This year, Christmas in Bethlehem will be a private, not public, affair

Christians elsewhere in Mideast also have scaled back their plans for the holiday

Manger Square in Bethlehem, Palestine. Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas; licensed by Unsplash.

The small city of Bethlehem in occupied Palestine relies on tourism as the largest component of its economy and has faced the absence of tourists before because of war, unrest and the covid pandemic. But this year is the first time in modern days that Bethlehem w…