What I found at Christianitys holiest sites in war zone during the Christmas season
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — I discovered first-hand what it’s like to be surrounded by the eerie silence of Christmas at Christianity’s holiest sites during the Mideast war.I set out earlier this month to cover the state of Israel’s conflict as talk of a cease-fire agreement in Gaza began gaining momentum just as the Christmas season started.I hoped to take a break from the war along the way to share the stories of Christians making their pilgrimages to the Holy Land.But when I arrived at the holiest sites where Jesus was born, preached, died – from Bethlehem and Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem — the only Christian I found was myself.The discovery was yet another sobering reminder of the ongoing war in the region, but it also served to reinforce the hope of the season: peace on earth.Ancient Bethlehem lies in the West Bank, in an area where the Israeli government bans its citizens from entering.
To visit, you cross a checkpoint manned by Israel Defense Force soldiers pointing rifles at all who enter in case a terrorist attack should break out.Immediately upon entering, music indicating Muslim prayer time blast from speakers across town.On the run-down streets that could come from a scene in the Disney movie “Aladdin,” paintings of young Palestinian “martyrs” carrying AK-47s remind visitors of the nonstop religious war in Israel.While hatred for Jewish Israelis in Bethlehem is evident, the town thrives off the dollars of Christian tourists who once poured into the town by the millions.
But since Israel’s war with Hamas in the West Bank broke out after the terror group’s Oct.7, 2023, massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis on the other side of the country, tourism is just a fraction of what it had been.
Where the city saw about 2 million tourists a year before the conflict, officials estimate only about 100,000 visitors came to the holy city in 2024.Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally.
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