The story of Christmas began with the birth of a child in Jerusalem; but, today, that very fact is one of the causes of one of the deadliest wars being waged on our planet. This is between the state of Israel and the Palestinians, who were “relocated” in 1948 into the Gaza Strip to make way for Jews from across the world to settle. In addition to the wider area, Jerusalem has sites that are sacred to the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and, as such, control of the city has been hotly contested.
While Israel insisted that Jerusalem was its capital from its formation in 1949, it was not until 2017 that the US accepted that declaration, and moved its embassy there at the end of the year. Even as most of the world condemned the move, the US used its veto power in the UN Security Council to block its condemnation. Since the facts are so well known, we simply offer an outline of what has transpired to precipitate the latest and greatest tragedy in over half a century in the Holy Land, which has dimmed the spirit of Christmas worldwide:
Herded together in one of the most densely packed collections of humanity by a fortified wall, the 2.2 million Palestinians in the 25-sq-mile Gaza Strip eked out lives of squalid deprivation. Their leadership, Hamas, bided their time since the third Israel-Hamas war in 2014, when 2000 Palestinians were killed in retaliation over the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. On Oct 7, they launched an attack on Israeli settlements on the West Bank, which were guarded by members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). They killed some 1200 Israelis, including women and children – as all previous IDF raids had done to them — and took 240 hostages. These acts represented the greatest ever defeat suffered by Israel, and they retaliated with such ferocity that the entire world is stunned. In two months, they have rained a greater tonnage of bombs on this tiny enclave than the Allies did on Germany throughout WWII. To date, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed; according to the UN, 500,000 face starvation, and more than one million have been displaced.
Most of the latter were on orders of the IDF to move south – where they were bombed in any case. In the meantime, the IDF said, merely 137 of their troops had been killed.
Last Friday, a long-delayed resolution for desperately-needed aid to Gaza was finally approved by the UN Security Council, after the US abstained when it finally approved the phrasing. But this is merely a palliative, and there will be no “Merry Christmas” in the land where it all began.
But even with the horror of GAZA unfolding in front of our faces, we must not forget this is the second Christmas that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be grinding on. While hard data is scarce, credible sources claim that Ukrainian deaths have been higher than those of the Russians, which are approximately between 50,000 and 70,000. The number of wounded would be at least five times that number, meaning that over 700,000 might have been killed or wounded since Feb 2022.
All of these killings have been justified by Russia insisting that Eastern Ukraine’s populations are aligned with them, and the US and NATO are denying it “strategic depth”. No Merry Christmas in these lands, where many of the European customs of celebrating Christmas are keenly observed.
And, of course, we return to our Guyana, where Venezuela’s Pres Maduro has purported to annex our Essequibo, and issued decrees for companies in the region – including offshore oil companies – to leave, since the Venezuelans will be issuing licences to companies of their choosing.
Due to the initiative of regional leaders such as Brazil’s Pres Lula and some Caricom leaders, Pres Ali boldly agreed to meet Pres Maduro, and a lull that might see us through this Christmas is in place. But even though we may have a “Merry Christmas”, we cannot ignore the threat from the west.
