Washington DC – Huwaida Arraf’s house is usually the most brightly decorated in her Michigan neighborhood at Christmas.
But this year, as war rages in Gaza, the Palestinian-American human rights lawyer hangs only one sign in her yard: “Bethlehem canceled Christmas because Israel is massacring Palestinians # GazaGenocide.”
Like many Palestinian Christians, Arraf is not celebrating the holiday this year. As Gaza’s death toll passes 18,600, she and others Tel Aviv Tribune spoke with are struggling to enjoy the holiday season. Flashes of happiness – if they come – are often drenched in guilt.
“There’s really no joy right now — no joy to be had, no joy to be had,” said Arraf, a mother of two who lives in the Detroit area.
“How can the world truly celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of the prince of peace, when in his homeland and in the very place where he was born, such atrocious crimes against humanity are taking place and nothing is meant to stop them?”
Arraf is hardly alone. In the United States, activists and Palestinian Americans are taking inspiration from Palestine, where many churches and Christian communities have canceled their Christmas celebrations to honor the dead and protest continued Israeli violence.
Even Bethlehem, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus in the occupied West Bank, experienced quiet streets and subdued decorations where there would normally be revelers and lights. The city’s Lutheran Church displays a nativity scene depicting Jesus as a child born in the rubble to reflect the destruction in Gaza.
“If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under Israeli rubble and bombing,” the Rev. Munther Isaac told Tel Aviv Tribune last week.
“Bethlehem is sad and broken,” he added, reflecting on the sense of helplessness he and other residents feel as bombs continue to rain on Gaza.
The celebrations are “just very discreet”
Thousands of miles away in the United States, many Palestinians and Arab Americans share this anguish and pain.
“There is no joy. There is no party. It is difficult to celebrate when we have many family members, friends and compatriots suffering from genocide. It’s just a little incongruous,” said Nabil Khoury, a southeast Michigan physician.
“So unfortunately, no Christmas tree this year, and no large gatherings. It’s just very discreet.
Christmas traditions are closely linked to Palestine. The region is home to some of Christianity’s holiest sites, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in annexed East Jerusalem.
For decades, Palestinians have drawn on this story – and the imagery of Jesus – to protest the Israeli occupation of their territories, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Leading human rights groups like Amnesty International have compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to “apartheid,” highlighting a pattern of unlawful killings, detention and discrimination.
Some Palestinians note, for example, that if Jesus were born today in Bethlehem, the three wise men who visited him in the biblical account would have to pass through an imposing concrete “separation” wall built by Israel, separating the city from Jerusalem , Close.
The majority of Palestinians are Muslims, but throughout the last century, Palestinian Christians have played a decisive role in shaping and advancing the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Khoury, the Michigan doctor, said bigotry does not fracture Palestinian national identity and that Palestinian Christians do not see themselves as separate from their Muslim brothers.
“We are part of Palestinian society and our faith in our future belongs to our compatriots,” he said.
“Another day, another month”
Husam Marajda, a Palestinian American who grew up in Bethlehem, also said he did not differentiate himself from other Palestinians because of his Christian faith.
An organizer for the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) in Chicago, Marajda echoed the deep sense of loss many feel this holiday season.
“It’s cold in Chicago, so you usually get your Christmas sweaters. It’s the holiday season: you’re with family, shopping for gifts, putting up decorations. But this year, nothing. We didn’t feel anything. We don’t feel any happiness. We don’t feel any joy, any festivity,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “It’s just going to be another season, another day, another month.”
But Lexis Zeidan, a Palestinian-American activist from Detroit, said that despite the pain, she was not making major changes in the way she celebrated Christmas. For her, the holiday is about gifts and not commercialized celebrations.
“My parents always instilled in me that Christmas is about faith and family,” Zeidan told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“And that’s what we should always anchor ourselves on. It’s about caring for others, doing for others and really trying to revive the spirit of what it means to love your neighbor.”
Nonetheless, Zeidan said she felt “angry” and “sad” about the continuing violence, which has wiped out large parts of Gaza, destroying schools, homes, hospitals and libraries.
“I can’t help but keep asking myself: why? Why don’t the leaders stop the bloodshed? Why do we as a country have elected leaders who blatantly show us that they care more about their political power than human life? Zeidan said.
Evangelical support for Israel
Despite well-documented Israeli abuses against Christians in Palestine, large parts of the Christian political movement in the United States – particularly those following the evangelical faith – support Israel for religious reasons. Some associate the current conflict with biblical prophecies announcing the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus Christ.
But Zeidan criticized this theological interpretation, saying what Israel is doing to the Palestinians goes against basic Christian principles.
“Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and to kill is to sin,” she said. “And so to me, how can you support what’s happening in Palestine when your religion literally says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor’?
Arraf, the human rights lawyer, also rejected the use of religion to justify injustices against Palestinians. “It’s not Christianity and Jesus that I learned about growing up,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Arraf stressed that she did not distinguish between Muslim and Christian victims of Israeli atrocities.
“We are all human beings. But if they (evangelical leaders) see in their religion a kind of supremacy that they want to distinguish, they also justify the oppression of Christians,” she said.
“As we approach the Christmas season where we sing of the prince of peace and peace on earth, you cannot have peace with violent occupation, with settler colonialism, with apartheid.”
As Arraf spoke, his daughter Mayaar, 9, interrupted the phone interview.
“My daughter whispered in my ear that I should tell you: peace on earth means peace in Palestine,” Arraf said.