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Nabil Tarazi, a 50-year-old Christian who lives with his family in the Gaza Strip, said he would spare no efforts to gain a chance to go to the holy city of Bethlehem for Christmas on Friday.
Tarazi, who is a civil servant in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), told Xinhua he is still waiting for an Israeli response to his application for the pass permit to go with his family from Gaza to Bethlehem for the forthcoming Christmas.
"I applied to the Israeli side three weeks ago, and have so far received no reply," he said.
Local media reported that Israel will only offer pass permits to around 300 Christians this year, out of a total of 3,000 Christians in Gaza among the 1.8 million population, to go to Bethlehem during the Christmas.
Israel decided this year that Christians below the age of 35 years old won't be able to obtain a permission to go to Bethlehem for Christmas, Tarazi said.
"I really miss Bethlehem and miss celebrating Christmas there. The rituals and the religious prayers in the holy city is so important for us. Here, in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from the Israeli siege, we can celebrate Christmas, but it won't be as beautiful as it is in Bethlehem," Tarazi said.
In the Gaza Strip, there are two major Churches, a Catholic Church and a Greek Orthodox Church. The 3,000 Gaza Strip Christians usually celebrate Christmas and New Year at the churches and feast with each other during the festivals, despite the hard living conditions due to more than three years of an Israeli blockade and political split between Gaza and the West Bank.
Tarazi said the situation in the Gaza Strip has equally influenced religious feasts and celebrations of both Muslims and Christians.
The internal Palestinian political split and the siege have negatively affected all aspects of life, he said.
The Christians in the Gaza Strip have been unable to light and ornament the Christmas tree in Gaza City's main square since 2006. The streets of Gaza used to be full of lights and ornaments on the Christmas eve four years ago, where there are only small-scale celebrations taking place nowadays.
Meanwhile, although Christians can freely practice their prayers and other religious rituals on holy holidays, the Hamas movement, which rules the coastal enclave, imposes restrictions on bringing wines to Gaza, which is forbidden by the Islamic law.
Kamel Ayyad, who is in charge of public relations at the council of the Arab Orthodox Churches in Gaza, told Xinhua that the rituals of this year's Christmas will only include prayers at churches and family visits, due to the situation in Gaza and the Israeli restrictions on Christians' movement.
"The Christians in the Gaza Strip all look forward to spending Christmas in Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was born. Visiting the Church of Nativity is so important for us, and the minor Christian community in Gaza has never felt the atmosphere of Christmas as Muslims do in their feasts," Ayyad said.
XINHUA
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