U.K News

Grieving and often overlooked, Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war

Published

9 months ago

2023-12-23

It’s a pure delight for the Rev. Khader Khalilia: the excitement, giggles, and kisses when his little kids open their Christmas pyjamas. But this year, simply thinking about it makes Khalilia feel guilty.

“I’m struggling,” said the Palestinian American pastor of New York’s Redeemer-St. John’s Lutheran Church. “How can I do it while the Palestinian children are suffering and have no shelter or a place to lay their heads?”

Suzan Sahori has been working with artists thousands of miles away, in Jesus’ biblical birthplace of Bethlehem, to bring olive wood Christmas ornaments into homes in Australia, Europe, and North America. But Sahori isn’t in the mood: “We’re broken, looking at all these children, all this killing.”

Many Palestinian Christians — in Bethlehem and elsewhere — are struck with helplessness, anguish, and worry during this typical season of joy. Some are grieving, pleading for the war to end, rushing relatives to safety, or taking solace in the Christmas message of hope.

Grieving and often overlooked, Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war

Sahori, executive director of Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, a craft organization, will pray for peace and justice in the occupied West Bank. She’s thankful she’s safe but wonders if it might change. She is also enraged.

“The joy in my heart is stolen,” she lamented. “‘God, how are you letting all these children to die?’… I’m angry with God, and I pray He forgives me.”

In happier times, she finds the Bethlehem area’s Christmas spirit unrivalled: it’s in the melodies streaming onto streets adorned with lights, markets showcasing decorations, and the enthusiasm of children, families, and tourists shooting photos with towering Christmas trees.

Everything is calmer and more solemn now. The tree-lighting festivities she attended last year were cancelled.

Grieving and often overlooked, Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war

Church leaders in Jerusalem have asked their congregations to avoid “extraneous festive activities.” They urged priests and the faithful to focus on the spiritual aspect of Christmas and urged “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace in our beloved Holy Land.”

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, which was begun in response to Hamas’ massacres and hostage-taking in Israel on October 7.

According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Israeli sniper fire killed two Christian women who were in a church compound in Gaza. The Israeli military stated that troops were targeting Hamas militants in the vicinity and that it was examining the incident, which it takes extremely seriously.

Khalilia is doing her best to console the distressed man.

“It’s difficult to watch. “It’s difficult to do your job,” he admitted. “People are looking for us to walk with them in their suffering.”

He is concerned about his family in the West Bank; a brother lost his job working for a hotel as travel cancellations hit tourism hard.

Khalili, from a hamlet near Bethlehem, said his girls would likely receive fewer gifts this year, with the money saved to support children in Gaza.

Many people in the United States, he claims, are unaware that Palestinian Christians exist — some even inquire if he converted from Islam or Judaism.

He says, “When you sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ on Christmas Eve, remember that Jesus was born in my hometown.”

According to the US State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2022, 50,000 Christian Palestinians are anticipated to live in the West Bank and Jerusalem. According to the report, approximately 1,300 Christians lived in Gaza. Some Christians are also Israeli citizens. A large number of Palestinian Christians live in diaspora communities.

Grieving and often overlooked, Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war

According to Susan Muaddi Darraj, a novelist in Baltimore, Christians represent a diversity of Palestinians that is often overlooked. “Our existence … defies the stereotypes that are being used to dehumanize us.”

According to her, family reunions have become vital for comfort this Christmas.

“Especially in the diaspora … where, for us, life feels like it’s stopped but everyone else around us is going about their daily business.”

According to Wadie Abunassar, a Palestinian Israeli living in Haifa, many in his Christian community are attempting to balance the gloomy environment with the Christmas message.

“Jesus came in the midst of darkness,” said Abunassar, a former Catholic Church spokesperson. “Christmas is about giving hope when there is no hope.” “Nowadays, more than ever, we need this Christmas spirit.”

It has been a challenging road.

“Being Israeli citizens, we feel the pain of our Jewish compatriots,” he went on to say. “Being Palestinians, we feel the pain of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.”

Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, said tears flowed during Sunday services. Many people are worried, and some have packed their belongings and departed.

Isaac was among those who came to Washington to lobby for a cease-fire.

“A comprehensive and just peace is the only hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” wrote many Christian pastoral leaders in Bethlehem in a letter. It was addressed to President Joe Biden and requested him to help end the war.

The signatories expressed their sorrow for all fatalities, Palestinian and Israeli.

“We seek a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire.” Enough with the death. Enough devastation… This is our Christmas plea and prayer.”

Israel, whose forces have been accused of employing disproportionate force by some, says it wants to destroy Hamas and accuses it of endangering civilians. The scale of the killings, devastation, and displacement in Gaza is also causing international concern for Israel and its US partner.

Isaac’s church has a nativity scene with a baby Jesus figurine draped in a back-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh in the ruins. He described the exhibition as an emotional and spiritual event.

“We see Jesus in every child that’s killed, and we see God’s identifying with us in our suffering.”

Suhair Anastas, a long-time Gaza resident, is filled with remorse this holiday season: She has escaped the Gaza war while others have not.

Anastas, a Jordanian Palestinian, had been residing in Gaza, her late husband’s hometown.

She and her 16-year-old daughter sought refuge in a Catholic church’s school for more than a month. A fatal Israeli airstrike on a Gaza Greek Orthodox Church property housing displaced people felt especially near. The Israeli military claimed it had struck a Hamas command headquarters in the area.

“You go to sleep … thinking, ‘Will I wake up the next morning?'” Anastas explained.

Her journey to the border, which included driving, walking, riding in a donkey cart, and hailing a cab, was harrowing.

“There were bombings around,” she explained. A friend’s toddler kept asking, “Are we going to die?”

Anastas wants to return to Gaza, but she is unsure what awaits her or whether her home will remain there.

Among the many unknowns about the future of Gaza and its more than 2 million residents is whether or not its small Christian population will remain — and for how long.

Sami Awad’s relatives are among those who remain inside. Awad, a Palestinian American, claimed he was unable to obtain US assistance for his family members who do not have US passports to leave.

They’ve moved several times, with their most recent shelter being a windowless cement structure shared with others, according to Awad, who is currently on the West Bank. In infrequent exchanges, a relative informed him that they were running out of the canned tuna and beans on which they had survived.

“If we die, don’t grieve too much for us, because it would have been mercy for us,” he once told Awad. “Save us,” the cousin yelled at times. “Get us out of here.”

“I feel completely helpless,” Awad remarked, anticipating bad news at any moment.

Awad claimed hope arrived in Australian visas for his relatives, including an elderly aunt and uncle, but their names aren’t on the lists required to leave.

On the morning of Christmas Day, he remarked, “We’ll wake up, like every other day, to watch the news and to see what are the numbers of people that were killed.”

Awad had only considered putting up a Christmas tree once his youngest daughter insisted.

So suddenly, there’s a tree. A red, black, white, and green Palestinian flag is displayed among gold and red decorations.

SOURCE – (AP)

U.K News

Returning to the UK a “No Go” for Prince Harry and Meghan

Published

2 days ago

2024-09-05

Geoff Thomas

Prince Harry and Meghan - Facebook Image

A source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claim that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle do not want to return permanently to the United Kingdom. Prince Harry will stay stationed in the United States, where he resides with his wife and their children.

It is known that worries about his and his family’s safety in the UK still exist.

According to the BBC, Prince Harry and Meghan are also unlikely to wish to abandon the business and charitable endeavours they developed while residing in the US.

There have been rumours of a disgruntled prince in California, who is getting close to turning forty and is unhappy with his life among the unrooted rich, trying to re-establish ties with his former life in the UK before he resigned as a working royal.

However, reliable sources have asserted a different story, stating that a return to royal life in the UK is not likely.

They contend that Prince Harry can visit the UK again and is just as capable of funding his charitable endeavours and charities from the US.

He flew back to the US after visiting the UK last week for his uncle’s memorial ceremony.

Claims that Prince Harry and Prince William had not talked throughout the church service in Norfolk, despite their growing frigid distance from one another, accounted for a large portion of the attention around the ceremony.

Prince Harry appeared to have maintained strong ties to the late Lord Robert Fellowes, who was Princess Diana’s brother-in-law on the Spencer side of the family.

The prince was spotted beside his Spencer family members during an Invictus Games service held at St. Paul’s Cathedral earlier this summer. Senior royals were not present at the event.

As soon as it was known that King Charles had cancer, the prince swiftly left for the UK, meeting briefly with his father in London.

There have also been excursions to London’s legal courts, when he fought the tabloids over allegations of illegal information collecting.

His security status in the UK is the subject of a continuing, intricate legal battle with the Home Office that has become a contentious topic in any conversation of a return.

The prince stated that he wouldn’t “bring my wife back to this country” in an interview with ITV because he was afraid for their safety.

But now that the pair has made such a public exit from royal life in the UK—in a Netflix movie and his book Spare—there will undoubtedly be speculative discussions about what will happen to them next.

Prince Harry and Meghan could reside anywhere in the virtual world if they didn’t have a royal duty; currently, that’s WFC (where they work from California).

In addition to their charitable endeavours, Meghan has teased a lifestyle cooking business on social media.

Though it is difficult to imagine they won’t want to stir up more than pots of jam given the impending US presidential election and the likelihood that topics they have brought up, including internet disinformation, would likely be debatable.

There have been other visits as well, most notably to Colombia, but they had so many of the hallmarks of a royal visit that it made one wonder whether they were actually travelling back to the world of the royals they were trying to leave behind.

There will be more inquiries about Prince Harry’s long-term future job as his 40th birthday draws near and there is a great deal of public curiosity.

Prince Harry Opens Up About Emotional Distance in Royal Family

Prince Harry Opens Up About Emotional Distance in Royal Family

U.K News

Uk Weather: Thunderstorm warning for England and East Wales

Published

1 week ago

2024-08-31

Salman Ahmad

Uk Weather Thunderstorm warning for England and East Wales

Uk Weather: Forecasters have issued warnings for thunderstorms and heavy showers for Sunday, protecting a significant portion of England and portions of eastern Wales from the potential for severe weather.

According to the Met Office, the phenomenon could cause “a small chance of flooding and disruption” in some regions. At four o’clock British Summer Time, the yellow warning that urges people to “be aware” goes into effect, encompassing significant portions of southern England, the Midlands, and the north.

Forecasters are warning that thunderstorms and heavy rain are expected to develop in the southern region of England on Sunday morning and move northward during the day.

In England, the warning applies to a region located in the middle of the nation, stretching from the Isle of Wight to Newcastle upon Tyne. The warning has been issued for the counties of Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen, and Wrexham, which are located in the eastern part of Wales.

The Metropolitan Office has warned of flooding and stated that “frequent lightning strikes and hail will be additional hazards” across the southern and central regions of England.

The BBC Weather predicts that the United Kingdom will see a swarm of warm and humid air coming from the south-eastern direction until Sunday. In addition, a series of intense rainstorms will sweep northward over the central spine of England and east Wales.

In the event that these thunderstorms do materialize, there is a possibility that they will be accompanied by intense, gusty winds, lightning, and heavy rain. However, it is also possible that they may be fairly sporadic.

In spite of the fact that pinpointing the precise areas of these showers is rather difficult, it is recommended that you remain current with the most recent prediction since it is subject to change, as stated by BBC weather.

There is a possibility that temperatures may reach as high as 27 degrees Celsius in some regions of south-eastern England as a result of the warmer and more humid air. Temperatures will range from the low to the middle of the 20s Celsius in many locations.

Source: BBC

U.K News

UK Immigration Raids Increase Risks of Exploitation for Undocumented Migrants

Published

1 week ago

2024-08-30

Salman Ahmad

UK Immigration Raids Increase Risks of Exploitation for Undocumented Migrants

In a growing chorus of concern, over 80 charities, including prominent organizations like Care4Calais, City of Sanctuary UK, and Anti-Slavery International, have called on the Home Secretary to overhaul the UK’s immigration policies.

Their joint letter, coordinated by Migrant Voice, criticizes the government’s recent intensification of immigration raids and deportations, arguing that these measures are exacerbating the risks faced by undocumented migrants.

The letter, sent on Friday, highlights the increasing danger of exploitation faced by migrants who are driven further underground by aggressive enforcement actions.

These policies, they argue, not only fail to address the root causes of undocumented status but also make migrants more vulnerable to abuse by unscrupulous employers and human trafficking gangs.

On August 27, the Home Office announced the results of a week-long “intensive operation” targeting illegal working, which saw 275 premises investigated and 135 issued notices for employing undocumented workers.

Despite the government’s assertion that such operations aim to protect vulnerable individuals, the raids led to the detention of 85 “illegal workers.”

The situation has been compounded by a recent record-breaking deportation event. Earlier this month, the government deported over 200 individuals to Brazil, marking the largest single deportation flight on record.

Since the Labour government came to power, there have been at least nine such deportation charter flights.

Nazek Ramadan, Director of Migrant Voice, criticized the government’s approach, stating, “Immigration raids and deportations do not address the fundamental issue that many individuals become undocumented through no fault of their own.

Errors in paperwork or poor communication from the Home Office can result in people losing their status overnight.”

Ramadan advocates for a policy shift towards regularisation, arguing that it would be more cost-effective and beneficial for the economy than current detention and deportation practices.

“Rather than penalising people for their undocumented status, the government should simplify the process for them to regain documented status,” Ramadan suggested.

Many undocumented individuals have established lives and families in the UK, having lived in the country for years or even decades.

The letter contends that regularisation would not only reduce the financial burden of detention and deportation but also boost economic growth by enabling these individuals to contribute more fully to the economy.

“The raids are very traumatising,” Ramadan added. “People who are already vulnerable are becoming more so, retreating further underground. This policy has been tried and failed by many governments.

Regularisation offers a better solution, allowing people to come out of the shadows and live normal lives.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment on the letter’s allegations and the ongoing concerns raised by the charities.