Christmas is canceled in the Holy Land this year. Christian leaders in Bethlehem and Jerusalem declared that “unnecessarily festive” Christmas celebrations would be inappropriate given the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. Christian leaders in the neighboring country of Jordan, a Muslim-majority nation that celebrates Christmas as a public holiday, have also rejected celebrations this year.
“In our homes we can celebrate, but in our hearts we are suffering. How can we decorate a Christmas tree?” said Ibrahim Dabbour, a Greek Orthodox priest and general secretary of the Jordan Council of Church Leaders (Christianity Today). In Bethlehem, city workers removed Christmas decorations “in honor of the martyrs and in solidarity with our people in Gaza” (Bethlehem Municipality/Facebook). U.S. conservatives have been up in arms about a fictional multiculturalist “War on Christmas” every time someone says “happy holidays.” The real War on Christmas is the Israeli onslaught against Gaza with American missiles and bombs.
We’re approaching the season when Christians traditionally celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a Galilean Jew said to have been miraculously born by the Virgin Mary. Palestine was a newly-conquered province of the Roman Empire, governed by a puppet ruler named Herod the Great (Britannica). According to Christian doctrine, Mary and her husband Joseph were traveling to be counted in an imperial census mandated by the emperor Augustus when Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem. The Book of Matthew says that three wise men from the East told Herod that the newborn Jesus would be king of the Jews. Fearing a threat to Roman rule, Herod ordered the massacre of all male infants in Bethlehem. Christians believe that Jesus escaped, but was later executed by the imperial government before miraculously resurrecting.
TAKE ACTION
• Support the Bethlehem Association, a non-profit representing members of the Palestinian diaspora with roots in the Bethlehem area.
• Support the Palestinian Youth Movement, a grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile.
• Boycott Israeli products and divest from Israeli financial institutions.
Today, Bethlehem remains under imperial occupation. It’s part of the West Bank, territory that Israel invaded and seized from Jordan in 1967. The West Bank is under permanent martial law, with the “military administration of a territory full of Palestinians who chafe under Israeli restrictions” (Vox). Whereas Augustus installed Herod as a puppet leader, Israel has the Palestinian Authority, the corrupt governing authority “viewed by Palestinians increasingly as a security sub-contractor for Israel” (The Guardian). Israel, in turn, is a security sub-contractor for the United States (The Conversation). In place of Herod’s massacre of the male newborns, we have the systematic killing of over 5,500 children in Gaza (HRW).
Christians believe in the divinity of a person born in the occupied West Bank. They believe that the intentional state-sponsored slaughter of civilian children demonstrates the evil of those who persecuted Jesus. They believe that when God took human form, it was as a colonized person whose people were resisting imperial oppression at the hands of the most powerful military of their day. Among these believers are tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians, some of whom are being bombed and starved by the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Given all this, you’d think Christians in the West would take issue with the U.S.-sponsored murder of thousands of Palestinians in the past month, including their fellow believers.
Instead, many U.S. Christians are vehemently pro-Israel. Groups like Israel365 invite American Christian Zionists to Israel so that they can advocate for pro-Israel policies when they return to events like the far-right Turning Point USA convention (Jerusalem Post). Evangelical churches across the country hold an annual Night to Honor Israel, with attendees including Israeli diplomats (Texas Standard). Dozens of prominent pastors signed an “Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel,” which “affirms the legitimacy” of the horrific Israeli response.
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Why do Christian Zionists believe that “the U.S. must provide any and all means for Israel to do whatever it has to do in order to achieve victory through whatever means necessary” (Texas Standard)? It’s not necessarily because they have any particular affection for the State of Israel or Jewish people in general. Instead, they believe that Jewish control of Palestine is a precondition for the events of the Book of Revelations. Unless Palestinians are expelled from the Occupied Territories and the Temple Mount is rebuilt on the site of al-Aqsa mosque, Jesus can’t return and institute “1,000 years of perfect peace.” And what about the Israelis? In the course of Armageddon, according to leading Christian Zionist John Hagee, God will “wipe them out.”
Christian Zionists were elated that Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital because they believe Jewish rule of the Holy Land is necessary for the end times to happen. Christian Zionists think the number one U.S. foreign policy objective should be bringing about the end of the world (MSNBC).
In this narrative, Muslims, Jews, and even Christians are collateral damage. They willingly endorse imperial aggression against a colonized people to bring about the earthly rule of a man himself executed in the West Bank by an imperial power. This mentality should be abhorrent to non-Christians and Christians alike. If you celebrate Christmas this month, remember that places like Bethlehem aren’t mythical locations. They’re real places that were occupied in the time of Jesus and are occupied to this day.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, canceled its Christmas celebrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
• Christian Zionists support Israeli aggression because they think it will hasten the return of Jesus.
• They want U.S. foreign policy to bring about the apocalypse.
- Written by
- Andrew Lee
- First published
- in Anti-Racism Daily