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Christmas, as the world knows it, originated in Palestine.

Yet Palestinian Christians — now around 800 to 1,000 in the occupied territories — have rarely had the chance to celebrate Christmas as they should, especially in recent years.

Last Christmas alone, 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in airstrikes in Khan Younis and Maghazi, while the Israeli prime minister calls for a ceasefire, stating, “We are not stopping. We are continuing to fight, and we will be intensifying the fighting in the coming days.”

Since then, the scale of brutality has only escalated.

With celebrations becoming increasingly difficult under occupation, ������ reached out to Palestinians to better understand the realities of Christmas in the land, both historically and in the present day, amid Israel’s ongoing genocide.

Amid occupation, there is hope��

Born in Jaffa, Samia Khoury, now ninety-one years old, recalls Christmas in Palestine before the 1948 Nakba.

“Christmas was always a family occasion, and a time of exchanging gifts. We gathered in the evenings around the Christmas tree, sang carols, went to church in the morning [...] and enjoyed having all the cousins around during these days until everybody dispersed and settled in a different part of the world after 1948,” Samia says.

Now, in the face of Israel’s ongoing genocide, these memories feel distant for Samia.��

Nonetheless, Samia still holds on to hope, and says:

“Sometimes we even feel that not only the world community, but even God himself has abandoned us. Yet more so now than ever, I know that deep in my heart we shall overcome, and that we need to hold onto our faith and hope that Christmas will lead us into a new dawn of peace and tranquillity so that we can truly sing: ‘Joy to the World, the Lord has come.’”

Like Samia, Yousef Al Khouri, who was born and raised in Gaza City and whose nieces and nephews were friends with three of the children killed in the bombing of the Church of Saint Porphyrios, shares similar sentiments, despite "this year's grief being very heavy."

Even with the devastation of the church, Yousef shares that it continues to serve as a community space, running activities for Gaza’s youth.

“The priest of Saint Porphyrios has been preparing and hand-making Santa hats to surprise the children sheltering at the church,” Yousef says.��

Moreover, Yousef adds that, although there is little left to celebrate, he has not lost hope: “If we cannot find hope in our faith and give in to despair, then it’s over. I think the last thing the colonial regime wants to steal from us is hope.”

Similar to Samia, Yousef recalls happy memories of Christmas.

When talking about traditional foods eaten during Christmas, Yousef describes a Palestinian dish called .

Made in honour of Orthodox Saint Barbara, Yousef explains that Burbara is eaten a week before Christmas on Eid il-Burbara, or Saint Barbara’s Day, which marks the first day of Christmas for many Orthodox families in Gaza.

That said, Yousef elaborated that on this day, Burbara is traditionally shared, homes are decorated, and trees are adorned with lights.��

From Bethlehem to the diaspora

All the way in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, however, there is no hope like Samia's or Yousef's.

“You cannot separate Bethlehem from Gaza,” says Dalia Qumsieh, Founder and Director of the .

She adds, “The impacts of the war on Gaza were immediately felt in the West Bank,” where settler violence has intensified since October 2023.

That being said, last year the OCHA a record number of demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, and with 1,615 demolitions already recorded this year, last year’s figures have been surpassed; last week, settlers to a mosque in the village of Marda, defacing it with graffiti that read "Death to Arabs" in Hebrew.

Moreover, Dalia explains, the apartheid wall dividing Bethlehem and Jerusalem serves to separate two central pillars of the Christian faith: the Nativity and the Resurrection.

“Historically, Bethlehem and Jerusalem were always geographically connected, and their population identified as part of the same people. In the aftermath of the first Intifada, and for the first time in history, Israel physically (with checkpoints and the annexation wall) and administratively (by imposing the permit system and a different ID system) separated the two cities from each other. In that sense, it is an artificial separation that has caused severe harm to the social Palestinian fabric,” she says.

This severe harm to the social Palestinian fabric is felt not only in Palestine but also in the diaspora.

Six thousand miles away in the United States, Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian Christian from Gaza, recalls Christmases spent waiting for permits and being detained at checkpoints in his efforts to visit the Holy Land.

Now, reflecting on his experiences, Khalil, who spent most of his life in Palestine and longs to return, is preparing to spend his second Christmas away from home.

For Maria Tojjo in Syria, whose grandparents fled Haifa during the Nakba, the longing for home remains just as strong: “We always remember and hope to celebrate Christmas in our homeland, the holy one where Jesus was born.”

Palestine remains in focus

While it may seem like the world, especially the Christian community in the West, is ignoring the horrific scenes unfolding in Palestine, some have shown and continue to show their support for Palestinians this Christmas.

For example, despite the Vatican recently removing a nativity scene showing the baby Jesus wrapped in a Keffiyeh after public backlash, and many people remaining silent due to ignorance, denial, or the influence of , figures like Pope Francis have repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, with the most recent being: “This is cruelty. This is not war.”

Meanwhile, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, unveiled a display called , inspired by a similar display at Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. A , organised by Palestine Pulse, also recreated the scene in solidarity.

Pro-Palestine protesters also continue to stand firm, stopping shoppers and calling out companies that are complicit, with slogans like, “.”

As the explains, “The holiday season accounts for approximately 20% of all annual global spending. By focusing our efforts on BDS consumer targets, we can use our purchasing power to sharply raise the price of corporate complicity in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and its underlying cause, 76 years of settler-colonial apartheid.”

In their own words, the dissonance is painful, and their blank stares infuriating, but activism is what leads to more action.

Ana Maria Monjardino is an independent journalist and writer from London

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