Keep Palestine in mind in this season of joy, love, hope, and peace

Christmas time reminds us of Christ’s birth. It is a ritual of looking forward to the coming of light, salvation, liberation, hope, and love. It helps us hope and anticipate the coming of the Messiah. Christians look forward to the coming Shalom, when we will know the true peace that Christ promised.

Jesus was God the Son in body and flesh. The Spirit in Jesus lived among people. In him, we have seen the essence of the unseen—loving our neighbor is feasible and this greatest love is by giving your life for the sake of others.

This Christmas reminds us how gloomy the first Christmas was. What is happening in Palestine grips us with overwhelming pain and grief as we witness on our television screen and videos on social media children exposed to traumatic conditions of bombings after bombings, of the widows and orphans who like the Rachel of the old, refuse to be comforted (Matthew 2:18).

Out of our depths, we cry to our God, Palestine has turned into a graveyard of children and a cemetery of the oppressed.

May history forgive our silence; there is genocide and we are silent. There is a call for a ceasefire, and we remain silent. There is a cry for just peace, and we are silent. This Christmas time, may we remember the Palestinians who weep from dawn till midnight for their young have gone and their loved ones slain.

Must we be reminded of Herod wielding his power again to the innocent children? May we hear the cry of Jesus born in a manger as we hear their cries for help and justice. May the Star that guided the wise lead us to listen to the earth groaning with children under the rubble and if they turn into angels, let the tidings of judgment be upon them who cause their untimely and unjust deaths.

This year, with all of the death and destruction in Palestine that we have known, it would be good to deeply ponder upon the meaning of Christmas. But this year, with all of the suffering, the nights feel even darker, the grieving of the deaths of thousands killed and the turmoil that visited their families are so overwhelming that even Christmas carols seem to be not enough to soothe the pain of humanity.

We cannot deny the fears and frustrations of the nighttime waiting. We must resist the powers of oppression and stand for truth, justice, and peace. The child Jesus whom we are celebrating this Christmas, could be the collective children under rubble—and mind us, they are not terrorists—how could they be? Imagine, a child killed on average every 10 minutes in Gaza.

It is terrifying that the world continues to watch the murder of children, the Palestinians—the doctors, the journalists, the poets, the poor.

The night is not silent nor holy in the birthplace of Jesus and the world must not be silent, too.

Norma P. Dollaga, kasimbayan@yahoo.com.ph