, sitting subsequent to a winter hearth. “But it was completely different. Because we put up the [Christmas] bushes. We needed to carry pleasure within the occasions of difficulties. But now you see youngsters [in Gaza] who don’t have any dwelling, who’re hungry.
“To put [up] a tree is expressing a kind of joy,” mentioned Bishop Younan. “And now is a time of sorrow. If you lose a member of your family, in our custom, you don’t put [up] a tree at that time. You concentrate that time on prayers.”
On November 10, the heads of the church buildings in Jerusalem launched a joint declaration “to stand strong with those facing such afflictions by this year foregoing any unnecessarily festive activities”, calling as a substitute to “advocate, pray and contribute generously” for the victims of the continued conflict.
Subsequently, all Christmas-related actions outdoors of prayer, whether or not it’s the annual Christmas market close to the New Gate or vacation events and gatherings, have been cancelled. This Christmas, most households are making do with consuming a easy meal and attending Mass.
“Every Christmas, we gather as a family with our parents, children, grandchildren – [this year], we don’t feel like doing this,” mentioned Anton Asfar, secretary-general of Caritas Jerusalem, a Catholic aid, growth and social companies organisation, at his workplace. “We feel like we are doing something privileged, because others are suffering.”
In Gabi Hani’s dwelling within the Old City, they put up a Christmas tree in personal, “for the boys to at least have the meaning of Christmas for them”, he mentioned. Hani’s three boys are aged 10, 9 and 5.
“The real psychological damage is not on me,” he mentioned. “It is for the kids that ask too many questions: ‘Is Hamas bad? Is Israel bad? Are Palestinians bad? The children are innocent. Why are they being killed? Which rocket is stronger?’
“I try to be diplomatic with my boys, not teaching hatred for the Israelis, for Jewish people. I try to say both sides should be better,” mentioned Hani, who owns the Versavee Restaurant close to Jaffa Gate – now closed. “It is difficult to teach my son these kinds of bitter realities at Christmas time.”
Glimmers of life within the streets of the Christian Quarter this Christmas seem for about half an hour within the afternoon when faculties end. All directly, the silence is damaged by college students in class uniforms scurrying alongside the limestone alleyways, the random Santa hat poking out among the many buzzing youngsters.
But throughout the Christian faculties in Jerusalem – a bedrock of schooling for Palestinian youngsters in Jerusalem for Christians and Muslims alike – there are few indicators this 12 months that it’s Christmas.
At the College des Freres faculty at New Gate, Principal Brother Daoud Kassabry mentioned there aren’t any Christmas bushes in lecture rooms or decorations of their workplace as there normally could be. The solely signal of Christmas is a Nativity scene they put up in entrance of the church. “The young children, five, six years old – they are asking us where are our gifts for Christmas, because we had no gifts for them this year,” mentioned Brother Kassabry.
A rising financial disaster
After enduring weeks of faculty closures at the beginning of the conflict, the Christian faculties system in Jerusalem is going through financial pressures as mother and father wrestle to pay for tuition. Unemployment has risen sharply for the reason that begin of the conflict with crippling motion restrictions and a near-total shutdown of tourism.
While faculties have tried to accommodate households’ declining financial circumstances – dividing faculty charges into smaller funds or foregoing them altogether for these in want – the monetary prospects for fogeys and, subsequently, faculties are worsening.
“Without a change, the educational system will collapse sooner or later,” warned Asfar of Caritas.
With the vacationers and pilgrims gone and native households shedding revenue, most companies within the Christian Quarter stay shuttered. Unable to make sustainable margins, Gabi Hani closed his Versavee Restaurant close to Jaffa Gate through the first week of the conflict, leaving his 15 employees members out of labor.
The shopkeepers, in the meantime, have utterly misplaced out on their most profitable tourism season main as much as Christmas.
“During the high season of November and October, you make a great amount of money that will support you through the whole year,” mentioned Christo of his memento store within the Christian Quarter.
But this season, “the streets are empty, so usually I don’t open at all”, mentioned Christo. “I’m simply attempting to open as a result of we’re attempting to outlive. But as you’ll be able to see, there’s no work in any respect.
“It’s sad when you see Jerusalem like this,” he continued. “It’s like we are besieged.”
For some, the financial want has reached alarming ranges in costly Jerusalem.
“We are approached by people who end up with nothing to eat in the middle of the month,” mentioned Asfar of Caritas, the aid organisation. “People are knocking on our doors just begging to pay their bills, buy bread, the most basic needs. They don’t want to beg for money. They want to work. They want to live in dignity.”
‘At a loss to comprehend attacks’
Many Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem are loath to obtain anybody’s pity whereas they watch the dying and destruction unfolding in Gaza. Among the 20,000 Palestinians killed, at the very least 24 Palestinian Christians have been killed in Gaza, the place fewer than 1,000 Christians stay.
In October, Israeli shelling of St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, the place lots of of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering, killed 18 Christian Palestinians and destroyed a part of the Twelfth-century constructing.
On December 16, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem mentioned an Israeli sniper had shot and killed a Christian mom and daughter, Nahida Anton and Samar Anton, “in cold blood”, contained in the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, the place most Christian households have sought refuge for the reason that conflict began.
The Latin Patriarchate, which relies on the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, mentioned seven others had been shot and wounded through the assault, which additionally destroyed water tanks and photo voltaic panels essential for the survival of households sheltered there.
The patriarchate’s assertion added {that a} missile fired from an Israeli tank focused the adjoining Convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa in Gaza City, dwelling to 54 severely disabled adults and kids, and destroyed the constructing’s generator and gas sources. Two extra missiles concentrating on the convent had rendered it “uninhabitable”, the patriarchate mentioned, displacing the disabled folks sheltering there, a few of whom at the moment are with out life-saving respirators.
The Israeli military has denied the declare.
Pope Francis has publicly condemned the killings and the Latin Patriarchate mentioned it was “at a loss to comprehend how such an attack could be carried out, even more so as the whole Church prepares for Christmas”.
Father Firas Abedrabbo, 39, who serves within the Roman Catholic Parish of the Annunciation in Ein Arik, advised Al Jazeera he had met Nahida and Samar many occasions whereas visiting Gaza with the Latin Patriarch in previous years to spend Christmas there with native parishioners.
“When you know the person personally, the pain is doubled,” mentioned Father Firas. “Don’t convince me that these two older ladies were dangerous for the national security of Israel when they were just passing in the courtyard of their church to go to the toilet.”
Back on the Caritas workplace, Asfar mentioned two of the organisation’s employees members in Gaza have been killed for the reason that begin of the conflict. Viola Amash, a 26-year-old lab technician, was killed in St Porphyrius alongside along with her husband, toddler daughter, sister, brother-in-law and her sister’s youngsters. In a separate rocket strike, one other employees member was killed alongside along with his whole household, sparing solely his three-year-old daughter.
An image of Viola now sits in a body behind the entrance desk. Asfar, a normally jovial man with a signature chuckle, has held a number of help classes for workers members “to help get them out of this trauma, because they keep crying,” he defined gravely.
With the complete surviving Christian neighborhood in Gaza displaced – and plenty of of their properties destroyed or broken – the idea is rising amongst church officers like Bishop Younan that, following this conflict, all of the Christians left in Gaza will to migrate from the Holy Land.
“I’ve received many, many calls from [Christians in] Gaza who are waiting for visas,” mentioned Brother Kassabry of College des Freres. “They want visas to Canada, Europe, anywhere.”
Meanwhile, church leaders and neighborhood members communicate with rising alarm relating to the Christian presence in Jerusalem, which now numbers fewer than 20,000.
“Many families say that they don’t feel the future is safe for their children,” mentioned Brother Kassabry.
Already dealing with separate identification techniques and motion restrictions earlier than the conflict – and now watching family members in Gaza be killed and displaced – Christian networks throughout the Holy Land are below pressure and are more and more remoted from each other.
Israeli settler assaults alongside roads within the West Bank maintain many Palestinians from travelling in any respect. The quite a few closures of metropolis entrances imply a journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem – only a few kilometres aside – includes a visit of at the very least 40 kilometres by street, with hours-long waits at navy checkpoints.
In the Old City itself, native Palestinian Christians mentioned they’re avoiding pointless journeys because of the aggressive Israeli safety presence within the Old City and the remainder of East Jerusalem.
‘I fear Christmas is losing its spirit’
Christo commutes from the neighbourhood of Beit Hanina to open his memento store in Jerusalem’s Old City, passing via Damascus Gate the place border police are stationed. Before the conflict, Christo wouldn’t be checked typically by them. “Now, daily, whenever you pass – khalas, because you’re Arab, you’re going to get fully checked,” mentioned Christo, who wears a big, golden cross round his neck.
“And it’s terrible. Humiliating. Sometimes I don’t want to come back to the Old City.”
In one occasion, a soldier stopped to offer him a full physique test simply two metres away from the place he had already been checked moments earlier than. “He saw I was just checked,” he mentioned. “It’s like he’s trying to make you angry to cause some problems.”
Schools have reported to the church buildings that college students within the Old City have had their faculty baggage checked by safety forces on their method to faculty, in search of curriculum supplies they disapprove of, together with photographs of the Palestinian flag.
Under this financial, political, social and high-security environment, the Christian neighborhood, which now contains lower than two p.c of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, feels extra in danger than ever. “Lots of people are thinking of [leaving], even myself,” admitted Hani. “I am not leaving here, not me, not my family. But yes, it occurred in my head.”
Enduring this moribund Christmas season – which comes amid rising violence and harassment in the direction of native Christians, particularly since Israel’s far-right authorities gained energy final 12 months – most Palestinian Christians declare their intention to remain, nonetheless. The church buildings of Jerusalem have labored collectively at a degree not sometimes seen prior to now, regularly releasing joint statements to sentence rounds of violence since October 7.
Their Christmas message, launched on December 21, drew parallels between the delivery of Jesus and the present scenario. “The Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph had difficulty finding a place for their son’s birth. There was the killing of children. There was military occupation. And there was the Holy Family becoming displaced as refugees,” mentioned the assertion.
“Nevertheless, in the midst of such sin and sorrow, the Angel appeared to the shepherds announcing a message of hope and joy for all the world,” the assertion continued.
For native Palestinians, moments of Christmas spirit this 12 months are fleeting. “When you go to the church or light a candle or even just navigate through the Old City streets, you can see something to smile at,” mentioned Christo. “But whenever you see the children of Gaza on the TV, or you see poverty everywhere, or people led to starvation, that will demolish all the joy inside of you.”
Amid such unimaginable struggling, the query persists: has Christmas turn out to be a casualty, too?
“I fear Christmas is losing its spirit in the Holy Land, and this is catastrophic,” mentioned Asfar. “Because that spirit is peace. And when you lose that spirit, this means that you don’t have hope.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/23/in-jerusalems-christian-quarter-it-doesnt-even-feel-like?traffic_source=rss
