Nazareth, December 15, 2017
Photo: jpost.com The city of Nazareth has announced that it is canceling certain Christmas celebrations as a form of protest against President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy to the Holy City.
Nazareth, the city where Christ grew up, and which is one of the major centers of Christmas celebrations in the Holy Land, is the largest Arab town in Israel, with a Christmas and Muslim population of 76,000. The town’s Basilica of the Annunciation is built on the site of Christ’s childhood home.
President Trump announced the move last week, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The decision has been condemned by political and religious leaders throughout the world and has already seen a series of protests and responses throughout the world.
Within an hour of the announcement, the Palestinian towns of Christ’s birthplace of Bethlehem and Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank briefly switched off their Christmas lights in protest.
A group of Turkish nationalists read out Muslim prayers in Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia, which is officially a museum, on Monday in protest of Trump’s decision.
“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, the Daily Mail reports.
However, as the Jerusalem Post reports, the majority of festivities will go ahead as planned, despite the anger against the U.S.’s decision. Mayor Ali Salam decided Thursday to go ahead with the celebrations, while announcing the few cancelations. “Our message is we love Jerusalem, we’ll never abandon you under any circumstances,” he said at a press conference.
The mayor called Trump “wretched,” saying he had “stabbed” Palestinians with his decision.
Salam also noted that “there are commercial interests of the city and we are used to hundreds of thousands coming for this season.” “Christmas season in Nazareth is the season of good and blessing and we are completely vigilant that commercial interests won’t be damaged,” a later statement said.
That's strange...