Priest reports that the war in Gaza has affected spiritual and material life in Bethlehem

12:22

Since October 2023, the international community has followed with concern what is happening in Gaza, however, there is another Palestinian region where the population is also experiencing the consequences of the war. This is the West Bank, in whose capital Belén the Colombian priest Gonzalo Arboleda works pastorally.

Although both are Palestinian territories, control in Gaza has been exercised since 2007 by the terrorist group Hamas, on which Israel has declared war; On the other hand, in the West Bank the government is led by the Palestinian National Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas.

However, they are the same town, so “the conflict has really had a great influence on the population in Bethlehem,” with psychological, social, economic and spiritual consequences, the priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word explains to ACI Prensa ( IVE), during the visit he made a few days ago to Colombia invited by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN, for its acronym in English).

Father Arboleda, who has lived in Bethlehem for a year and a half, indicated that “what is happening in Gaza affects everyone psychologically. People are anxious, stressed, sad (…). “People don’t want to have weddings because when you have a wedding you have to celebrate, and you can’t celebrate with what is happening.”

An example occurred at Christmas 2023, when the civil authorities of Bethlehem decided to cancel the festivities, so everything was referred to the liturgical celebrations within the temples.

“There is a lot of solidarity among the Palestinian people, they are very supportive. When a catastrophe happens in such a place, everyone mourns,” explains Father Arboleda.

According to the Religious Freedom Report 2023 According to the United States Department of State, approximately three million people live in the West Bank, including 50,000 Palestinian Christians.

The number of Jews varies depending on the government. For the Palestinian authorities there are 751,000, including those who live in East Jerusalem. However, Israel does not consider this area as part of the West Bank and reduces the number to 465,400 Jews settled in the Palestinian territory. The rest of the population is Muslim.

The report indicates that, according to the Israeli government and non-governmental organizations, “approximately 110,000 documented Palestinians and 39,000 undocumented Palestinians were residing in the West Bank or Gaza and working in Israel before October 7,” when the Hamas terrorist attack occurred.

However, Father Arboleda explains that because of the war “those permits were annulled” and now these Palestinians have been left unemployed, with the personal and family consequences that this brings.

Furthermore, tourism in the Holy Land has been paralyzed—with empty hotels and halls—affecting the entire population without distinction, regardless of creed.

“And the last thing I can say is this: that since the war the very security of the people in Palestine has been affected. Any newscast would say it, that there have been more deaths in Palestine, in the West Bank, since the war began,” said the 31-year-old priest.

The consequences in the spiritual life

Father Gonzalo Arboleda, whose work focuses on the Hogar Niño Dios and which cares for minors with disabilities—Christians and Muslims—also helps in the parish of a town near Belén, which has allowed him to learn “some realities as well.” ”.

He shared that many people tell him that they feel “a tired soul,” a very typical Arabic expression. “That means I feel desperate, I feel like we are in a situation that will never get better and will never fully heal,” she explained.

This is because, “even if the war ends, what then? Then there is the construction of Gaza, then there are all the consequences of what we have seen, what we have experienced. That doesn’t go away, that doesn’t disappear.”

The priest noted that “the spiritual life of Christians has also been affected. Somehow there are people who go to Mass more now because of the situation, because he says ‘we have to get closer to God.’”

However, “there are people who, on the contrary, go to Mass less because they wonder ‘where is God?’ And why is this happening to us again? Then he gets angry with God.”

“Helping people have a vision of faith”

Given this panorama, the IVE priest pointed out that it is necessary to “help people have a vision of faith” because, “first of all, human hopes are few.”

“And the vision of faith, what does it show us? What does it teach us? That this life has only one purpose and that is to reach heaven. And reaching heaven can be done in any human condition. In poverty you can reach heaven, in wealth, in illness, in health, in peace, in war,” he recalled.

The Colombian priest added that achieving eternal life “cannot be limited by any condition outside of me. Reaching heaven is something that I can, with the grace of God, seek and achieve through my personal decisions and my actions.”

He explained that the suffering that war has brought can help people “to take that perspective of faith and begin to live life as a path to heaven,” because although human projects and desires may be good, they are not the main thing.

“So, these people who have been so limited in what is human, now have the door open in some way to seek the divine, which is eternal life. That is really the only hope that can be given, because it is the only true, real hope that is not lost despite all the external and material conditions in which I find myself,” he concluded.