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Year: 2023

Muted Christmas as Palestinian Christians mourn for Gaza

Muted Christmas as Palestinian Christians mourn for Gaza

In a traditional season of merriment, many Palestinian Christians – in Bethlehem and beyond – are gripped with helplessness, pain and worry amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. Some are mourning, lobbying for the war to end, scrambling to get relatives to safety or seeking comfort in the Christmas message of hope. In the occupied West Bank, Suzan Sahori, executive director of Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, an organisation selling crafts, will pray for peace and justice. She’s grateful she’s safe – but wonders if that could change. She’s also angry. “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 better times, she finds the Christmas spirit in the Bethlehem area unmatched: It’s in songs cascading into streets bedecked with lights, markets displaying decorations, and the enthusiasm of children, families and tourists snapping photos with towering Christmas trees. Now, it’s all quieter, sombre. Tree lighting ceremonies she attended last year 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 focus on Christmas’s spiritual meaning and called for “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land”. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 7 attack that left nearly 1,200 people dead and Hamas taking more than 200 others captive. 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 fighters in the area. It said it was investigating the incident. There are 50,000 Christian Palestinians estimated to reside in the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the US State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2022. Approximately 1,300 Christians lived in Gaza, it said. Some Christians are also citizens of Israel. Many Palestinian Christians live in diaspora communities. In Bethlehem, the Reverend 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 part of a group who travelled to Washington to advocate for a ceasefire. “A comprehensive and just peace is the only 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 help stop the war. The signatories said they lamented all deaths, Palestinian and Israeli. “We want a constant and comprehensive ceasefire. Enough death. Enough destruction. … This is our call and prayer this Christmas.” Israel, whose forces have faced accusations by some of using excessive force, says it aims to destroy Hamas and accuses it of endangering civilians. Israel and its US ally are also increasingly facing international alarm over the scope of deaths, destruction and displacement in Gaza. Among those killed in Gaza, more than 80 percent are civilians, according to Palestinian authorities. Isaac’s church is displaying a nativity scene where a baby Jesus figure, wrapped in a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh, is lying in 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.” Adblock test (Why?)

Ukraine picks new Christmas date in break with Russian tradition

Ukraine picks new Christmas date in break with Russian tradition

For the first time in a century, Ukraine will celebrate the holiday on December 25 rather than January 7. Ukraine will formally mark Christmas Day on December 25 this year, in a symbolic shift away from Russia, which celebrates the holiday on January 7. It will be the first time in more than a century that Ukraine observes the date in line with the Gregorian calendar, along with most of the world’s Christians. Ukraine’s government passed legislation in July making the date change, in what was viewed as a snub to Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, which follows the Roman-era Julian calendar for religious occasions. The law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainians wanted to “live their own life with their own traditions and holidays”. It allows them to “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations on January 7”, it added. Christianity is the largest religion in Ukraine, with the Russian Orthodox Church historically dominating religious life. Battle over heritage Ukraine’s date change is part of a series of moves since Russia’s invasion to dispel any traces of the Russian and Soviet empires, such as renaming streets and removing monuments. A Christmas tree stands next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier at Lychakiv cemetery, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv [Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP] The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a newly created independent church that held its first service in 2019, has also changed its Christmas date to December 25. It formally broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The political rift has seen priests and even entire parishes swap from one church to another, with the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine growing fast and taking over several Russia-linked church buildings in moves supported by the government. The historically Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, meanwhile, is keeping the January 7 Christmas date. This church claims to have cut ties with Russia because of the war but many Ukrainians view this with scepticism. The country’s third Orthodox denomination, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, will also hold Christmas services on December 25. Ukraine had been under Moscow’s spiritual leadership since the 17th century at the latest. Under the Soviet Union and its profession of atheism, Christmas traditions such as trees and gifts were shifted to New Year’s Eve, which became the main holiday and still is for many families. Ukrainian Christmas traditions include a dinner on Christmas Eve with 12 meatless dishes, including a sweet grain pudding called kutya, and people decorate homes with elaborate sheaves of wheat called didukhy. In some areas, children go from house to house singing carols called kolyadky and performing nativity scenes. Children sing carols during a Christmas Eve performance in Lviv, Ukraine [Gleb Garanich/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)

Iran summons Russia’s envoy again over islands dispute

Iran summons Russia’s envoy again over islands dispute

This is the second time the Russian envoy to Tehran is being summoned over the same issue. Tehran, Iran – Iran has once more summoned the Russian envoy to Tehran after Moscow signed another joint statement with Arab nations calling for negotiations over three disputed islands that the United Arab Emirates claims as its own. The Russian envoy was summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive Tehran’s “strong protest” over the statement, the state-run IRNA news website said late on Saturday. At the Foreign Ministry, the Russian envoy was reportedly told that respect for the territorial integrity of nations is a fundamental tenet in relations between any two countries. IRNA also said the official was told the three disputed islands “forever belong to Iran” which renders any outside claims unacceptable. The islands in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, namely the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, have been governed by Iran since 1971 when its navy took control of them after British troops withdrew from what is today the UAE. The UAE claims them as part of its territory as well and has recently received increasing support on them from Russia and China, which Tehran also counts among its allies. Iran had summoned the Chinese envoy to Tehran over a similar joint statement with Arab nations of the region in December 2022 and had also summoned the Russian ambassador in July over an almost identical joint statement. Russia’s joint statement this week, signed during the sixth edition of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Morocco, supported “peaceful solutions and initiatives aiming to resolve the conflict through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice, according to international law and the UN Charter”. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, had condemned it earlier this week, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who had led the delegation to Morocco. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov told Amirabdollahian that Russia has always respected Iran’s territorial integrity and “this official policy by Moscow must never be doubted”. Maybe Russia should talk to Japan? The joint statement also irked some Iranian lawmakers, who took to social media to try to make it clear that the issue is non-negotiable. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that increasingly warming ties with Russia are based on mutual respect and any claims that threaten Iran’s territorial integrity will be met with a “serious response”. “Russia must be careful about the West taking advantage of its mistakes,” he wrote. Ghalibaf also pointed out that Iran has not remained idle on the islands, and has been undertaking a variety of efforts to populate and develop them. He promised that the parliament would legally back efforts to develop the islands. Other lawmakers had harsher words for both Moscow and Abu Dhabi. “It looks like the language of kindness must change, at least with the UAE,” Hadi Beiginejad wrote on X. Another MP, Ebrahim Rezaei, said “if they suggest negotiations, then we also invite the Russians to negotiate with Japan over the Kuril Islands”, in reference to a dispute over four islands between Russia and Japan. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)