Israel Bans Gaza's Christians from visiting Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem this Christmas

This year, Christians who live in the Gaza Strip will not be allowed to visit holy cities such as Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem to celebrate Christmas. The reason is that each year many Palestinians from Gaza stay in Israel illegally when granted short-term permits.

Christmas in Bethlehem

Is Israel overacting? Perhaps they are considering the fact that since March 2018, over 2,600 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel... It is the desire of the Palestinians to set up a state in the West Bank and Gaza, land that Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. (For more information about this war, please order the book listed at the bottom of this newsletter, Understanding God’s Eternal Plan for Israel.)

Of the two million people living in the narrow coastal Gaza strip, only around 1,000 are Christians and most of them are Greek Orthodox. On a spiritual note, many Palestinian Christians have distorted thinking about the birthplace of Christ. Because today Bethlehem is within Palestinian territory, Palestinians claim that Christ was Palestinian and that He was the first Palestinian martyr. (There was nothing Palestinian about Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth.) Moreover, they also claim that the State of Israel is illegitimate and not the fulfillment of prophecy.

There are mixed opinions in Israel about this new restriction during Christmas and some Christian leaders in Jerusalem condemn the move and are appealing to authorities for a reversed decision.