{"id":61310,"date":"2013-12-24T18:58:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=61310"},"modified":"2013-12-24T18:58:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:58:53","slug":"crowds-gather-in-bethlehem-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=61310","title":{"rendered":"Crowds Gather in Bethlehem for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Palestinian1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-61307\" alt=\"\u054d\u0578\u0582\u0580\u0562 \u053e\u0576\u0576\u0578\u0582\u0576\u0564, \u0532\u0565\u0569\u056d\u0565\u0570\u0565\u0574\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Palestinian1.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"186\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Large crowds have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of tourists packed the town&#8217;s Manger Square to enjoy the cool, sunny weather ahead of celebrations on Tuesday evening. The nearby Church of the Nativity sits on the spot where tradition says Jesus was born.<\/p>\n<p>The number of visitors remains below the levels of the late 1990s, when Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts were at their height. Following the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, the numbers plunged.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/unnamed3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-61308\" alt=\"\u054d\u0578\u0582\u0580\u0562 \u053e\u0576\u0576\u0578\u0582\u0576\u0564, \u0532\u0565\u0569\u056d\u0565\u0570\u0565\u0574\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/unnamed3.jpg\" width=\"235\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/unnamed3.jpg 336w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/unnamed3-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But thanks to a period of relative calm, they have been steadily climbing in recent years \u2014 and are expected to get an extra push this year thanks to the resumption of peace talks.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinian Tourism Minister Rula Maayah says the Palestinians &#8220;deserve to have peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/\">\u0531\u0576\u056f\u0561\u056d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Large crowds have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem for Christmas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":61307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,224,137],"tags":[5180,4806],"class_list":["post-61310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-news","category-world","tag-bethlehem","tag-christmas","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}