'One Bethlehem church nativity scene has infant Jesus lying among the rubble'

Residents inspect around the rubble of the building following an Israeli attack in Rafah, Gaza

(Image credit: AbedRahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty)

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Queen Rania Al Abdullah in The Washington Post
Jawad Iqbal in The Times
Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph
Beverley Callard on the i news site

published 22 December 2023

Christmas is canceled in the land of Jesus' birth

Queen Rania Al Abdullah in The Washington Post

Bethlehem usually comes alive at Christmas, writes Queen Rania of Jordan in The Washington Post, but not this year. In the Holy Land, "celebrations have been canceled". In the occupied West Bank, one Bethlehem church's nativity scene has the infant Jesus among "the rubble of a bombed-out building". International organisations are calling Gaza "a graveyard for children. How perverse that the Holy Land should be described as something so profoundly unholy."

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