Fr Rami Asakrieh OFM, parish priest of St Catherine’s Church in Bethlehem with Tolay Zahiah in her family home in Bethlehem. The parish has been helping many local families. Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS The town of Christ’s humble birth would normally be packed with pilgrims at this time of year, but coronavirus has put an end to that, writes Jason Osborne
So many of the most beautiful Christmas carols conjure up idyllic images of Bethlem at that first Christmas. Each year we sing about that “little town” where “above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by”. This year, Bethlehem is quiet. The Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs Bethlehem under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords has imposed strict restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.
The city would normally be packed with pilgrims from all around the world visiting the Church of the Nativity where Christ was born. Though Christians are now a small minority in the city, Christmas was always the most important celebration. This year the Christmas tree stands in Manger Square, but the restaurants and bars where pilgrims would’ve once had their Christmas lunch lie empty.
Most Christian families in Bethlehem rely on pilgrims. Many work in hotels, souvenir shops or make olivewood products that are bought by tourists from all over the world. Many have been without income since early March.
The Christians of this area have tried to make a living, it’s a poor area we don’t have any natural resources”
The Mayor of Bethlehem – a Christian – estimates that 800 families have been left without any income. He said that 67 hotels, 230 souvenir shops, 127 restaurants and 250 handcraft workshops have been forced to close in a city that is economically dependent on pilgrims.
Sr Bridget Tighe is an Irish nun who heads up the Church’s welfare agency in the Holy Land, Caritas Jerusalem. The Church is at the forefront of trying to look after people.
Speaking from Jerusalem this week, Sr Bridget told The Irish Catholic “I talked to one of our staff who lives in Bethlehem…what they’re saying is that of course people are poor and there’s no income and all of that that we know about. But, for Christmas they will get a lot of help through the churches, through local organisations.
“It’ll be a very different Christmas – it’ll be just Palestinians in Bethlehem,” she said, rather than the thousands of pilgrims who would normally make the city their temporary home at Christmas.
David Tabash is a Christian shopkeeper who sells beautiful olivewood nativity sets and other religious items from his family store in Bethlehem. He says that local people miss the presence of the pilgrims and the solidarity in brings. “There’s normally tens of thousands attending the lighting of the [Christmas] tree beside the Nativity Church…but this year it was empty,” he said of the December 4 event.
“As Christians, we’re a minority. Of four million Palestinians, there are 40,000 Christians and about 80% of these work in tourism, in shops, hotels, olivewood workshops,” he said.
“We’re the worst-affected and we’ll be the slowest to heal,” he says of the Christian community. However, while he is devastated by the consequences of the pandemic and the lockdown his faith is strong. “God is good. We keep praying”.
He is conscious that the Church is working hard to ensure that people do not go without. “The priests’ phone is ringing all day with requests for food, medicine, clothes,” he says.
Nabil Hazboun is a Christian guide who will be familiar to anyone who has participated on a pilgrimage organised by The Irish Catholic. “The situation as Christmas approaches is really terrible. Bethlehem relies on pilgrims all over the year, there are some seasons when the number of pilgrims is less but many would come at Christmas.
“The Christians of this area have tried to make a living, it’s a poor area we don’t have any natural resources. We tried to make small things for the Christians that visit the Holy Land. Souvenir stores have developed, employing lots of Christian people inside them, and the products are locally-made by the Christian community, and all of them are closed now and they have to send home the workers,” Mr Hazboun explains.
One of those Christians who runs a shop is Louis Michel – a man who has so much love for Ireland that he has named his shop on Milk Grotto Street The St Patrick Store’ and there is a large Irish tricolour outside. Mr Michel’s interactions with Irish pilgrims over the years mean that he has even picked up a cúpla focal and is ready to greet visitors in Irish and share a local Taybeh beer with them. He says for the Christians of Bethlehem Covid-19 “has caused a huge lack of pilgrims so quickly and unexpectantly for the Christians in Bethlehem”.
Mr Hazboun is also hopeful for a brighter future but is putting his trust firmly in God”
Christians in Bethlehem are united in their trust in God. “Our Christian faith has helped us a lot,” Mr Michel says, “it makes us closer to God and we continue to pray with deep faith during this difficult time as we cannot guess when it will go away – this virus”.
Khader Hadweh runs a restaurant and bar along with his brother Osama in Manger Square. Both Christians, they would normally be preparing for their busiest time of year feeding hungry travellers.
“It should be the best month of the year [December]. But this year I don’t think so. Because it’s lockdown, there’s no tourists. It will be totally different this year,” he says. Asked if he is hopeful, Mr Hadweh is downbeat. “Kind of, but not that much,” he says.
Sr Bridget says that Christian families will make the most of the situation. “Families will come together, they will celebrate Christmas, they will have gifts for the children. The churches help a lot – they get food coupons and all kinds of things…if there are really poor families who cannot afford many gifts for their children, these organisations buy gifts for the children and they dress up as Santa Claus and they knock on the door and give them gifts.
“So Christmas will not be dismal for them,” she says.
Sr Bridgeyt insists that “It will be hopeful and it will be joyful and it’ll be family-based, but it will be so different from other Christmases. And of course, the reality is there’s no income.”
Mr Michel says that Christmas for families will be “full of happiness and fun. Happiness because we are going to pray in the church, that the Christian family will join together for prayer in the church,” he said.
“My hope is everything. I hope businesses will return as before and especially in our town of Bethlehem – 85% of the income comes from tourism,” Mr Michel says.
Mr Hazboun is also hopeful for a brighter future but is putting his trust firmly in God. “My message to the world is to have hope in our Creator, in our God, in Jesus Christ. Once you have this faith inside yourself you can see light at the end of the tunnel,” he says.
Additional reporting by Chai Brady and Ruadhán Jones