Bethlehem has resumed its Christmas celebrations among the obstacles of COVID Coronavirus pandemic News

The Christmas celebrations in the town where Jesus Christ was born were canceled last year due to the coronavirus blockade.

Christmas celebrations have resumed this year in the Bible town of Bethlehem, albeit humbled by restrictions to prevent the spread. coronavirus pandemic.

Bethlehem returned to her usual parades and street celebrations, with Scout groups playing drums and holding flags in Manger Square.

The Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, also organized a midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity in the Cave where Jesus was born.

As he left Bethlehem for Jerusalem on Friday, Pizzaballa said he hoped the pandemic would calm down.

“We need pilgrims to bring life to our communities,” he said. “We have to find that balance and we are all doing this because it is very sad to see the Old Town [of Jerusalem] almost empty. ‘

The mayor of Bethlehem, Anton Salman, said he was optimistic that the celebrations would be better than the 2021 celebrations. last year’s Christmas, local residents also stayed home due to blockade restrictions.

“Last year, our festival was virtual, but this year it’s going to be face-to-face with public participation,” Salman said.

A banning almost all incoming air traffic Israel, however, has pushed international tourists away for the second year in a row. The ban seeks to slow the spread of highly contagious drugs Omikron variant, which has shaken up Christmas celebrations around the world.

Israel lifted a one-and-a-half-year ban that left most foreign tourists out in November, but had to re-establish it in a few weeks when the Omicron variant began to spread around the world.

Tourism is one of the mainstays of Bethlehem’s economy, and the lack of visitors has hit its neighbors particularly hard.

Ibrahim Salameh, a local driver, told Al Jazeera that he had been unemployed for the past two years.

“We have lost confidence in the tourism industry, no one has enough confidence to stay,” Salameh said, adding that many well-known people in the tourism industry have shifted to other sectors, including agriculture.

Salameh said he was “lucky” to get a tour in early November, which allowed Israel to resume tourism in the short term. “We started to breathe a little again, and then everything was gone.”

He added that although it may have been a tenth of the usual crowd gathered in the main square, this year’s Christmas celebrations were more intense than in 2020, when shops and premises were closed.

“It gives me a little bit of hope that things will get better,” Salameh said.