A Palestinian Christian pastor reflects on the message of Christmas during a time of loss and devastation.

Even as Israel slides further into religious fascism, and chants of “death to the Arabs” become commonplace, there are still those who say “I’ll wait and see.” It is time for them to speak up.

Despite hearing a stirring call to protect the Palestinian Christian community while in Bethlehem, U.S. church leaders lament Biden’s visit “did little to advance the cause of peace.”

Meeting in its General Convention, the Episcopal Church adopted resolutions which condemn Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people, call for the President and Congress to oppose punishing active support for nonviolent boycotts, and call for conditioning U.S. military assistance on human rights. In addition, they point to the escalating threats to Christians living in the Holy Land.

Palestinian Christians join international human rights organizations and a growing number of church bodies in naming Israel as an apartheid state. 

Mitri Raheb exposes the West’s invention of “the persecution of Christians” as a justification for hegemonic intervention and colonization.

Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Patriarchate condemns restrictions imposed by Jerusalem police on the numbers of Palestinian Christians that may enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre this Saturday, one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar. “The Patriarchate is fed up with police restrictions on freedom to worship,” the Patriarchate statement reads, “with its unacceptable methods of dealing with the God given rights of Christians to… have to access their holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem.”

Palestinian Christians are being used to advance Israel’s colonialist goals. Palestinian Evangelical leadership must be held accountable for the role they are playing.

Church leaders in Jerusalem have expressed their “gravest concern and unequivocal objection” to an Israeli plan to extend the Jerusalem Walls National Park to include the Mount of Olives, one of Christianity’s holiest sites.

Last week, Palestinian Christians paid tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu who died in December last year. The prayer service was held where Tutu prayed when he visited Beit Sahour in 1989.