It’s Christmas Eve and the bombs are still dropping in Gaza. While children in much of the western world are anxiously waiting for tomorrow morning, hoping they get all the presents they asked for, kids in Gaza are trapped under the rubble where their houses once stood, or forced to relocate to tents because their worst nightmares have become their reality.
The festive lights and Christmas trees that normally decorate the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem are missing this year. So too are the crowds of foreign tourists that gather in the Palestinian town every year to mark this holiday. The nativity scene in Manger Square in Bethlehem features a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the thousands of children killed so far in the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounds the scene, trapping the occupants within its confines, just as the people of Gaza are trapped in the war zone. Take a moment today, as you spend time with loved ones, to remember the pain these innocent people are experiencing, as well as our complicity in their suffering.
“Our message every year on Christmas is one of peace and love, but this year it’s a message of sadness, grief and anger in front of the international community with what is happening and going on in the Gaza Strip.”
-Hana Haniyeh, mayor of Bethlehem