2023-12-25 14:07:00
An unusual silence fell on the streets of Zababdeh, a Palestinian village that is home to one of the largest Christian communities in the occupied West Bank. Gaza at war in everyone’s minds, Christmas has lost its magic this year.
Ordinarily, Palestinian Christians from surrounding towns would have rushed to enjoy the fairy lights and the village fair of 5,000 souls.
But as war rages in the Gaza Strip and violence continues to mount in the West Bank, the surrounding Christian community is in no mood to celebrate Christmas on Monday.
“How can we celebrate it?” asks Nazrira Yousef Doueibes, 76 years old. The old lady who has lived all her life in her small village has never experienced such a dark atmosphere.
No Christmas tree, no joy at home. “People don’t feel celebrating. They have lost friends and relatives in Gaza,” confides Ms. Doueibes. “The occupation (Israel) is destroying Jenin and children are being brutally killed.”
Very early Monday, AFP journalists heard gunshots and sirens ringing out in Jenin, a bastion of resistance against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank since 1967.
More than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and settler attacks in the West Bank since October 7 and the start of the war between Hamas and Israel, according to Palestinian officials.
The Israeli army claims to target “terrorists”, but many of the dead are civilians, assures the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
This war was triggered after the bloody attack carried out by Hamas commandos on Israeli soil, leaving around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, shelling the Gaza Strip, where more than 20,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the Hamas government.
Bankrupt business
The almost daily violence in the West Bank has repercussions on the livelihoods of residents.
In the deserted streets of Zababdeh where you can hear footsteps clicking on the pavement, Gabi Khadar’s decoration shop is full of unsold items: garlands, Christmas baubles and more than 20 plastic trees.
In debt, this 55-year-old Anglican Christian does not know how he will be able to pay his rent.
Willy-nilly, the merchant reduced his family’s Christmas spending. “My 16-year-old son understands,” he assures. “He told me he didn’t need new sneakers for Christmas. He could make do with the old ones.”
If the heart is not in celebration in the villages of the West Bank, Christmas masses still took place to mark unity within the community.
At the Church of the Visitation, hundreds of Palestinian Christians chanted prayers with one voice while scents of incense rose from the Holy Place.
They are “devastated” by the war in the Gaza Strip, explains Father Elias Tabban who celebrated the Christmas mass.
A woman from Zababdeh lost her two sisters, their husbands and their children after an explosion in an Orthodox church in Gaza, the priest said, adding that the faithful live in fear that their village will one day be reached by violence.
“Everyone asks: ‘When is it our turn?’,” says Father Tabban. But for the man of the Church, Christmas above all offers an opportunity to gather around Palestinians in need and to pray for an end to the violence. “We need peace more than ever.”
25/12/2023 1:05:22 p.m. – Zababdeh (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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