DISPATCH FROM BETHLEHEM
Christmas cancelled in Bethlehem as town mourns
Christ’s birthplace is usually full of foreign visitors for the festive season, but public celebrations were called off in solidarity with those suffering in Gaza
Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is usually bustling with pilgrims at this time of year
MAJA HITIJ/GETTY
A cold coming they had of it. Down the narrow lanes of old Bethlehem, along an unlit, unthronged Star Street, the scout troop walked in silence, holding up signs calling for an end to war in place of joyful carols and bagpipe tunes.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, led the silent procession through Checkpoint 300 into Bethlehem, a Palestinian keffiyeh slung atop his rich red robes.
On Christmas Eve, Bethlehem should be a place of life, light and song, bustling with foreign pilgrims joining local Palestinian Christians to celebrate the coming of Jesus to the world.
Christmas Eve celebrations in Manger Square, Bethlehem, in 2022
HAZEM BADER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
This year the midnight Mass which the patriarch had come to lead was the only sign that it was Christmas in Bethlehem at all, where festive
