25 Dec 2023, Samaria: In the 1980’s, Bethlehem’s population was still over 90% Arab Christians under Israeli government rule, and all races and religions were allowed in Bethlehem since Israel is a law-abiding open nation with freedom of religion. Since the Oslo Agreement in 1994 which resulted in the creation of the Palestinian Authority, Israeli government handed Bethlehem over to the PA which had just been resurrected from the remains of the Palestinian Liberation Organization which had been exiled in Tunis–a safe distance from Jews.
After that handover, Jews were not permitted entrance; Muslims from the Israeli city of Haifa flocked to Bethlehem in a hostile takeover of Christian Arab homes and businesses – an ethnic cleansing. Arab Christians fled to other parts of the world. Today, Bethlehem’s population is less than 20% Christian and over 80% Muslim, and Jews are still not allowed.
Against this backdrop of recent history, we see that today, in “solidarity with Gaza,” Bethlehem has cancelled Christmas, along with Syria and other places in the region.