Gaza Church Celebrates 'Peace' Amidst Ongoing Sieges
Yes, Gaza's beleaguered Christian community celebrated Christmas, a truly touching moment of resilience. The New Arab article gently sidesteps the inconvenient truth that Gaza hasn't had a 'pause' from siege conditions since 2007. The 'joy' being restored is against a backdrop of blockade, occupation, and chronic suffering—a 'return to normalcy' defined by intermittent destruction. It’s hard to
have full festive cheer when your fundamental access to food, medicine, and building materials is still controlled by an external power. One might wonder if 'Christmas cheer' now requires a 16-year-long siege and repeated bombardments to truly appreciate a single, relatively calm observance? This framing makes it sound like a brief inconvenience, not an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe that has
systematically strangled an entire population, including Christians. Perhaps the 'joy' is in merely surviving another year under conditions that governments, like the US, actively enable with billions in military aid. (According to OpenSecrets.org, AIPAC alone disbursed $11.7 million in 2022 to influence US elections, ensuring such aid continues.)