Uncle Sam's Christmas Greetings To Palestinian Children In Gaza & West Bank
"Unfortunately, we don’t hear the Christian community actually doing much about the atrocity happening in Gaza today."
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
Christmas Canceled In Bethlehem As Churches Mourn 20,000+ Palestinians Killed in Gaza
“I find it really a shame that in this season, where every church hears these words, “peace on Earth,” that the United States is vetoing even a ceasefire. It’s a shame.”
Democracy Now! (12/22/23)
In “mourning and honor” of Palestinians killed in Gaza, the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has announced the cancellation of traditional Christmas festivities. In Bethlehem, we’re joined by the president of Dar al-Kalima University, Reverend Mitri Raheb. Reverend Raheb relates the story of Jesus, a refugee whose mother had no place to safely give birth, to the plight of displaced Gazans facing a dearth of medical care.
“The Christmas story actually is a Palestinian story, par excellence,” he tells us, yet “we don’t hear the Christian community actually doing much about the atrocity happening in Gaza today.” As the world turns its back on the ongoing genocide, Rehab says he fears this could be “the end of the Christian presence in Gaza.”
The true story of Christmas 2023: Baby Jesus in the rubble swaddled in a kifya.
“Imagine if a synagogue was attacked and 20 Jewish worshipers in a synagogue were killed by an airstrike by any country. The whole Christian world will be in uproar. Unfortunately, we don’t hear the Christian community actually doing much about the atrocity happening in Gaza today.”
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NEWS VIDEO CENSORED: West Bank Nativity In Solidarity With Gazan Palestinians
(EDITOR NOTE: This video was available when I viewed and selected it for this post late-morning of Dec. 22. By early the next morning it had been pulled. This is just one example of the countless ways the news about the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza is being smothered and manipulated. At this point, believe nothing stated by the governments of either the U.S. or Israel about their genocide. They want our minds to be occupied territory. Resist! — Mark Taylor)
Associated Press (12/23/23)
In solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the municipality of Bethlehem has organized an artwork called “Nativity under the Rubble” in Manger Square where a decorated Christmas tree usually stands.
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Congressional Staff Tried To Protect Gazan Churches By Sending Detailed Location Data To Israel
The Israeli military received and confirmed the coordinates of the church and covenant in Gaza, both of which aid groups say were later struck by rockets and snipers.
By Erin Banco
Politico (12/21/23)
A church and a convent that were struck in Gaza last week were listed among Christian facilities congressional staffers had flagged to Israeli authorities for protection — according to a series of emails from October.
The staffers at the senate and the aid organization were granted anonymity so they can continue to help protect civilians in Gaza without fear of retribution.
The emails, which were obtained by POLITICO, show an increasingly frenzied back-and-forth between Catholic Relief Services — one of the largest Christian aid organizations in Gaza — and Senate staff over an effort to get a commitment from Israel to avoid targeting a number of buildings where its staff and civilians were sheltering.
The Latin Patriarchate — the Catholic body that oversees the region— alleged in a public statement that an Israeli rocket landed in the Convent of the Missionaries of Charity and snipers shot and killed a mother and daughter walking on the grounds of the Holy Family Church last weekend. The two buildings are in a shared compound. …
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‘It’s impossible to celebrate’: Gaza war Opens Fissures Among US Christians
By Isabeau Doucet
The Guardian (12/24/23)
In Bethlehem in the West Bank, the birthplace of Jesus, Christmas has been canceled. There will be no trees, no lights, no choirs or celebrations.
Instead of a manger, at the Lutheran church in Bethlehem, the baby Jesus lies swaddled in a keffiyeh, half buried in a pile of rubble.
“It’s impossible to celebrate when there’s a massacre, a genocide, taking place in Gaza with our people,” Pastor Munther Ishaq, told Al Jazeera.
In the US, some Christians are following suit. “The only gift that Palestinians want to have is a Christmas ceasefire gift,” said the Rev Khader Khalila, who grew up in Bethlehem, and is now at The Redeemer-St John’s Lutheran church in Brooklyn. Khalila will not be exchanging gifts this year, even with his own two children, and will instead donate money to organizations helping children in Gaza and rebuilding efforts.
The United States is home to the world’s largest population of Christians – a diverse faith group profoundly divided along denominational and political lines. These divisions are on stark display when it comes to the war in holy land. …
“And for me, as a pastor, I have to say, you know, imagine — imagine if a synagogue was attacked and 20 Jewish worshipers in a synagogue were killed by an airstrike by any country. The whole Christian world will be in uproar. Unfortunately, we don’t hear the Christian community actually doing much about the atrocity happening in Gaza today.”
— Reverend Mitri Raheb. President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, Palestinian Christian theologian who’s authored many books, including Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People, the Bible.
The “unshakeable” bond between US and Israel which is also called the Judeo-Christian alliance, is in truth a euphemism for the Synagogue of Satan. And Satan has no business celebrating Jesus. On the contrary, he celebrates the antichrist...
You deserve more reader comments, M.T.
There are just too many moving parts in this M.E. conflict to not easily avoid an escalation. Expect matters to get worse.
On related themes . . .
The long and rich history of the contemporary genocides of the cultured, cultivated Europeans, The Americans and the Brits., to nominate yet a few.
And first, of Washington's lost Ukrainian Proxy War to weaken Russia and pillage its resources, perhaps the greatest and most feckless imperial play, something of a progress update.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/genocide-and-economics
Free to subscribe . . . The Dead Do Not Die.
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