According to Reuters news agency, hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops in Bethlehem are deserted these days, the city is empty.
The news has been dominated since October 7 by Hamas attacks in southern Israel. Then came the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, and the escalating violence in the West Bank. Bethlehem business owners reckoned: no one would dare come here again.
“We are dead. No one is staying,” said Joey Canavati, owner of the Alexander Hotel.
This is the saddest Christmas ever. Bethlehem is closed for Christmas. No Christmas tree, no joy, no Christmas spirit, said the hotel owner whose family has lived and worked in Bethlehem for four generations.
Souvenir shops around Manger Square in Bethlehem are closed - Photo: REUTERS
Located just south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem's main source of income depends on tourists from around the world coming to see the Church of the Nativity, where Catholics believe Jesus was born.
Mr. Canavati asserted that his hotel was fully booked for Christmas before October 7. Since the conflict began, everything has gone wrong overnight, including reservations for 2024.
He cited empty rooms and a silent dining room to Reuters reporters.
“We used to have at least 120 people eating here every night, it was very crowded. The noise, people walking around. Now it’s empty. No Christmas breakfast, no Christmas dinner, no Christmas buffet, no sound,” Mr. Canavati said.
Bethlehem's Manger Square, a large paved area in front of the Church of the Nativity that is usually the center of Christmas celebrations, is now deserted. Most of the souvenir shops are closed.
The Christmas shop, opened by the Tabash family in 1927 and now run by the third generation of Tabash sons in Bethlehem - Photo: REUTERS
Rony Tabash sells crosses, statues of the Virgin Mary and other religious items in his family's shop. Now he just sweeps the shelves to kill time.
“There have been no pilgrims or tourists here for almost two months,” he lamented, adding that he kept the shop open as a way to forget the despair. “We want to feel that things will return, like normal life,” he said.
Fourth-generation co-owner of Afteem restaurant, Ala'a Salameh, 42, places food on a table inside the restaurant in Bethlehem - Photo: REUTERS
Ala'a Salameh, owner of the Afteem falafel restaurant, said his business was down to 10-15% of what it used to be, catering mainly to local Palestinian families, rather than the usual number of foreign tourists.
“We pray for peace. Bethlehem is the city where peace was born, so it must be a messenger for peace to spread throughout the world,” Mr. Salameh expressed his wish.
