Status: 12/24/2022 11:53 a.m
The Christians in the Gaza Strip also celebrate Christmas: Many come to the small parish church in the middle of Gaza City – because only a few are given permission to travel to Bethlehem for the festival.
It’s already dark outside. The climax is imminent: the four meter high Christmas tree is lit up in the middle of Gaza City, in front of the only Catholic parish church.
2.1 million people live in the Gaza Strip. But only a little more than 1,000 of them are Christians – there are only 136 Catholics. And despite this – or precisely because of this – the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, came before Christmas to encourage the small community in the Gaza Strip:
The message is always the same: never give up. Never believe that there is no hope. That’s how we express our kind of community. We need that. Our Christian faith, our Christian identity is very strong. And we also need some pride. We are few, only about 1000 out of two million people. But we are there.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pizzaballa, came before Christmas to encourage the small community.
Image: ARD Studio Tel Aviv/ Jan-Christoph Kitzler
Christians among themselves – no mixed marriages
The people in the Gaza Strip, not just the Christians, live in a state of emergency – at least since the area was sealed off from Israel and Egypt. For 15 years this has been a permanent condition. And that’s a problem, especially for the small Christian community here. For example, when it comes to starting a family and getting married outside of your own family.
The choice within the Gaza Strip is small – many are looking for their spouses over there among the Christians in the West Bank, says Gabriel Romanelli, the Catholic parish priest: “Everyone here in the Gaza Strip, whether Muslim or Christian, has lived this life under the bombs, without freedom, for many years imprisoned for years.” That is the reality. There are no mixed marriages. “So if Christians want to get married, they either get a travel permit to get married and come back – or they flee from here, go away,” he says. “And then our 2,000-year presence here ends. Let’s hope that never happens.”
Hoping for an exit permit
Especially at Christmas, many Christians hope for such an exit permit. Then drive to Bethlehem to the site of Jesus’ birth and visit friends and relatives. Israel issued a few hundred permits last year, but no one can be sure. That is why many are afraid to talk about this topic.
And Father Romanelli says: “A priest would never say that, I never would have thought that I would say that. But my dream is to celebrate Christmas in Gaza alone. Because that would mean that everyone was given the opportunity to leave and come back, as last year.”
Church as a meeting place
Marlene Hayyet is also concerned. Her two children emigrated to Belgium and Cyprus. And yet she draws strength from the Christmas season – many of the Christians in the Gaza Strip feel like her: “We go to church, meet and celebrate together. We are together and feel connected. It used to be more common, now it is fewer. The parish church is a place of encounter for us.”
In front of the small parish church in the middle of Gaza City – by the Christmas tree – the mood is good. Everyone is dressed up and chocolate is being distributed. Everyone wants a selfie with the Latin patriarch.
Pastor Romanelli says a sentence in passing that describes the situation – especially at Christmas: “Life in the Gaza Strip is difficult, he says, but not impossible.”