In the early hours of last week, flames engulfed a Christmas tree outside the Holy Redeemer Church in Jenin, reducing it to charred metal and ash. The tree had stood only briefly, a public symbol placed by a small Christian community trying to assert its presence amid growing lawlessness and intimidation in the city. Its destruction was not accidental. It was deliberate and targeted, intended to send a message.

The tree stood at the Holy Redeemer Church, which is associated with the Latin Monastery Church, in Jenin, Judea and Samaria. Two weeks earlier, the church had lit the tree for the first time in two years, presenting it as a sign of hope amid hardship and violence. Church representatives stated that the light was intended as a gesture of solidarity with Gaza and Palestinian society as a whole. That first tree was destroyed almost immediately after it was erected. When a replacement was installed, Palestinian extremists returned and set it on fire as well.

Local reports and social media footage clearly showed the burning. No attempt was made to conceal the act. There were no arrests reported. The church announced shortly afterward that it intended to relight the tree again, refusing to retreat despite the intimidation.

Christians in Jenin are a tiny and shrinking community. Their church did not stage a political provocation. It erected a Christmas tree. The response was arson. This was not resistance. It was coercion. The same extremist culture that celebrates the murder of Jews has no tolerance for Christians who refuse to conform or disappear. That reality is rarely acknowledged by Western churches or media outlets that prefer a more straightforward narrative.

The contrast with events farther south could not be sharper. In Bethlehem, a city under Israeli security control, a 65-foot Christmas tree was lit on December 6 at the edge of Manger Square. It was the first public lighting there since December 2022. Attendance was smaller than in pre-war years, but pilgrims who arrived during Advent described the event as calm, orderly, and deeply meaningful. The ceremony went forward without threats, without firebombs, and without mobs enforcing ideological purity.