![Issa Kassissieh, dressed as Santa Claus, carries a Christmas tree outside the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. [mondoweiss]](/sites/default/files/styles/d08_standard/public/im/Israel/Christmas_Trees__Banned_in_Nazareth-600x374.jpg?itok=IE05KdEW "Issa Kassissieh, dressed as Santa Claus, carries a Christmas tree outside the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. [mondoweiss]")
he speaker of Israeli parliament has denied a request by a Christian lawmaker to display a Christmas tree in the parliament building, a spokesman for the speaker says.
Speaker Yuli Edelstein rejected his colleague’s request to publicly display a Christmas tree, but said he could have one in his office or in his party’s conference room, the Associated Press reported.
A spokesman for Edelstein said on Monday that keeping a tree in Parliament until Orthodox Christmas ends on January 7 would be too long.
This isn’t the first ban on Christmas trees in Israel.
The mayor of an Israeli town bordering Nazareth has refused to allow town-sponsored Christmas trees in the past, despite the fact that the town has some Christian residents.
