Nazareth, the Israeli Arab city where Jesus is thought to have been raised, has canceled some Christmas celebrations in protest at U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, an official said.
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Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel with a Muslim and Christian population of 76,000, is one of the Holy Land’s focal points of Christmas festivities.
“We have decided to cancel the traditional Christmas singing and dancing because we are in a time of dispute, because of what Trump has said about Jerusalem,” city spokesman Salem Sharara said.
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Within an hour of the announcement, the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Jesus’s traditional birthplace, and Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank briefly switched off their Christmas lights in protest.
Makes a huge amount of sense. Protest what you see as an injustice by making life harder for yourselves only.
And this is not their first such act in response to the Trump announcement. Yesterday, palestinians protested by turning off the lights on the Christmas tree outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity (it is a shame they didn’t protest by cancelling Roger Waters’ planned closed-circuit pre-Christmas show). And last week, the Islamic Waqf ordering the lights illuminating the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be switched off.
If this all isn’t symbolic of the Arab proclivity to shoot themselves in the foot (when they are not trying to shoot us in the head), I don’t know what is.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media