No Christmas Lights in Bethlehem
I wanted to write something about Christmas, but I can’t. Then I saw these words by Sara Haddad, the author of The Sunbird which said everything I wanted to say. Sara has a quiet eloquence that is more like a whisper than a scream. And like every whisper, you have to lean in and listen carefully. Whispers tend to say with you forever.
I highly recommend following Sara on Instagram - @_thesunbird_ and reading her novella The Sunbird. The Sunbird is a beautiful example how reading can change the world. (I have two last copies of The Sunbird in store and will have more in the New Year.)
Thank you, Sara, for your words, when I had none. And on Christmas Day, when so many in the west celebrate with a generous bounty of food, joy, love, family, friends and gifts, I hope that we can remember that all is dark in Bethlehem, the place where it all began.
“For the second year in a row, Bethlehem will be silent at Christmas, in mourning, and in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. No Christmas lights, no Christmas trees, no Christmas shopping. In the birthplace of Christmas.
Jesus was Palestinian, born in Bethlehem, a city in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli military rule since June 1967. If you live in Bethlehem today, every aspect of your life is controlled by the occupation and you are subject to horrendous human rights abuses. Bethlehem is choked by the illegal Israeli settlements that surround it, and an apartheid wall that separates it from Jerusalem.
Over 20 years ago, in 2003, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that determined that the wall was a violation of international law and demanded its removal. Not only was it not removed, it was extended.
The wall is 708 km long.”
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