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Christmas in Bethlehem: From ‘days of marvel’ to a plastic tree
Lubna Masarwa
Fri, 12/24/2021 – 14:53
These days the 12-metre tall Christmas tree in Bethlehem’s Manger Sq., like many of the festive decorations throughout cities and villages within the Palestinian West Financial institution, is manufactured from plastic.
However Fawz Atallah Qumsiyeh remembers going as a toddler along with her father to Jabal Abu-Ghneim, a once-forested mountaintop southeast of Jerusalem that’s now the positioning of an Israeli settlement, in search of an appropriate department of a cypress tree to adorn the household residence.
“Christmas used to have a unique type of cheer, and discovering a tree was part of the celebration,” Qumsiyeh, a 90-year-old former trainer, advised Center East Eye.
“My father used to enter the wilderness, and we’d go along with him, and we’d lower off the department of a small pine tree. We might by no means lower an entire one.”
Qumsiyeh continues to be sharp-eyed and animated as she remembers Christmases previous at her residence in Beit Sahour. She has spent a lot of her lengthy life within the small city southeast of Bethlehem the place, within the Christian custom, angels are mentioned to have visited shepherds to announce the delivery of Jesus.
Rising up in British-ruled Palestine within the Forties, Qumsiyeh recollects how she and her siblings would make hand-crafted decorations to hold on the tree, in addition to baggage of presents for different kids of their neighbourhood, reminiscent of marbles, clementines, and a home-baked cake made with walnuts and almonds.
No electrical energy, no lights
“On the time there was neither electrical energy nor Christmas lights, so we made all decorations by hand,” she mentioned.
“We’d color leaves, make figures resembling flowers and fish, lower paper into shapes, and grasp them on the timber.
“Beit Sahour was poor then, and there weren’t any toy shops. However my dad, who was the varsity principal, was well-off, and he would drive to Jerusalem and fill his automotive with toys and are available again and provides them to everybody. My father was an orphan as a toddler, and it was essential for him.”
Born in 1932, Qumsiyeh completed highschool in 1948 and enrolled at a trainer coaching faculty for girls in Jerusalem.
However her profession was instantly disrupted by civil struggle, Israel’s declaration of independence, and the violent occasions recognized to Palestinians because the Nakba, when a whole lot of 1000’s fled or have been compelled from their lands by Jewish paramilitary forces.
The coaching faculty was in an space now inside Israel’s borders which turned infamous as the positioning of an interrogation centre and jail for Palestinians generally known as the Maskobiyeh.
“All the faculties have been closed, and have been solely reopened in 1950 after I began to show at an orphan’s faculty,” mentioned Qumsiyeh.
Two years later, she moved to a faculty in Bethlehem, after which, after marrying, she returned to Beit Sahour, following in her father’s footsteps as a faculty principal.
“Even then the timber have been nonetheless pure, and they’d be bought on the backs of vehicles that might be introduced in from inside 48 [the lands of historic Palestine now inside Israel],” she mentioned.
“Now there’s a settlement in Abu Ghneim, and all our timber are plastic introduced in from China, tasteless and scentless. Nothing actually makes up for the scent of the pure ones.”
‘Lovely days’
Maurice Michel, 87, remembers there was as soon as an actual pine tree in Manger Sq., planted alongside a police station that stood there throughout the British Mandate on the positioning of what’s now the Bethlehem Peace Heart, that was embellished every Christmas.
A retired – however nonetheless energetic – photographer, Michel is speaking in his studio, surrounded by rigorously organised classic gear, cine reels, projectors, and trays of slides which might be a testomony to his life’s ardour.
He reveals MEE a field digital camera utilized by his father who died when he was six months previous. Then he digs out a print dated 1930 from his recordsdata displaying the tree leaning in the direction of the bell tower of the Church of the Nativity.
“The tree stayed for a very long time, and folks would go to get photographed in entrance of it due to the decorations that adorned it. Even the Jordanian military would play devices by the tree,” he mentioned, referring to the interval between 1948 and 1967 when the West Financial institution was underneath Jordanian management.
“These have been lovely days. Individuals would carry pine timber into their houses and enhance them. Christmas was nicer and easier then, and we actually felt the vacation and anticipated it eagerly.”
The tree was uprooted when the police station was demolished. There are nonetheless a number of timber round Manger Sq., together with a tall pine exterior the Peace Heart, however none are actually embellished at Christmas.
Pagan custom
Based on Mazin Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem College and the founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Pure Historical past, the trendy customized amongst Palestinian Christians of adorning timber at Christmas was a direct consequence of British colonial rule till 1948.
He factors out that the European custom of Christmas timber could be traced again to pre-Christian pagan festivals when pine timber have been used to mark the winter solstice.
“The British imposed these Western and capitalist traditions on us. There have been no decorations earlier than that, and Christmas was thought of a solely non secular vacation,” mentioned Qumsiyeh, who’s the son of Fawz Atallah Qumsiyeh.
“The customized of giving presents to the poor, nonetheless, was current from earlier than the British Mandate. My father would journey to Damascus and Beirut in preparation for Christmas. As we speak we will not even attain Jerusalem. Even then, nonetheless, the presents have been modest, and so they weren’t toys like immediately.”
In a present store in Bethlehem, Louis Michel factors to a photocopied piece of paper displaying two black and white pictures of Jabal Abu-Ghneim.
Within the first, dated 1997, the East Jerusalem hilltop is densely forested. Lots of the timber have been planted underneath British rule as a part of a coverage of forestation which has seen colonies of European pine timber change native species reminiscent of olive timber and grapevines, reworking the pure panorama and historically terraced agricultural lands of historic Palestine.
Israel has continued to plant the timber, which have grown over the ruins of Palestinian villages and farms demolished since 1948. The extremely flammable timber have been linked to latest forest fires throughout Israel and Palestine.
Within the second photograph, dated 2003, all of the timber are gone, changed by the white homes and residence blocks of the nonetheless increasing Har Homa settlement. Like all Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Financial institution, Har Homa is illegitimate underneath worldwide regulation.
“There have been so many cypress and pine timber. Abu-Ghneim boasted a number of the most lovely timber within the space, and so they have been so massive it was scary,” mentioned Michel, who’s 61.
“Earlier than 1967, we may stroll by the facet of the hill all the way in which to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Then after the Second Intifada, they lower down the timber and constructed the Har Homa settlement there.”
‘The magic is gone’
Michel’s store has been a household enterprise since 1918. He recollects spending Christmas time rising up there when his father ran it within the Nineteen Sixties, promoting souvenirs to Christian vacationers.
“I nonetheless bear in mind these days of marvel. As we speak the magic is gone, and folks simply come to take selfies in entrance of a plastic tree,” he mentioned, holding up a string of Chinese language-made plastic rosary beads.
“This prices 9 shekels, so folks began shopping for them as a substitute of native beads manufactured from olive wooden which price 35 shekels. Opening the market to China has devastated native manufacturing.”
Michel’s phrases are echoed by Eli Shehadeh, a former mayor of Beit Jala, a small city northwest of Bethlehem.
“The Beit Jala Christmas tree is synthetic, and from my expertise doing municipal work, there isn’t a single actual tree in your complete West Financial institution,” mentioned Shehadeh.
“The Greek Orthodox Church used to have a pure pine tree that was embellished yearly however that died about years in the past. Now all the timber are from China; Chinese language plastic has occupied the nation.”
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