It’s normally a moment of pure joy for the Rev. Khader Khalilia: the thrill, the giggles, the kisses, as his young daughters — of their Christmas pajamas — open their gifts. But this yr, just the considered it fills Khalilia with guilt.
“I’m struggling,” said 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, haven’t any shelter or a spot to put their heads?”
Thousands of miles away, near Jesus’ biblical birthplace of Bethlehem, Suzan Sahori has been working with artisans to bring olive wood Christmas ornaments into homes in Australia, Europe and North America. But Sahori is in no mood for festivities: “We’re broken, all these children, all this killing.”
In a standard season of merriment, many Palestinian Christians — in Bethlehem and beyond — are gripped with helplessness, pain and worry amid the Israel-Hamas war. Some are mourning, lobbying for the war to finish, scrambling to get relatives to safety or in search of comfort within the Christmas message of hope.
In the occupied West Bank, Sahori, executive director of Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, a corporation selling crafts, will pray for peace and justice. She’s grateful she’s protected — but wonders if that would change. She’s also offended.
“The joy in my heart is stolen,” she said. “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 times, she finds the Christmas spirit within the Bethlehem area unmatched: It’s in songs cascading into streets bedecked with lights, markets displaying decorations, and the keenness of kids, families and tourists snapping photos with towering Christmas trees.
Now, it’s all quieter, somber. Tree lighting ceremonies she attended last yr have been scrapped.
The heads of churches in Jerusalem have urged congregations to forgo “any unnecessarily festive activities.” They encouraged priests and the faithful to deal with Christmas’ spiritual meaning and called 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 before Christmas, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women at a church compound in Gaza were killed by Israeli sniper fire. The Israeli military said troops were targeting Hamas militants in the realm; it said it was investigating the incident and takes such reports very seriously.
Khalilia is striving to comfort the distraught amid his distress.
“It’s hard to observe. It’s hard to do your job,” he said. “People are in search of us to walk with them of their suffering.”
He worries about family within the West Bank; a brother lost his income working for a hotel as travel cancellations pummeled tourism.
Khalilia, who’s from a town near Bethlehem, said his daughters will likely get fewer presents, with the savings going toward helping children in Gaza.
Many within the U.S., he said, don’t realize that Palestinian Christians exist — some ask if he converted from Islam or Judaism.
He tells them, “When you sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ on Christmas Eve, do not forget that Jesus was born in my hometown.”
There are 50,000 Christian Palestinians estimated to reside within the West Bank and Jerusalem, in accordance with the U.S. State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2022. Approximately 1,300 Christians lived in Gaza, it said. Some Christians are also residents of Israel. Many Palestinian Christians live in diaspora communities.
Susan Muaddi Darraj, a novelist in Baltimore, said Christians embody a diversity of Palestinians that gets erased. “Our existence … defies the stereotypes which might be getting used to dehumanize us.”
This Christmas, family gatherings have change into more necessary for comfort, she said.
“Especially within the diaspora … where, for us, life looks like it’s stopped but everyone else around us goes about their every day business.”
Wadie Abunassar, a Palestinian Israeli in Haifa, said many in his Christian community are attempting to balance the somber atmosphere with the Christmas message.
“Jesus got here within the midst of darkness” and Christmas “is about giving hope when there’s no hope,” said Abunassar, a former Catholic Church spokesperson. “Nowadays, greater than ever, we want this Christmas spirit.”
It hasn’t been easy.
“Being Israeli residents, we feel the pain of our Jewish compatriots,” he said. “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, said tears flow during Sunday services. 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 one hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” said a letter signed by several Christian pastoral leaders in Bethlehem. Addressed to President Joe Biden, it asked him to assist stop the war.
The signatories said they lamented all deaths, Palestinian and Israeli.
“We want a continuing and comprehensive ceasefire. Enough death. Enough destruction. … This is our call and prayer this Christmas.”
Israel, whose forces have faced a ccusations by a few of using excessive force, says it goals to destroy Hamas and accuses it of endangering civilians. Israel and its U.S. ally are also increasingly facing international alarm over the scope of deaths, destruction and displacement in Gaza.
Isaac’s church is displaying a nativity scene where a baby Jesus figure, wrapped in a back-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh, is lying within the rubble. Making the display was an emotional and spiritual experience, he said.
“We see Jesus in every child that’s killed, and we see God’s identifying with us in our suffering.”
This holiday season, longtime Gaza resident Suhair Anastas is wracked with guilt: She’s managed to flee the war in Gaza while others haven’t.
A Jordanian Palestinian, Anastas had been living in Gaza, where her late husband was from.
For greater than a month, she and her 16-year-old daughter sheltered in a Catholic church’s school there. Death felt particularly close when a deadly Israeli airstrike struck a Gaza Greek Orthodox Church compound housing displaced people. Israel’s military said it had targeted a Hamas command center nearby.
“You fall asleep … pondering, ‘Will I get up the following morning?’” Anastas said.
Her trip to the border — which involved driving, walking, taking a donkey-pulled cart and a cab — was terrifying.
“The bombings were around,” she said. A friend’s daughter, a toddler, kept asking: Are we going to die?
Anastas hopes to return to Gaza, but she’s unsure what’s ahead, or if her home will still be there.
Among the numerous questions over the longer term of Gaza and its greater than 2 million people, is that if its tiny Christian community will remain — and for the way long.
Those still inside include Sami Awad’s relatives. A Palestinian American, Awad said he didn’t get U.S. help for his members of the family, who don’t hold U.S. passports, to depart.
They have moved repeatedly, their latest shelter a windowless cement structure shared with others, said Awad, who’s within the West Bank. In sporadic communications, a cousin’s told him they were running out of the canned tuna and beans they’ve survived on.
He once told Awad, “If we die, don’t grieve an excessive amount of for us, because it might have been mercy for us,” Awad said. At other times, the cousin yelled, “Save us. Get us out.”
“I feel completely helpless,” said Awad, dreading the prospect of bad news at any minute.
Hope got here in the shape of Australian visas for his relatives, including an elderly aunt and uncle, Awad said, but their names aren’t on lists needed to depart.
On Christmas, he said, “We’ll get up, like every other day, to observe the news and to see what are the numbers of those who were killed.”
Awad wasn’t desirous about putting up a Christmas tree until his youngest daughter argued for one.
So now, a tree is up. On it, amid gold and red baubles, is a red, black, white and green Palestinian flag.
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Associated Press author Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content.
