CHRISTMAS 2024: From DC to the Vatican, baby Jesus is wearing a keffiyeh (RNS) — The pro-Palestinian creche is intended to point out the disconnect between the idealized Bethlehem of most representations and the reality in present-day Gaza and the West Bank.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is one of several churches across the country that have created crèches called “Christ in the Rubble.” The name comes from a book by Palestinian Christian pastor Munther Isaac. Featuring the baby Jesus wrapped in a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, the creche is intended to remind Christians that if Jesus were born today, he would be born under the rubble. (Photo courtesy Lindsey Jones-Renaud)

 By Yonat Shimron  December 9, 2024 

(RNS) — The scene representing the birth of Jesus is a common December sight, artfully arranged on church lawns or entryways across the country.

But in some churches this year, the nativity crèche is looking a bit different.

The manger has been replaced with a pile of rocks, and the baby Jesus is swaddled not with a thin blanket but with a black-and-white keffiyeh, the Middle Eastern-style scarf that has become a symbol of Palestinians’ resistance to Israeli aggression.

This tableau, often called Christ in the Rubble, first appeared last year in the town of Bethlehem outside the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, pastored by the prominent Palestinian minister and activist Munther Issac. All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, quickly copied it and constructed one on its lawn.

This Advent season, leading to Christmas, they are becoming more common. Even Pope Francis was presented a crèche Saturday (Dec. 7) by two Bethlehem-based artists, featuring a baby Jesus nestled in a keffiyeh.

The pontiff declared “Enough wars, enough violence!” while receiving the delegation of Palestinian groups that organized the project.

In Washington, D.C., less than half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, another church assembled a Christ in the Rubble crèche last week.

The nativity scene outside St. Mark’s Episcopal Church features a Black baby Jesus swaddled in a keffiyeh lying in a bed of broken bricks and clumps of concrete and wire.

It is intended to bring awareness to Israel’s ongoing war that has leveled the Gaza Strip and killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as well as to the plight of Palestinians in Bethlehem, located in the occupied West Bank. While most Palestinians are Muslim, there is a thriving Palestinian Christian community in Bethlehem, the site of Jesus’ birth, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

 “At Christmas, we sing about Bethlehem and we put up our manger scenes and talk about this story of Jesus being born in this town of Bethlehem with its themes of peace, love, joy and hope,” said Lindsey Jones-Renaud, a lay member of St. Mark’s who was part of the team that assembled the crèche last week. “But there’s such a disconnect between all that and what is actually happening in Bethlehem right now and in the surrounding lands.”  ... READ MORE  https://religionnews.com/2024/12/09/this-advent-christ-in-the-rubble-creches-feature-a-baby-jesus-in-a-keffiyeh/

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Church leaders in Bethlehem cancel Christmas celebrations

 Dec 22, 2023 Church leaders in Bethlehem have called for the cancelation of Christmas festivities and celebrations as the war in Gaza continues and the humanitarian crisis worsens. 

Archbishop Atallah Hanna in Jerusalem, Rev. Drs. Mitri Raheb and Munther Issac of Bethlehem are three Christian leaders who made calls for subdued celebrations while pressing world leaders to facilitate a ceasefire. 

 “I want to remind the world, and especially Christians and Christian churches, that Palestine is the land of [Christ’s] birth, and Bethlehem is the city of that birth .... I say to all Christians and to all the world, that celebrate this holiday, when you eat and drink, remember that some people are hungry, they can’t find food or water in Gaza. When you celebrate, remember that some people have been deprived of their freedom and deprived of celebrating the holiday, and of joy and happiness.” 

The move implemented in the Holy Land comes as the Gaza health ministry reports 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, more than 8,000 of them children since Oct. 7.