Bethlehem calls for “visits to Palestine” at Christmas to “heal wounds” after two years of war.
Bethlehem (West Bank), Dec 3 (EFE)
The Bethlehem City Council on Wednesday called for people to “visit Palestine” this Christmas to “heal the wounds,” after two years of a tourism drought caused by the brutal Israeli offensive against Gaza that has killed more than 70,100 Palestinians in retaliation for Hamas attacks.
“This is a Christmas to rekindle hope and the Christmas spirit. It is a time to strengthen the resilience of the people of Bethlehem and to send a message of hope and peace to all the cities in Palestine and to our people in Gaza,” Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati told EFE.
Canawati believes it is essential that the reactivation of tourism goes hand in hand with the arrival of international visitors, especially those who have supported the “Palestinian cause” during these last two years of conflict.
Invitation to “all Spaniards”: “You are heroes”
It was then that the mayor of the city of Bethlehem, which has a large Spanish flag in the famous Manger Square alongside a Palestinian one, did not hesitate to mention the case of Spain, whose Government has publicly referred – and in major international forums – to the Israeli offensive in the Strip as “genocide” and has repeatedly defended the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“You are heroes in this world. You have stood on the side of the Palestinian cause, on the side of justice. We will never forget what you have done for Palestine and for the Palestinian people,” Canawati said.
“We invite all Spaniards to visit us, to come to Bethlehem, to talk to the living stones (the Christians who have lived in Bethlehem for centuries), to interact with them and to walk where Jesus walked, as well as to visit all our holy places,” he added in the Vienna Hall, located in the Bethlehem town hall.
The town hall is located a few meters from the Basilica of the Nativity, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and venerated by Christian tradition as the place where Jesus was born.
“The wounds of Gaza are our wounds”
Minutes before speaking to EFE, the mayor of Bethlehem held a press conference at the town hall, which was followed with great enthusiasm in the area after a two-year hiatus.
Canawati was accompanied by the governor of Bethlehem, Mohammad Abu Alia; the Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Heritage, Hani Al-Hayek; and the director of the Bethlehem Police, Murad Qandah.
With two enormous portraits of the historic leader Yasser Araft and Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the three representatives of Bethlehem applauded when the mayor emphasized the “pain of Gaza” as the “pain of the people of Bethlehem” during his speech.
“As the Christmas tree lights in Bethlehem are about to be switched on, the deep anguish that Gaza endures remains in our hearts. There, where humanity is tested in its most difficult moments (…) Bethlehem tells the world that its wounds are our wounds and the people of Gaza, our people,” the mayor declared.
The Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, which officially began last Saturday, take on greater importance from this Saturday with the lighting of its Christmas tree and continue, with a wide range of festivities, until Sunday, January 18; it will be then that the reception of Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, will take place.
