00:00It certainly looks a lot like Christmas in a welcome return to festivities.
00:07This year after two years of silence we decided to reignite Christmas.
00:12The war in Gaza has cast a long shadow over Bethlehem where the Christmas story was first written.
00:18We had a loss of approximately 1.8 million dollars a day in the industry of tourism.
00:25The unemployment rate jumped from 14 to 65 percent.
00:29This is from the root of the tree, olive tree.
00:32For almost a century the Tabash family have been running this souvenir shop.
00:36It's been a difficult few years but they've been determined to keep going.
00:40It's not just for the business, it's for our hope because we need this place.
00:46The Church of the Nativity built over the site where Jesus is believed to have been born is the focal point for celebrations.
00:52And while attendance is expected to be higher this Christmas, the memory of recent years still lingers.
00:58People say no, there is a war in Gaza, we cannot celebrate, although personally I am against this.
01:06But it's still not straightforward to get to the Church with Bethlehem like the rest of the West Bank cut off from Jerusalem by Israel's wall.
01:13Checkpoints and roadblocks are often closed with no notice.
01:16Even though there is a hope that the situation is improving for Bethlehem, locals are fearful that history will repeat itself.
01:24And that this city will find itself, like much of the West Bank, more and more isolated from the rest of the world.
01:30We need the better future for the Holy Land and especially for Bethlehem.
01:35I need to say, welcome back to Palestine.
01:38Welcome back to Palestine.
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