Pope Frances condemned the Israeli bombing in Gaza in his annual Christmas address, telling Cardinals and other senior leaders in the Vatican, “This is cruelty, not war.”
Palestinian Christians suffer from a crisis of representation, as some church leaders and community members disassociate from the Palestinian struggle and perpetuate the perception that they are a “minority.”
Christians in Palestine called on the world to not celebrate Christmas this year in solidarity with Gaza. Yet many Christian leaders choose to stand with Israel without caring about the land of the man they are supposedly celebrating.
On Christmas Eve, congregants gathered at the New Birth Missionary Baptist church for a service unlike any other: the church choir wore keffiyehs, Palestinians shared stories of the Nakba, and the pastor’s call was clear: a ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian Christian pastor reflects on the message of Christmas during a time of loss and devastation.
The biblical Christmas story is not a fairy tale from the distant past but a highly political story can profoundly identify with in December 2023. It is a Palestinian story par excellence.
During Christmas week, settlers backed by Israeli police took over land owned by the Greek Orthodox Church in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, displacing the Palestinian family renting it.
Last week, His Beatitude Theophilos III, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, led the annual interfaith lighting of a Christmas tree inside Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. The lighting this year took place at the Imperial Hotel, a Greek Orthodox property that Israeli settlers sought to occupy earlier this year.
“This simple ceremony of the lighting of a tree shows us the way and shines as a sign of hope in the darkness,” he said. For Palestinians, the celebration of Christmas—on town squares, in churches, and in homes—is itself a creative act of nonviolent resistance.
Every year thousands of Christians from around the world travel to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas. But just 46 miles away, an entire community of Palestinian Christians is banned from traveling to the city, even for the holidays.
In the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Christmas is the biggest day of the year. The holiday typically draws thousands of Palestinians and foreigners alike to the city, which adorns its streets and churches in beautiful lights and decorations for the season. But this year, COVID-19 has changed all of that. Manger Square and the Church of Nativity have been emptied of their usual visitors, and Palestinian Christian families have been forced to spend their most precious day of the year under lockdown.