Thousands of Christians from all over the world have made a pilgrimage to Bethlehem in Israel’s occupied West Bank to celebrate the Christmas season. This was according to Aljazeera.
The return of Christmas tourism is coming two years after the COVID- 19 lockdown and it lent the town a festive air, as worshippers gathered near the Church of the Nativity to visit the grotto where the Christian faithful believed Jesus was born.
Tourism is the economic lifeblood of this town in the occupied West Bank, and for the past two years, the pandemic kept international visitors away.
Tourism is an essential economic part of the town and this year, visitors are back (although not yet to pre-pandemic level) with hotels brimming full, and shopkeepers have also reported fast business in the run-up to the holiday.
A traditional procession had set off from Jerusalem at noon, 10:00 GMT, on Saturday and arrived in the small town in the afternoon.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa had led the procession, going through a checkpoint in Israel’s separation wall in the occupied West Bank.
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