Christmas cancelled: US Palestinians feel no holiday joy amid war on Gaza Christian Palestinians in the US are muting their holiday celebrations as they mourn the ongoing suffering in Gaza.
Washington, DC – Huwaida Arraf’s house is usually the most brightly decorated in her Michigan neighbourhood at Christmastime.
But this year, with war raging in Gaza, the Palestinian American human rights lawyer is hanging only one sign in her front yard: “Bethlehem canceled Christmas because Israel is slaughtering Palestinians #GazaGenocide.”
Like many Palestinian Christians, Arraf is not celebrating the holiday this year. As the death toll in Gaza soars past 18,600, she and others Al Jazeera spoke to are struggling to enjoy the holiday season. Flashes of happiness — if they come — are often drenched in guilt.
“There is really no joy right now — no joy to be had, no joy that can be had,” Arraf, a mother of two who lives in the Detroit area, said.
“How can the world really celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of the prince of peace, when in the very homeland and the very place that he was born, there’s such atrocious crimes against humanity taking place and nothing is being done to stop it?”
Arraf is hardly alone. In the United States, activists and Palestinian Americans are taking cues from Palestine, where many churches and Christian communities have nixed their Christmas celebrations to honour the dead and protest the continuing Israeli violence.
Even Bethlehem, considered the birthplace of Jesus in the occupied West Bank, has seen quiet streets and dimmed decorations where ordinarily there would be revellers and light. The Lutheran Church in the city is displaying a nativity scene that shows Jesus as a child born in the rubble to reflect the destruction in Gaza.
“If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling,” Reverend Munther Isaac told Al Jazeera last week.
“Bethlehem is sad and broken,” he added, reflecting on the sense of helplessness he and other residents feel as bombs continue to rain down on Gaza.
Celebrations ‘just very muted’
Thousands of miles away, in the United States, many Palestinian and Arab Americans share that anguish and pain.
“There’s no joy. There’s no celebration. It’s hard to celebrate when we have a lot of family and friends and countrymen who are suffering a genocide. It’s just kind of incongruent,” said Nabil Khoury, a physician from southeast Michigan.
“So, unfortunately, no Christmas tree this year, and no big gatherings. It’s just very muted.”
Christmas traditions are intimately tied to Palestine. The area is home to some of the holiest places in Christianity, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in annexed East Jerusalem.
For decades, Palestinians have drawn on that history — and the imagery of Jesus — to protest the Israeli occupation of their territories, particularly around Christmastime. Leading human rights groups like Amnesty International have compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to “apartheid“, noting a pattern of unlawful killing, detention and discrimination.
Some Palestinians note, for example, that if Jesus were born today in Bethlehem, the three wise men who visited him in the Biblical story would have to traverse a towering concrete “separation” wall that Israel built, dividing the city from nearby Jerusalem.
A nativity scene at the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank [Munjed Jado/Al Jazeera]...
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Poster Comment:
Videos:
Why Are Palestinian Christians Leaving Jesus’ Birthplace? [Pt. 1] (one year ago)
Palestinian Christians have been disappearing from the Holy Land for decades, even though this region is where Christianity began. So what’s going on? Dena Takruri goes to Bethlehem to ask the Palestinian Christians who remain.
1:35 Why have so many Christians left Bethlehem?
2:21 How Israel’s occupation affects Christians
5:53 What the West gets wrong about the Holy Land
7:17 This Christian family is fighting Israel to keep their land
11:18 A pastor’s prayer to end the occupation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa6igKc1M9s
How Evangelicals Betray Christians In The Holy Land [Pt. 2]
Dec 12, 2022 #Christianity #Palestine
For millions of American evangelical Christians, supporting Israel is a core part of their faith. They believe Israel needs to exist so that the “end times” prophecies and return of Jesus Christ are guaranteed.
But what does that support mean for people who share their religion but live under Israeli occupation? Dena talks to Palestinian Christians about the evangelical Christian Zionist movement.
0:50 What is Christian Zionism?
1:49 Why this American Christian has devoted her life to helping Israel
2:40 Christian Palestinians react to Christian Zionists
4:06 What some evangelicals believe the Bible says about the “end times”
7:01 Who’s behind the most powerful Christian Zionist organization?
9:04 Why do Christian Zionists support Israel’s oppression?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHT-SjIM0tA
I found both the Videos and comments well worth the relatively short time.
It sounds like the horrific genocide and destruction of the last two months is red-pilling some Zionized Christians.