Based on a power sharing agreement, the Mayor of Bethlehem from May 2025 to April 2026 Dr. Maher Nicola Canawati, regardless of continued Israeli dominance, intransigeance and violence, carries hope for peace. His hope rests on his understanding of history combined with his vision for the future. His next appointment is the Palestinian ambassadorship to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
You come from a prominent Palestinian Orthodox Christian family. Can you tell us about your family?
My family can be traced back to 1511 to the Teqowa valley near Bethlehem. They were in the transport business, transporting pilgrims from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on donkeys, camels and horses. Our family’s history has been orally transmitted. It includes three brothers. Firstly, Faraj, who had 12 children, who were sentenced to death by the Ottoman authorities sometime in the early 16th century. To avoid this fate, the family converted to Islam. Their descendants’ family name became Khleif. My family and the Khleifs consider to be and call each other cousins. The Freij family, from the second brother, remained Christian; in the latter part of the 20th century, one of its descendants served as the Mayor of Bethlehem for 25 years, then as the Palestinian Minister for Tourism and Antiquities. Finally, there was Farraj, the third brother. A few centuries ago, he was key in resolving a mechanical problem of the water-channel system connecting the Solomon Pools near Bethlehem to the 2000-year-old Jerusalem aqueduct. Hence the name Canawati, of whom I am one. My family founded and ran a successful business creating and selling artifacts in the Holy Land.
You were elected mayor of Bethlehem in May 2025. Were you not concerned about taking on this appointment considering the very many challenges it entailed? Have you been able to do anything about them?
I wanted to serve. Once you become a public servant you have to find ways to help, to support, and improve lives. If that becomes impossible, you try to provide at least the minimum so that the people stay. Staying is central to Palestinians. There is a deep connection to the land, its history. It is extraordinary, that despite the hardships and better opportunities elsewhere, most choose to stay.
Among the challenges are the chocking Israeli settlements around Bethlehem; the 134 IDF check points; the scarcity of water, Bethlehem sits on a large basin of water, but Israel prevents us from digging for it, while it sells us only one fifth of the water we need; lack of tourism, which was the main source of income for the city; trash collection because of lack of fuel for the trucks, people have no more money, while the Israeli authorities are not handing over taxes collected (e.g. custom duties) for and owed to the Palestinian Authority. Bethlehem was able to ensure an extra pipe for the provision of additional water through the Palestinian Authority.
Due to Israeli imposed control and multiple restrictions, we are limited in how much we can do. The Israeli settlements have increased from 23 a couple of years ago, to 30. These settlements come with increased settler violence. This includes burning of our fields, of thousands of our olive trees, houses, cars; they steal our livestock and confiscate land. Just the way they look at us is threatening, they feel protected, especially since the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, allowed them to carry rifles in self-defense, giving them a green light to kill us, they do so, though it is the IDF that is responsible for the majority of killings. We don’t feel safe to go out to harvest our orchards. You can’t leave your home, your city without thinking about your security, that of your family and neighbours. You can copy-paste this description to all the governorates in Palestine.
I fight, peacefully. I have created the Guardians of Bethlehem Initiative to create partnerships with and support from cities throughout the world. I send messages around the world, making our voices heard. This contributes to changes in how the world sees the Israeli-Palestinian question.
In 1947, Bethlehem was 85 percent Christian, today it is 20 to 25 percent Christian, Muslims make up 80 percent of its population. More than half left after the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967. Are you concerned that the Christian presence of Bethlehem and in the Palestinian territories overall, will continue to fall?
We, Palestinians, do not differentiate between Christian and Muslim Palestinians. The occupation is affecting all Palestinians alike. Emigration is affecting all Palestinians.
Under the Oslo Accords of 1995, Bethlehem city is located in area A, covering 18 percent of the Palestinian territories, which is under full authority of the PA. Has Bethlehem been spared from incursions by the Israeli Defence Forces?
Except for a couple of years after signing the Accords, Israel has regularly violated the clauses of the Accords. Since October 2023, incursions have occurred daily, people have been detained, homes are attacked, even though there are no terrorists in Bethlehem. As for regular outlaws, the Palestinian security forces have shown that they are effective at handling them. We feel safe in areas where they are present and active. That may not be the case with the Israeli police, look at cities like Nazareth and Haifa where daily shooting of innocent people occurs on the streets, in the shops and homes. However, when Israeli forces conduct raids in the West Bank, the Palestinian police cannot perform its duties, that is when criminals profit from the situation.
As a child you witnessed people close to you being killed by the Israel Defense Forces, as well as an assault on your family home and business. Can you explain the reasons for these events?
Yes, my friend Milad, 11 years old, was shot in the head on 5 May 1989, I saw his brain on the wall, I saw him die. At that time, I was shot in the hand. I also saw my cousin Jimmy being killed when returning from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in 1997. Every day, I ask myself what the reason for these killings was. What could an 11-year -old child have done to deserve a bullet in his head? You should ask the question to the individuals who pulled the trigger and shot them. You should ask the Israelis why they killed 25,000 babies and children and injured 45,000 other children in Gaza over the last two years.
Under the pretext that we didn’t pay all the required taxes, the Israeli civilian authorities flanked by uniformed personnel, presenting an illegal act as legal, confiscated all the gold from our shop, they sold it at an auction the next day without even informing us. The same day, they also vandalised our home and seized everything of value they found in it.
You identify as Christian and Palestinian. You said that Palestinians want to share the land and live in peace in order to prosper. Many challenge that, they say that Palestinians in Gaza voted for a terrorist organisation, i.e. Hamas, after Israel withdrew from the enclave, that the Palestinian territories are full of terrorists whom the IDF is after, and that Palestinians want to reconquer the whole of historic Palestine. What is your response?
Palestinian history did not begin with Hamas, which was founded in 1987 as a result of the occupation, nor did the Palestinian story begin on 7 October, 2023. Therefore, do not confuse a people with an organization. Do not confuse Palestinian identity with Hamas. We must reject the dangerous idea that an entire people can be judged by the actions of an armed or political organization. Just as Jewish people around the world cannot be held responsible for every action of the Israeli government, Palestinians around the world cannot be held responsible for the actions of Hamas. We must condemn the killing of innocent Israelis, while at the same time we must condemn the killing and suffering of innocent Palestinians. These positions are not contradictory. Human life does not become less valuable because of nationality, religion, ethnicity or which side of a border someone was born on.
Long before Hamas existed, Palestinians lived in the Holy Land alongside Jewish communities. During the terrible years of persecution of Jews in Europe, when many countries severely restricted entry to Jewish refugees, Palestine became one of the destinations sought by Jews escaping persecution and, later, by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Among the latter, there were many destitute people that Europe did not want to receive. My grand-father Michael was among the Palestinians who welcomed Jews. He offered a Jewish family shelter and jobs on his farm. This was in 1940. The history of that entire period also included political opposition, fear, violence, cooperation, and coexistence. We should acknowledge that complexity rather than rewrite it.
Eighty years after Jews proclaimed the state of Israel, Palestinians live under occupation and hardship. Many choose to believe that Palestinians do not want peace. It is not the Palestinians, but a complex web of events that brought us to where we are today, with the occupation being the most significant. We are treated so inhumanely, we have no control over most aspects of our lives, we have none of the rights that human beings enjoy almost anywhere else in the world. We want peace, a better future, we want to co-exist. If we look at history unfold since 1948, from the Nakba to the current genocide, the question is to Israel: does it want to co-exist?
You visited the Pope after you were appointed mayor. You sought his support to bring an end to the war. What has the Vatican been able to do?
The Vatican and the Catholic Church have been of great support to our local community. Catholic organisations in Palestine support schools, universities, hospitals, and provide jobs. Churches of other denominations are also helping. They are trying to protect what is left of the Christian community, which continues to decline. As Lutheran Reverend Mitri Raheb recently observed, if the current conditions continue, referring mostly to the occupation, by 2050, there will be no more Christian Palestinians in the Holy Land. It breaks my heart to think about the Holy Land without its Christian community. However, we will never lose hope, never give up, we will keep trying. I will continue to teach my children to seek peace, to keep a warm heart to share with all those who want to share this Holy Land.
In November 2025, on the 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process that established the Union for the Mediterranean, you stated that Bethlehem will one day stand as a symbol of justice, peace and human dignity. What is your hope based on, spirituality or reality?
That is a very good question. We remain hopeful. I have some kind of a vision, I see Bethlehem in a different place as you described it. We have reached the bottom with all the hardships we are facing and enduring. This flags the end of an era, and the start of a new one -soon. I want to believe deep inside my heart that it is in the process of happening. All it takes is just one decision, a choice between war and peace, between killing and living, between apartheid and co-existence, just one simple decision. The world is changing. Its understanding of this conflict is shaped by increased awareness, insight and clarity. There are even voices now in Israel calling for justice, co-existence and a Palestinian state. We are there. We need to pick our leaders well. It is my profound hope that Israelis will pick a leader with peace his/her heart. I want the current situation to become history. My hope is based both in vision and reality.