{"id":68660,"date":"2025-12-23T16:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/68660\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:39:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:39:34","slug":"christians-in-bethlehem-face-existential-threat-under-israels-occupation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/68660\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians in Bethlehem face existential threat under Israel&#8217;s occupation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas should be the busiest time of the year for the shopkeepers of Manger Square, but the birthplace of Jesus is now a ghost town.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas has been the beating heart of the Giacaman family\u2019s Bethlehem business for generations.<\/p>\n<p>The Giacamans own Christmas House, one of the main shops on Manger Square selling Nativity figurines, festive ornaments, rosaries, crucifixes and other religious paraphernalia, all ornately carved in their nearby workshop from local olive wood.<\/p>\n<p>But for the past two years, the doors of Christmas House have remained closed, Jack Issa Giacaman told Middle East Eye.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t see anybody around. Unfortunately during the last years\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/countries\/israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Israel<\/a>\u00a0converted Bethlehem to be a big prison,\u201d said Giacaman, who currently manages the company.<\/p>\n<p>Days before Christmas, Manger Square is almost deserted, with only a few locals taking photos of the star-topped Christmas tree decorated in red and gold baubles.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/news\/christmas-christians-bethlehem-existential-threat-israel-occupation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christians in Bethlehem face existential threat under Israel&#8217;s occupation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bethlehem-shops-december-2025-mee.jpg\" width=\"4032\" height=\"3024\" alt=\"Bethlehem closed shops\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    Most shops remained shuttered and padlocked on Manger Square this month, even at what is usually the busiest time of year (MEE)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" role=\"presentation\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP\/\/\/wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==\" title=\"Click and drag to move\" width=\"15\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"15\" role=\"presentation\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP\/\/\/wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==\" title=\"Click and drag to move\" width=\"15\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christmas should be the busiest time of the year for the shopkeepers of Manger Square, but the birthplace&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-68660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}