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Traditional holiday market will also sell articles produced in the monasteries by nuns from various religious congregations
By La Croix International staff | Palestinian territories
A Christmas market by women, including nuns, who will begin selling handcraft from different cultures and religious communities in East Jerusalem is seen as interreligious dialogue in action, fostering communal harmony at a place often bereft of peace.
On November 27, more than 60 exhibitors, mostly from the Silwan and Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, will offer jewellery, crockery, cosmetics, fashion accessories, handmade sweets and local specialties, icons, ceramics, organic jams, candles at the "Christmas Bazaar", at Abraham's House, south of the Old Town.
In the bazaar, there will also be a space for articles produced in the monasteries by nuns from many religious congregations.
The Christmas market will also have concerts and short artistic performances.
Women belonging to different cultures, nationalities and faith communities, will spend the whole day together.
The one-day market is managed by the Secours Catholique association (the French Caritas).
"These women, from different religions, different nationalities, with very different lives, will spend the whole day together, to get to know each other better and to discover their common destiny: to put their know-how at the service of their community or their family to offer them a dignified life," writes Florence Budry on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
"All these nuns, all these mothers, sisters and daughters proudly present their work, the result of their imagination and talent, after sometimes long hours of vigilance, seeking perfection while already thinking of the buyer's satisfaction," Budry said.
"Repeated hostile and repressive acts"
The initiative hosted by Abraham's House acquires importance as it aims to re-propose a space for meeting and friendship between people belonging to communities of different faiths and nationalities, after the unfortunate event that occurred at the end of October.
Israeli policemen and plainclothes agents had at that time raided the House, abruptly interrupting a festival of cultural activities that they prosecuted as "illegal" by virtue of its alleged traceability to the Palestinian National Authority.
On October 26, a three-day cultural festival co-sponsored by the Palestinian National Theater, the National Conservatory of Music and the Mobile Theater opened there.
Sponsored by the United Nations and organizations from France and Austria, it included the creation of theatrical and musical workshops aimed at young Palestinians living in the area.
According to international media, plainclothes police and other personnel forcibly interrupted the activity and showed the person in charge of the House an order to cancel the activities in progress, signed by Omer Barlev, Israeli Minister for Public Security.
The order was for the cancellation of the festival as it was "supported and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority without written permission".
The October 26 incident provoked a sharp reaction from the Assembly of the Heads of the Catholic Churches of the Holy Land, which in a statement expressed "concern" at the "repeated hostile and repressive acts" implemented in the Holy City by the Israeli authorities "towards everything that is considered Palestinian".
Abraham's House offers hospitality to pilgrims and supports initiatives in favor of Palestinian families residing in the area. Like the Saint-Anne Church in the old city, this building enjoys the "protection" of the French authorities.
Violence in heart of the three Abrahamic faith communities
The Holy Land was devastated by the 11-day armed conflict in May this year.
On May 21, Israel and the Palestinian armed factions of Hamas, the Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, agreed to a ceasefire.
Nearly 12 deaths were reported in the Israeli territory in the rocket attack by the Hamas. The Israeli air force raids caused the death of 227 of people, including 65 children and 39 women.
The Palestinians have for decades sought an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem from territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war.
Although Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 it imposed a blockade when the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized power from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces in 2007.
The Israeli government has increased settlements, claiming that the West Bank, known in the Bible as Judea and Samaria, historically belonged to the people of Israel.
Since Pope St. John Paul II, who spent five days in the Holy Land in March 2000, the Catholic Church has been active in solving the vexed Palestinian issue.
The 2015 Vatican agreement recognized Palestine as a state and endorsed the two-state solution.
Violence in the Holy Land, heart of the three Abrahamic faith communities, has always occupied a special place in world politics.
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