This December, the lights are finally back on in Bethlehem.
For the first time in two years, a tall Christmas tree has been lit in Manger Square. Crowds gathered outside the Church of the Nativity, fathers lifted children onto their shoulders, and a prayer for peace rang out over the birthplace of Jesus.
On the surface, it looks like joy has returned. But underneath the tree lights and music, Bethlehem’s Christians are facing one of the hardest Christmas seasons in recent memory.
A City Celebrating on Shaky Ground
Bethlehem’s economy lives and dies on pilgrimage and tourism. Local officials estimate that around 80% of the city’s residents depend on tourism to survive.
When the Hamas war against Israel erupted in October 2023, tourists vanished almost overnight. Christmas celebrations were canceled for two consecutive years. By late 2024, local leaders reported unemployment spiking to around 65%, with shopkeepers, hotel workers, and artisans left without income.
Even now, with Christmas events cautiously returning:
The broader West Bank is still unstable.
Many families are living off depleted savings, charity, or relatives abroad.
One Bethlehem resident described the past two years as “unbearable,” citing new checkpoints, economic collapse, and ongoing raids despite a fragile truce.
The city is smiling for the cameras. But many Christian families are quietly wondering how they will put food on the table for Christmas.
A Shrinking and Pressured Christian Community
Bethlehem is still deeply connected to the global church, but its Christian population has been shrinking for decades.
Reports from 2024 and 2025 describe:
Systematic discrimination, harassment, and violence against Christians in Bethlehem under Palestinian rule.
Christian land confiscated by criminal gangs working with corrupt officials.
Christian women pressured to dress like conservative Muslim women to avoid harassment.
Open Doors estimates about 42,300 Christians live in the West Bank, most of them in Bethlehem and its surrounding villages. After the 2023 war and collapse of tourism, these believers — many of them descendants of the first followers of Jesus — have suffered severely.
Some media narratives frame Bethlehem’s Christians only as victims of “occupation” or “settler extremism,” but off the record, many also talk about:
Pressure from radical local elements
Fear of speaking publicly about mistreatment
Feeling erased from Palestinian schoolbooks and political discourse
The result is a community squeezed from multiple sides — political, economic, and social — in the very city where Christ was born.
An Empty Table in the City of Bread
Bethlehem means “House of Bread.”
Yet this Christmas, many Christian homes there are facing bare cupboards.
Fathers and mothers who once guided tour groups now sit unemployed.
Olive-wood carvers and shopkeepers have seen their income evaporate.
Some families have gone months without steady work.
For Christian Women For Israel and our friends, this isn’t just a statistic. These are our brothers and sisters in the faith — living in the town where Mary and Joseph held Jesus in their arms.
We cannot fix the politics of Bethlehem.
But we can put food in a kitchen.
We can put joy back around a table.
A Christmas Blessing: 500 Food Baskets for Bethlehem
This Christmas, we are partnering with:
Tommy Combs and The Living Word Ministries
Pastor Khoury of First Baptist Church (FBC) in Bethlehem
Holy Land Missions
Together, the goal is simple and deeply sacred:
To feed and bless 500 Christian families living in Bethlehem this Christmas.
Through local churches and trusted ministries, these Christmas blessing food baskets will include:
Basic staples (rice, oil, flour, canned goods)
Holiday items to celebrate the birth of Jesus with dignity
A clear message: “You are not forgotten. The body of Christ stands with you.”
Because the partners are on the ground — Pastor Khoury and Holy Land Missions serving Bethlehem’s believers all year long — the help goes directly to families in need. No politics. No strings. Just love in action.
How We Can Stand with Bethlehem’s Christians
As women who love Israel, the Holy Land, and the Jewish roots of our faith, we also know that God’s heart is tender toward the small, embattled Christian communities still clinging to hope in Bethlehem.
This Christmas, we can:
Pray for protection, provision, and courage for Bethlehem’s Christian families.
Bless 500 households with a tangible gift of food and encouragement.
Bear witness that in a time of turmoil, the global church remembers the birthplace of our Savior — not in theory, but in practice.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
— Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
The world will see the tree in Manger Square. Let heaven see the love on Bethlehem’s kitchen tables.
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