Israel’s War On Christmas
On this special day, remember that what Israel is doing is an affront to all religion.
This piece was originally published by Palestine At Indiana University newsletter
This is the second Christmas in a row in which Israel has waged the brutal war on the Palestinians. The bombs continue to fall, the bullets continue to fly and the civilian death toll continues to increase. If you are fortunate enough to be able to spend this special time in the comfort of family or friends, spare thoughts for those whose comfort has been stolen. What Israel continues to do is an affront to any religion.
Last week, in his annual Christmas address to Vatican leadership, The Pope condemned Israel’s stream of atrocities against children: “Yesterday, children were bombed… This is cruelty, not a war. I want to say this because it touches the heart.” Pope Francis has repeatedly called Israel’s attacks on Gaza a genocide.
The leader of the Catholic faith recognizes the principles set forth by Jesus Christ are being violated on a daily basis, all with full support from the West. Israel’s attacks strike at the heart of the Christian morality and symbolism. Bethlehem, the city of Jesus’ birth is still under the shadow of Israel’s broader escalations within the West bank.
In a recent sermon, Bethlehem Reverend Munther Isaac described the dire situation there and directly called on the US to stop funding Israel’s genocide, noting that “Christ is still under the rubble.” He was recently interviewed on Democracy Now! In order to call attention to their plight.
Writing in the Electronic Intifada, Amy Abdelnoor compares the current plight of Palestinians to the story of Mary and Joseph on their journey to find an inn to give birth to Christ.
The truth is there would be plenty of room at the inns of Bethlehem for Mary and Joseph today, the hotels of the town being largely empty, its tourist trade, which was already hit hard by coronavirus, is now wholly decimated by the escalation of Israeli violence in the West Bank and its ongoing massacres in Gaza.
Of course, to even knock at the doors of the hotels of the little town would require the young couple to be able to travel from Nazareth and reach Bethlehem in the first place.
Their route by car or by foot would be considerably more complicated today than covering that same distance by donkey over 2,000 years ago. Military checkpoints, forbidden roads and a 270-mile separation barrier – a combination of concrete walls, military-patrolled roads and barbed wire fences due to reach 440 miles in length once completed and illegal under international law – all block the way.
Abdelnoor notes that today, any women traveling to give birth face significant restrictions on their movement due to Israel’s apartheid system, and current genocide:
For years, they have been repeatedly detained at Israeli checkpoints throughout illegally occupied Palestine. Thirteen years ago, The Lancet, a British medical journal, recorded that between 2000 and 2007, 10 percent of pregnant Palestinian women were delayed at checkpoints every year while traveling to give birth in hospital, delays that caused 69 births at checkpoints and the deaths of five mothers and 35 infants.
This, of course, pales with the experience of pregnant women in Gaza over the last 14 months. Not only has Israel killed more women and children in the first year of the assault on Gaza than in any other equivalent time period in a conflict in the past 20 years, but the ruthless inhumanity imposed on pregnant women and infants is particularly acute.
As far back as April, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported that most of the 183 women who on average give birth daily in Gaza lack access to trained midwives, doctors or healthcare facilities as a result of Israel’s genocidal violence.
And for an estimated 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza as of December last year, anxiety and malnutrition are critical risk factors. “This number,” the IRC notes, “would have risen exponentially since then.” (Emphasis added)
Not only is Israel’s war a war on Palestinians continuing through the holiday, it also represents an attack on the principles that are embodied by Christmas. The ethnosupremacy-driven war of expansion and extermination stands in stark contrast to all of the world’s religions and holidays, which emphasize peace and love. If nothing else, today should be a reminder of that Zionism is an assault on these ideals, and we must continue to oppose it.
It is for me, and I imagine others, quite difficult to comprehend why such a world exists where Mothers die with their child in their womb at Israeli check-points (5 mothers and 35 infants) as you wrote. And far many more lives have been extinguished cruelly in the last year - while the world appears like it will, in the end, do nothing about the continuing slaughter of so many innocents, especially children who were never even given a chance to live a full life. You wonder why any of these victimized children were even put on this planet in the first place. Where is God in all this? Why does this horror filled reality even exist for some, and not for others? Where is the justice?
But I suppose that is why so many religions and spiritual traditions have what is called "faith". Something many will claim is unprovable, but yet the wonder is, inside many of us we can feel and know the terrible wrong that is being wrought, the horrific crime we have borne witness to against our will - against all humanity, that degrades all that we value and makes life meaningless and cheap and for many, not worth living.
Surely, Jesus, whomever he really was those 2,000 years ago, I think would never have condoned this mass murder of innocents. Surely, lying under all the rubble of GAZA, is the mystery of our existence, even as we stand alone in our "faith" that there must be a reason in all this mad horror. Perhaps it is a lesson for all our humanity? Perhaps existence is a divine play we all partake in, and the body is just a vehicle for our souls. Maybe "faith" is the only way any of this can make sense. Perhaps ... I don't know. I try to believe. Even now - I am reaching for some kind of faith. Amidst all this horror.