{"id":71297,"date":"2025-12-27T00:41:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/71297\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T00:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:41:05","slug":"as-bethlehem-lit-up-again-palestinian-american-christians-reflect-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/71297\/","title":{"rendered":"As Bethlehem lit up again, Palestinian-American Christians reflect on Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, more than two months into what became\u00a0Israel’s<\/a>\u00a0genocide in\u00a0Gaza<\/a>, Reverend Munther Isaac of\u00a0Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church proclaimed that “Christ is under the rubble”.<\/p>\n

The nativity display<\/a>\u00a0next to him, which lasted through 2024, said as much.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The figure of a newborn Jesus Christ, swaddled in a\u00a0Palestinian<\/a>\u00a0keffiyeh, lay in a pile of rubble. No Christmas tree was lit, and the celebrations slated for Christ’s birthplace were cancelled.<\/p>\n

On 10 October 2025, a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in Gaza.<\/p>\n

While there have been nearly 1,000 violations by Israeli forces since then, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, Palestinians have found reprieve from round-the-clock air strikes, and a suffocating blockade of food and medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Bethlehem has turned its Christmas lights back on, and its Palestinian leadership prayed the tourists, with Israel’s permission, would return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, more than two months into what became\u00a0Israel’s\u00a0genocide in\u00a0Gaza, Reverend Munther Isaac of\u00a0Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-71297","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\/71297","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=71297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}