Sitting in the home of the Anastas family, one of the oldest Christian families in Bethlehem, one can see why the family struggles to be merry this Christmas. “This is the only house in Palestine surrounded on three sides by the wall, more than 30 feet tall,” says Johnny Anastas, who with his wife Claire has raised five children in this home.
Now a dead end, before the wall was built the road in front of the Anastas family’s home was the main thoroughfare between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and the family owned numerous businesses. “Before the wall, this was a busy road, a lot of restaurants and shops,” Anastas describes. “Imagine how many people were on this road? After they surrounded us on three sides with the wall, we lost our income. It’s an isolated area, we’re destroyed completely here. You become broken because of this wall.”
Anastas recalls when the Israelis put in the wall in 2004. After months of preparation, the wall itself went up in one day. “When the wall was built, my son was eight,” Anastas says. “He went to school in the morning, and he came back in the afternoon and found that he was surrounded by the wall. He said to his mom, ‘What future is there for us here?’”
Currently, the Anastas’ operate a souvenir shop and a bed and breakfast out of their home. Despite the bleak situation and little hope for change in the near future, they remain resilient. “I don’t want to continue my life in this corner,” laments Anastas. “I hate to stay, but I have no other choice. This is our land, this is our home, this is our house. If we leave it, they will take it. So we must stay here.”
Thus, isolated and under occupation, the Anastas family will remain and continue celebrating Christmas in their hometown of Bethlehem. They will continue to decorate with lights and a Christmas tree and enjoy large Christmas meals with their relatives. “This is the holy place where Jesus was born,” Anastas says. “We must be here.”