Preparations were under way in Bethlehem on Sunday for
Christmas, with tensions still simmering in the city and the region
following Washington's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The
controversial December 6 announcement by President Donald Trump
unleashed demonstrations and clashes, including in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank city Bethlehem, where Christians will mark the birth of Jesus
in a midnight mass.
Bethlehem is normally flooded by
tourists at this time of year, but has at times appeared almost empty of
visitors as nearby clashes between Palestinian protesters and the
Israeli army keep people away.
Archbishop Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
said "dozens" of groups had pulled out of planned visits after being
scared off by the announcement and subsequent violence.
"Of
course this created a tension around Jerusalem and this diverted
attention from Christmas," the Catholic church's top official in
Jerusalem said of Trump's announcement, but stressing that Christmas
celebrations would go ahead as planned.
Perhaps
as few as 50,000 Palestinian Christians make up just around two percent
of the predominantly Muslim population of the West Bank and east
Jerusalem.
Israel's tourism ministry has said that
Christmas preparations have not been affected and that it expects a 20
percent increase in the number of Christian pilgrims this year compared
with 2016.
The ministry plans to operate a free shuttle service for the short distance between Jerusalem and Bethlehem for mass.
Extra police
An Israeli police spokesman said that extra units will be
deployed in Jerusalem and at the crossings to Bethlehem to ease the
travel and access for the "thousands of tourists and visitors".
The
annual scouts parade in Bethlehem will march through Manger Square near
the Church of the Nativity, built over the spot where tradition says
Mary gave birth to Jesus and where celebrations will culminate with
midnight mass.
Israel seized east Jerusalem in the 1967
Middle East war and later annexed it, in moves never recognised by the
international community.
Palestinians view east Jerusalem
as the capital of their future state, and interpreted Trump's statement
as rejecting their right to a capital in east Jerusalem, although the
Americans deny this.
In a statement ahead of Christmas,
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that Trump's announcement
"encouraged the illegal disconnection between the holy cities of
Bethlehem and Jerusalem, both separated for the first time in over 2,000
years of Christianity".
Abbas called on "world
Christians to listen to the true voices of the indigenous Christians
from the Holy Land... that strongly rejected the US recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel's capital".
"They are the descendants
of the first followers of Jesus Christ and an integral part of the
Palestinian people," Abbas said, calling the local Christian community
"an inherent part of our societies".
In neighbouring
Egypt, Coptic Christians who celebrate Christmas on January 6 saw a
church in Giza attacked by a mob following Muslim prayers on Friday, the
latest in some 20 such incidents in 2017.
Hundreds
entered the church, chanting slogans calling for its demolition,
destroying furniture and attacking worshippers before security forces
restored order.
But in Iraq, this year marks a positive turning point for the Christian community in the northern city of Mosul.
Christmas
mass will be celebrated there for the first time in years following the
city's recapture from the Islamic State group in July.
IS
seized Iraq's second most populous city as part of a lightning
offensive in 2014, driving out many Christians, and only small numbers
have since returned.
Christian dignitaries as well as
Iraqi political and military leaders are expected to attend the annual
service at St Paul's Church in the eastern sector of Mosul.