Christmas in the Holy Land

This year, just like every year, tens of thousand of people from all over the world will be visiting Bethlehem for Christmas. I'm not religious but I think this is a great thing to see. I love seeing people from all over gather and celebrate for a common good, even if I don't share the same beliefs it's still great to see.

Tens of thousands flock to Bethlehem for Christmas

Tens of thousands of Christians were flocking to Bethlehem on Saturday to celebrate Christmas following a year of political upheaval and change across the Arab world.

As day broke on this not-so-little-town which lies just a few miles south of Jerusalem, locals were busily preparing to welcome thousands of pilgrims who want to see the spot where the Bible says Jesus was born to a couple from Nazareth.

Hotels and guest houses across this ancient town perched on the hilltops were packed to capacity, Palestinian officials said, with more than 50,000 visitors from around the world expected to join in the festivities.

As this is happening, there are a small minority of Israelis who are not very happy about Christians celebrating the birth of their Savior in the worlds only Democratic Jewish State.

Jewish Extremists Attack Christmas Carolers

BETHLEHEM – Settlers attacked a Palestinian choir bus returning from a carol concert in Nablus on Saturday evening, choristers told Ma’an.

The singers, from Bethlehem Bible college, said five men attacked them on a quiet road outside of the northern West Bank city.

“A rock smashed through the window, and glass shattered everywhere inside,” chorister Saleem Anfous told Ma’an, adding that none of the 25 carol singers was injured.

“We kept driving and starting singing to cheer ourselves up and encourage the choir members,” he said.

“Tomorrow we will continue our carol tour of the West Bank in Jenin, using the same road, and we are afraid. But we are trying to convince the families that God will protect us.”

Hardline settlers have torched mosques near Ramallah, Jerusalem and Salfit since last Wednesday. The latest string of attacks included a rampage on an army base, sparking condemnation in Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu to vow stronger enforcement against lawlessness.

But he rejected a recommendation to classify the Jewish extremists as terrorists, and Israeli lawmakers were set to discuss a law to legalize settlement outposts built on land owned by Palestinians on Sunday.

Extremists amongst Israel’s 500,000 strong settler population in the West Bank and Jerusalem reference Israel’s measures against outposts in their revenge ‘price tag’ attacks, usually directed at Palestinians in the West Bank, but recently spilling over into Palestinian sites in Israel and army targets.

Israel distinguishes between state-sanctioned settlement building on occupied Palestinian land and the wildcat outposts, but the international community says all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem break international law.

I know this is a very small minority, but this Jewish supremacist movement in Israel exists more than you would like to think. My father has experienced this first hand as a white Canadian male who has spent time over there for employment reasons.

Christmas Trees Are Still Banned in Nazareth Illit

That Christmas tree ban that Shimon Gapso, the mayor of the Israeli town of Nazareth Illit, enacted last year still stands. Around holiday time last year, Gapso proclaimed public display of the Christian symbol as provocative and banned the trees from public squares. "Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen -- not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor," he told the AFP. And he wasn't lying. We asked a local teacher the status of Christmas trees. "Unfortunately, yes. It is banned," Botrus Mansour the General Director at the Nazareth Baptist School told us over e-mail. Though, he also mentioned talk of allowing the trees just in the neighborhoods where Arabs live. "It is where I live," he wrote. "No trees have been decorated here."

What's so bad about a damned Christmas tree? Come one man, really?

The supremacists in Israel have been very loud spoken lately as this disgusting anti-African rally in Tel-Aviv demonstrates.



Many Christians who go there in the hopes of experiencing religious enlightenment come back with interesting stories to tell, most these stories are similar to a rude awakening.

I know these drunk teenagers don't represent all Israelis, but Americans, and the rest of the world should consider whether or not their support for Israel is justified.



I for one am glad I have no affiliation with that land as it's in constant turmoil. My dreams of this turmoil ending are nothing more than fantasy, but I at least hope all the people of the religion can celebrate their religion of choice in peace and harmony this Holiday season because 2012 is going to be a year to remember.

This thread can relate to the topic of this discussion because it hints at how certain Israelis frown upon American Jews being exposed to American Christmas values. I find this attitude rather disturbing.

Israel Scraps TV Ads Aimed at Emigrants After Fury From US Jews

We should all be allowed to celebrate our respected holidays without fear of judgement or ridicule.

Can't we all just respect each other? We're all the same no matter our beliefs.

Iraqi Christians pray for peace at Christmas

Chaldean Catholic officials have cancelled traditional Christmas Eve midnight Masses in Iraq because of security risks. They said Iraqi Christians will spend Christmas in "great fear" because of the risk of new attacks.
“We have many difficulties because of the situation that there is no peace and no security, permanent security,” said Bishop Mar Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the Patriarchate of Babylon, Iraq, of the Chaldean Catholic Church. “So for these days of Christmas and the New Year, we hope to celebrate the feast, but not Midnight [Mass], because there are too many difficulties.”
Bishop Warduni said that, despite many difficulties, for Christians in Iraq, “Our duty is to pray for peace.” He spoke of his prayer during this holy season: “And so we ask the Child of Bethlehem to give us this security and peace, to give us joy and peace, and we cry with angels ‘Glory be to the Lord in the highest heaven, and peace on the earth. We ask him this only, and not only for the Iraqi people, for Christians in Iraq, but for everybody in the Middle East.”

Silly, silly adults hating and fighting over whose man-made-fairy-tale-god beliefs are more 'real' than the other's fairy-tale god beliefs.

Santa clause for kids, is what religion is for adults. Some people will just never GROW UP.

CE,

That old expression "dog in the manger" which refers to someone who can not enjoy a certain thing but wants to make damn sure others do not either, can be applied to an entire nation. An illegal, illegitimate, fraudulent, soon to be only a bad memory nation that goes by the name of Israel does not celebrate the birth of Christ and wants to prevent Palestinians and other Christians from celebrating Christmas in peace.

If a person knew nothing else about the soul of Israel this would be enough to condemn Israel.

reply to post by HangTheTraitors


I agree man, I have no religious commitments, and to watch these people kill, torture, oppress... each other for millenium saddens me. I would ask will we ever learn? But the answer is obvious, santa for grown ups will always exist.

reply to post by BRAVO949

If a person knew nothing else about the soul of Israel this would be enough to condemn Israel.

I consider the foundation of Israel to be without a soul. If it were to possess a soul, it would be the great satan that many prophecies speak about.

I'm going to quote a bible verse that I've had to post many times recently, as it's applicable.

Revelations 3:9

I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars--I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

This verse clearly explains modern day Israel. And I'm not religious so my interpretation of this situation is unbiased and clearly pondered.

Thanks for stopping by Bravo, as always your input is appreciated.

BTW don't let my bible talk fool ya, I'm not part of any cults, I just like to study what people talk about.

Thank you for the beautiful thread, Corruption Exposed. Being a self-described 'Catholic Pagan', as Evola had stated, I love Christmas and the other Christian holidays because they remind me not only of Christ but of the rich history of European/Mediterranean Civilization. It is disgusting how the religious keep fighting amongst each other as well, not only do the exoteric want to further break down their religions into sects, but we also fight with those of the other religions of the world.

Everyone should read the works of Rene Guenon, the famous French writer who created the Traditionalist School of thought. As he explained, all religions are divinely revealed truths given to a specific people because every culture interprets the world differently and so they need a religion which fits their culture. Every religion thus, holds the universal truth, they just express it differently. No one religion is ‘right’ and no one religion is ‘wrong’, they all have a combination of the both.




On Christmas day, it is time the time of year when Christians can come together to honor and remember the man who revealed the truth to us, his loyal followers.

“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” – Saint Augustine of Hippo

reply to post by Misoir


I have never studied the work of Rene Guenon but thanks to your guidance I will certainly put aside some time to do so. Thank you for the links!

It's nice to see another person who has their own set of beliefs but are able to tolerate other sets of beliefs from other sides of the fence. Many people do not possess this tolerance, you are what I would consider a decent human being, going by your previous post only of course

As humans, we should all be able to want the same well being for each and every one of us, no matter our differences. We need to weed out a few bad apples (more than a few) then we can proceed to move on to the next level of consciousness that us humans and mother earth deserve.

It's long overdue.

Since you choose to concentrate on few negative sides of Christmas in Israel and Palestinian autonomy, i will help you with what usually happens:
Jerusalem:

The Jerusalem Municipality is getting ready for the Christmas festivities and is greeting its Christian residents in honor of the upcoming holidays. The city is welcoming Christmas with festive Christmas lights, cleaning up specific neighborhoods, including the Christian and Armenian Quarters and the Christian Holy sites. Mayor Nir Barkat, will honor the Heads of the Christian communities and various congregations in Jerusalem, and wish them a Merry Christmas.
.....
On December 21, 2011 the Municipality will offer free Christmas trees to its
Christian residents who are celebrating Christmas.

www.israelnewsmagazine.com...
Tel Aviv

Christmas in Tel Aviv has become widely popular over the years. The Christmas in Israel is widely celebrated in various parts of the country. During the Christmas the children are given presents. You will find the entire city decorated with Christmas trees. The restaurants and bars are open till late night and serves special menus for the eve.

travel.mapsofworld.com...
Haifa
(I think it was last year since i already heard about it? Maybe i am mistaken..

Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, will celebrate this Christmas in an eco-friendly fashion with the unveiling of a new 38-foot Christmas tree made entirely of recycled water bottles and other plastic objects donated by its residents and on display in the city’s center.

travelgreenisrael.com...
In general:

Christmas is five days from today and The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL) – Jewish National Fund (JNF) is distributing, once again, Christmas Trees to local churches, monasteries, convents, embassies, foreign journalists and the general public.

todaynewsline.com...
See - if you only look for negatives, you can find those even in microscope. But gigantic positives are ignored if it is not what really matters.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


No doubt you are correct in saying that some israelis are celebrating christmas, whilst the rabbies are praying that jesus is burning in hell. In a tub of steaming hot chit. Personally xmas? Celebrate the birth of the rabbi jesus? lol No thanks.

reply to post by illuminnaughty

No doubt you are correct in saying that some israelis are celebrating christmas, whilst the rabbies are praying that jesus is burning in hell. In a tub of steaming hot chit. Personally xmas? Celebrate the birth of the rabbi jesus? lol No thanks.

But this is what religious freedom is all about. Those who want - celebrate. Those who do not want it - do not celebrate. Those who oppose the celebrations - do it in their own 4 yards.
I am not forcing you to celebrate it, i do not celebrate either. But whoever wants to - marry Christmas to them.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge

But this is what religious freedom is all about.

I respect your opinion, but for an Israeli to preach about religious freedom I can't help but point out the hypocrisy in this statement. As many of the links in this thread indicate, there is no religious freedom in Israel, unless you're a Jew, even certain types of Jews get lesser treatment... Ethiopians for example.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

As many of the links in this thread indicate, there is no religious freedom in Israel, unless you're a Jew, even certain types of Jews get lesser treatment... Ethiopians for example.

As many of the links people with certain agenda presented indicate, true. But it is irrelevant to truth. And the truth is that you officially can celebrate Christmas and Eid ul-Fitr in Israel and Hanukah in US, but not Christmas or Hunukah in Saudi Arabia or Hanukah in Palestinian autonomy.
And this is the truth, you can bring as many "cases" as you like but it will be no more then few dozen separate private cases.
Trying to build a tower on few semi-truths mixed with lots of lies will not work, however.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


You pointed out some valid concerns, especially Saudi Arabia.The United States being strong supporters of the Saudis and Israelis, implicate themselves in oppression by supporting these regimes who openly practice religious and racial discrimination. You are Israeli, but from my discussions with you I can tell you're just a regular guy like me who is stuck in this thing we call life.

Why do the two countries who suppress religious freedoms, get the most aid from the USA?

Jews in Iran have no problems, neither do Christians in Palestine minus a few extremist settlers.

There are 25,000 Jews living in Iran. When Israel backed a plan to pay Iranian Jewish families $60,000 to settle in Israel, Society of Iranian Jews met the announcement with scorn, issuing this statement: "The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradable for any amount of money. Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran's Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews."

You won't find Jews this happy in Saudi Arabia, they would get their arms chopped off. Yet the United States and Israel does business with this country, yet demonizes Iran every chance it gets. How can you live there and support this mentality?

Much respect.

Here is another "Christmas" meaning from Arutz Sheva News !

December 25 is birthday to be remembered and it’s not “you know who.” Happy birthday to the Internet, created on December 25, 1990. Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at Geneva-based CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and he made the first successful hypertext communication 21 years ago on December 25.

The True Meaning of December 25

December 25 - Birthday of the WorldWideWeb

Merry Christmas to you too, Arutz Sheva ...

-signed ..

you KNOW who !

I'm glad everything went well without any problems:

Thousands of Christian Palestinians and tourists have celebrated mass in Bethlehem, the town that is considered the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The congregational held in the 1,500-year-old Church of the Nativity, was attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal used the traditional Midnight Mass to welcome in Christmas and urge peace between Israel and Palestine.