By MARIAM FAM (Associated Press)
It’s usually a second of pure pleasure for the Rev. Khader Khalilia: the thrill, the giggles, the kisses, as his younger daughters — of their Christmas pajamas — open their presents. But this yr, simply the considered it fills Khalilia with guilt.
“I’m struggling,” mentioned the Palestinian American pastor of Redeemer-St. John’s Lutheran Church in New York. “How can I do it while the Palestinian children are suffering, have no shelter or a place to lay their heads?”
Thousands of miles away, close to Jesus’ biblical birthplace of Bethlehem, Suzan Sahori has been working with artisans to convey olive wooden Christmas ornaments into properties in Australia, Europe and North America. But Sahori is in no temper for festivities: “We’re broken, looking at all these children, all this killing.”
In a standard season of merriment, many Palestinian Christians — in Bethlehem and past — are gripped with helplessness, ache and fear amid the Israel-Hamas struggle. Some are mourning, lobbying for the struggle to finish, scrambling to get family to security or in search of consolation within the Christmas message of hope.
In the occupied West Bank, Sahori, government director of Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, a company promoting crafts, will pray for peace and justice. She’s grateful she’s protected — however wonders if that would change. She’s additionally offended.
“The joy in my heart is stolen,” she mentioned. “I’m saying, ‘God, how are you allowing all these children to die?’ … I’m mad at God; I hope He forgives me.”
In higher instances, she finds the Christmas spirit within the Bethlehem space unmatched: It’s in songs cascading into streets bedecked with lights, markets displaying decorations, and the passion of kids, households and vacationers snapping images with towering Christmas bushes.
Now, it’s all quieter, somber. Tree lighting ceremonies she attended final yr have been scrapped.
The heads of church buildings in Jerusalem have urged congregations to forgo “any unnecessarily festive activities.” They inspired clergymen and the trustworthy to give attention to Christmas’ non secular which means and referred to as for “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land.”
Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7 killings and hostage-taking in Israel.
Days earlier than Christmas, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem mentioned two Christian girls at a church compound in Gaza had been killed by Israeli sniper hearth. The Israeli army mentioned troops had been focusing on Hamas militants within the space; it mentioned it was investigating the incident and takes such studies very critically.
Khalilia is striving to consolation the distraught amid his misery.
“It’s hard to watch. It’s hard to do your job,” he mentioned. “People are looking for us to walk with them in their suffering.”
He worries about household within the West Bank; a brother misplaced his earnings working for a resort as journey cancellations pummeled tourism.
Khalilia, who’s from a city close to Bethlehem, mentioned his daughters will probably get fewer presents, with the financial savings going towards serving to youngsters in Gaza.
Many within the U.S., he mentioned, don’t notice that Palestinian Christians exist — some ask if he transformed from Islam or Judaism.
He tells them, “When you sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ on Christmas Eve, remember that Jesus was born in my hometown.”
There are 50,000 Christian Palestinians estimated to reside within the West Bank and Jerusalem, in keeping with the U.S. State Department’s worldwide spiritual freedom report for 2022. Approximately 1,300 Christians lived in Gaza, it mentioned. Some Christians are additionally residents of Israel. Many Palestinian Christians reside in diaspora communities.
Susan Muaddi Darraj, a novelist in Baltimore, mentioned Christians embody a variety of Palestinians that will get erased. “Our existence … defies the stereotypes that are being used to dehumanize us.”
This Christmas, household gatherings have develop into extra vital for consolation, she mentioned.
“Especially in the diaspora … where, for us, life feels like it’s stopped but everyone else around us is going about their daily business.”
Wadie Abunassar, a Palestinian Israeli in Haifa, mentioned many in his Christian group try to steadiness the somber environment with the Christmas message.
“Jesus came in the midst of darkness” and Christmas “is about giving hope when there’s no hope,” mentioned Abunassar, a former Catholic Church spokesperson. “Nowadays, more than ever, we need this Christmas spirit.”
It hasn’t been straightforward.
“Being Israeli citizens, we feel the pain of our Jewish compatriots,” he mentioned. “Being Palestinians, we feel the pain of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
In Bethlehem, the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, mentioned tears movement throughout Sunday providers. Many are anxious; some have packed up and left.
Isaac was a part of a bunch that traveled to Washington to advocate for a ceasefire.
“A comprehensive and just peace is the only hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” mentioned a letter signed by a number of Christian pastoral leaders in Bethlehem. Addressed to President Joe Biden, it requested him to assist cease the struggle.
The signatories mentioned they lamented all deaths, Palestinian and Israeli.
“We want a constant and comprehensive ceasefire. Enough death. Enough destruction. … This is our call and prayer this Christmas.”
Israel, whose forces have confronted a ccusations by a few of utilizing extreme drive, says it goals to destroy Hamas and accuses it of endangering civilians. Israel and its U.S. ally are additionally more and more dealing with worldwide alarm over the scope of deaths, destruction and displacement in Gaza.
Isaac’s church is displaying a nativity scene the place a child Jesus determine, wrapped in a back-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh, is mendacity within the rubble. Making the show was an emotional and non secular expertise, he mentioned.
“We see Jesus in every child that’s killed, and we see God’s identifying with us in our suffering.”
This vacation season, longtime Gaza resident Suhair Anastas is wracked with guilt: She’s managed to flee the struggle in Gaza whereas others haven’t.
A Jordanian Palestinian, Anastas had been residing in Gaza, the place her late husband was from.
For greater than a month, she and her 16-year-old daughter sheltered in a Catholic church’s college there. Death felt significantly shut when a lethal Israeli airstrike struck a Gaza Greek Orthodox Church compound housing displaced individuals. Israel’s army mentioned it had focused a Hamas command heart close by.
“You go to sleep … thinking, ‘Will I wake up the next morning?’” Anastas mentioned.
Her journey to the border — which concerned driving, strolling, taking a donkey-pulled cart and a cab — was terrifying.
“The bombings were around,” she mentioned. A pal’s daughter, a toddler, stored asking: Are we going to die?
Anastas hopes to return to Gaza, however she’s uncertain what’s forward, or if her house will nonetheless be there.
Among the numerous questions over the way forward for Gaza and its greater than 2 million individuals, is that if its tiny Christian group will stay — and for the way lengthy.
Those nonetheless inside embrace Sami Awad’s family. A Palestinian American, Awad mentioned he did not get U.S. assist for his relations, who don’t maintain U.S. passports, to go away.
They have moved repeatedly, their newest shelter a windowless cement construction shared with others, mentioned Awad, who’s within the West Bank. In sporadic communications, a cousin’s informed him they had been operating out of the canned tuna and beans they’ve survived on.
He as soon as informed Awad, “If we die, don’t grieve too much for us, because it would have been mercy for us,” Awad mentioned. At different instances, the cousin yelled, “Save us. Get us out.”
“I feel completely helpless,” mentioned Awad, dreading the prospect of unhealthy information at any minute.
Hope got here within the type of Australian visas for his family, together with an aged aunt and uncle, Awad mentioned, however their names aren’t on lists wanted to depart.
On Christmas, he mentioned, “We’ll wake up, like every other day, to watch the news and to see what are the numbers of people that were killed.”
Awad wasn’t fascinated by placing up a Christmas tree till his youngest daughter argued for one.
So now, a tree is up. On it, amid gold and purple baubles, is a purple, black, white and inexperienced Palestinian flag.
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Associated Press author Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.
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Associated Press faith protection receives help by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content material.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”