As we approach the end of the year, our thoughts turn to the place where the story of Christmas began.
Bethlehem still lives in our imagination as a city of serenity, filled with warm twinkly lights. But for the people who live and work there under illegal occupation, that picture couldn’t feel further from reality.
For artisans, hotel and restaurant owners, tour guides, craftsmen, and the bakers and butchers who once filled its markets and narrow streets, these past few Christmases have been some of the hardest they’ve faced. A city that relied on visitors and pilgrimage has seen its flow of livelihood cut off. What was once a thriving marketplace, and the heart of daily life, has been hollowed out by closures, check points, gates, and the loss of the familiar bustle of locals and visitors alike.
The Wall that cuts through Bethlehem is impossible to ignore. Those cold concrete slabs do more than divide neighbourhoods; they shut down possibility and stand in stark contrast to the values the city is meant to symbolise: peace, coexistence, generosity, forgiveness, and the simple hope that tomorrow can be better than today.
And this reality isn’t unique to Bethlehem – much of the West Bank has lived through the same strain: shuttered workshops, quiet markets, and livelihoods constantly disrupted by the fear of settler and army attacks, and the uncertainty of daily movement.
And yet, despite everything, people persist. They open their shops when they can. They tend their groves. They bake. They craft. They welcome whoever reaches them. They do this with the kind of steadiness that comes from knowing, over decades, that dignity isn’t granted by circumstance.
When you choose Palestinian products this season, you’re keeping a thread of connection alive with the real community around the place where the Christmas story first took root. It’s a small act, but it matters, and it lands where it’s needed most.
Thank you for your continued support and for standing with Palestinian producers during a year that has tested everyone.
Here’s hoping the year ahead brings more ease, more safety, and more open doors for the people who make this work possible.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas.
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