Posted on 12/24/2023 5:35:45 PM PST by KingofZion
There will be no musical festivities. No tree-lighting ceremony. No extravagant decorations that normally bedeck the West Bank city of Bethlehem at Christmas. With the war in Gaza raging, this is a city in mourning.
In perhaps the most overt display of how Israel’s war in Gaza has dampened Christmas celebrations in the city seen as the birthplace of Jesus, a Lutheran church put up its crèche, but with a sad and symbolic twist. The baby Jesus — wrapped in a keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered scarf that has become a badge of Palestinian identity — is lying not in a makeshift cradle of hay and wood. Instead, he lies among the rubble of broken bricks, stones and tiles that represent so much of Gaza’s destruction.
“We’ve been glued to our screens, seeing children pulled from under the rubble day after day. We’re broken by these images,” said the Rev. Munther Isaac, the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church who created the crèche. “God is under the rubble in Gaza, this is where we find God right now.”
The war began on Oct. 7, in response to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel that left about 1,200 dead.
*** Last month, the patriarchs and heads of various churches in Jerusalem in a statement urged their congregations to forgo “unnecessarily festive activities.” Instead, the statement said, priests and worshipers should “focus more on the spiritual meaning of Christmas in their pastoral activities and liturgical celebrations.”
Local Christian leaders say there are about 35,000 Christians in the Bethlehem area. The symbolism of Christmas is part of the soul of the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
10/7 criminals have to be demon-possessed
God is a Hamas terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer?
I guess I never would have guessed that.
Satan and subhuman vermin are under the rubble.
Absolutely. Soulless.
Yours may be.
Mine is alive and well and tomorrow we celebrate His birth.
Marry Christmas.
I think I see a pattern of thought, how Leftist kids are
raised and how the evil global players are always pitied,
when they have to face the music.
Yep
I am rooting for the IDF over Christmas in Bethlehem. Merry Christmas everyone.
Yara Bayoumy is the National Security Editor for the NY Times
Then, in Galilee, some miles east of Nazareth, lies another older Bethlehem which is not in morning.
It is striking to see organizations run by Jewish people give aid and comfort to the deadly enemies of Israel.
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