Bethlehem's Unspoken Truth: A Palestinian Pastor on Reclaiming Christmas from the West

Is Christmas a Western holiday? For Rev Dr Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor and theologian in Bethlehem, the celebration enjoyed across Europe and the United States is a world away from its origins—a tale not of silent nights, but of empire and resistance. In a December 24, 2025 article, he argues that the West has stripped the holiday of its core meaning.

A Commercialized Holiday vs. a Story of Occupation

Isaac contends that Western Christmas has become a cultural marketplace—commercialized, romanticized, and detached from its theological and moral roots. He makes a crucial point: Christianity isn't a Western religion. Its geography, culture, and worldview are rooted in the Middle East, in lands like Palestine, Syria, and Iraq.

The original story, he writes, was not serene. Jesus was born under military occupation to a family displaced by an imperial decree. The family's flight to Egypt as refugees, to escape a tyrant's massacre of infants, resonates with the modern plight of those displaced by war. Christmas, Isaac argues, is fundamentally a story of empire, injustice, and vulnerability.

Bethlehem: Imagination vs. Reality

For many in the West, Bethlehem is a quaint postcard town frozen in time. The reality, according to Isaac, is a city surrounded by walls and checkpoints built by an occupier. Its residents live under what he describes as a system of apartheid, often unable to even visit nearby Jerusalem.

Isaac observes a troubling disconnect: Western Christians often venerate the ancient idea of Bethlehem while ignoring the suffering of Palestinian Christians living there today. He suggests this is often tied to political theologies that support the modern state of Israel, treating the existence of a Palestinian Christian community as an inconvenient truth.

Christmas as an Act of Resilience

From the perspective of Palestinian Christians, Christmas is the story of God's solidarity with the marginalized. The incarnation—God becoming human—is a statement that God dwells not in palaces but in poverty and among the occupied. It's a theology that directly confronts the logic of empire, Isaac explains.

After cancelling public festivities for the past two years in solidarity with Gaza, Bethlehem's celebration this year is not a sign that the crisis is over. Instead, he frames it as an act of resilience—a declaration that "we are still here" and that the town's story must continue to be told.