As Christmas nears, decorations spill across the world, including Christmas trees, lights, Santa Clauses, and, of course, nativity scenes depicting Jesus Christ’s birth. While many no longer celebrate the holiday’s religious aspects, for those who do, the story displayed in nativity scenes is a familiar tale closely associated with the Christmas season.
The story goes like this: Mary is visited by an angel and is told she will carry the son of God. She is a virgin, hence the name the Virgin Mary. Then, presumably, nine months later, Mary and her new husband, Joseph, travel to Bethlehem,Where they find there is no room in the inn for them to stay, leading to baby Jesus being born in a manger among the cattle and hay.  While it can be debated if the story is true or not, the celebrated city featured in many homes during the Christmas season is a very real place. The city of Bethlehem, believed to have been founded in 1400 BCE, is currently a part of the West Bank in the state of Palestine, though under Israeli military control.
This Christmas time, stories about the birth of Christ are spread once again, and families celebrate this joyful holiday. The city of Bethlehem sits in a world of uncertainty and fear.
Since the most recent conflict between Israel and the Palestine-based militant group Hamas began following an attack on October 8th, 2023, Israel has waged war on Palestine in an attempt to eradicate the group. According to Human Rights Watch, “More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals in Israel and, as of January 4, 2024, more than 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since October 7, 2023,”
While the West Bank is not a prime focus of the assault, it has its crisis.
An international organization focused on human rights called Amnesty International said, “Since the occupation first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement, and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights.”
Palestine has a long and complicated history, sitting on land that is considered holy in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam; conflict over said land makes up its history. The conflict that has led to the modern-day tragedy, however, comes in the era of WWII as Jewish immigration sees a steep increase. This increase led to the rise of the zionist movement to establish a national Jewish homeland in Palestine. A movement that would ultimately succeed.
Israel was built on modern-day colonization following the tragedy of the Jewish genocide that should have never happened, but it does not justify the atrocities that it continues to commit. Palestinians live in refugee camps because Israel has stolen their land, and despite several UN resolutions for a two-state system, Israel has continued to take more and more of what was deemed Palestine. All of this displacement and all of these refugee camps lead back to the Nakba.
On the official United Nations page in a document titled The Question of Palestine, it says,” The Nakba, which means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.”
The UN continued to explain, “As early as December 1948, the UN General Assembly called for refugee return, property restitution and compensation [resolution 194 (II)]. However, 75 years later, despite countless UN resolutions, the rights of the Palestinians continue to be denied. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), more than 5 million Palestine refugees are scattered throughout the Middle East.
Today, Palestinians continue to be dispossessed and displaced by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation, and home demolitions.”
The refugees in the West Bank are trapped, crowded, and denied the right to their homes. Israel controls what goes in and what goes out of the area, keeping Palestinians trapped in a land with scarce resources.
Arabic news site Aljazeera reported,“In refugee camps, overcrowding and poor infrastructure exacerbate the difficulties faced by families whose homes exist often outside of living memory. Israel’s separation barrier, which has fenced in much of the West Bank since construction began in 2002, limits Palestinians’ access to resources and work.”
This Christmas, as Christians put out nativity scenes and holiday celebrations begin, remember those in Palestine. Remember that if Jesus was alive today and born in the city of Bethlehem, chances are he would either live in a refugee camp with little food in the West Bank or be facing the blood, bodies, and bombings in Gaza.