We stand firmly against injustice in all its forms. Nothing can justify the current war crimes committed by Israel in occupied Palestine. Equally, nothing can excuse the continued support offered by other nations to this apartheid regime. If you believe in human rights, dignity, and justice, then we urge you to boycott this rogue state. Silence is complicity, do what’s right.
Palestinians carry their possessions on their heads as they flee from a village in Galilee about five months after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 File: Reuters
Background The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced many millions of palestinians and has its roots in a colonial act carried out more than a century ago.
Land stolen, a ruthless decree, Palestinian soil, soaked in misery. Occupation’s grip, a sorrowful brand, Apartheid whispers, scars on the land.
Ethnic cleansing, a haunting past, Israel claims, forcefully cast. Human rights denied, a brutal truth, Amnesty’s report, a damning reproof.
Checkpoints loom, silent hells, Cities divided, heart-wrenching spells. Arrests and detentions, fear’s cruel gear, Injustice thrives, the tragedy severe.
Banksy opens the Walled Off Hotel in 2017 in Bethlehem, 100 years after the British took control of Palestine. The name is a nod to the Waldorf Luxury hotels and to the separation wall that can be seen from every room in the hotel. Banksy said in a statement “It has the worst view of any hotel in the world”
The hotel has 10 rooms, all decorated with Banksy artworks and art from Palestinian artists. The hotel has his own gift shop offering Banksy merchandise and all profits go into the local economy.
We, the undersigned, call upon the international community to take immediate and decisive action to halt the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
Since October 2023 over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Occupation Force, including over 17,000 children and over 100,000 wounded, with many in critical condition. While the vast majority of violence has taken place in Gaza,widespread atrocities are now escalating against Palestinians in the unlawfully occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The world cannot remain silent in the face of such relentless attacks ,displacement and systematic violence perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people.
These violations of international law, human rights, and humanitarian norms by Israel in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank neccesitate urgent military protection for Palestinian civilians to safeguard against further harm.
We demand:
The immediate establishment of aninternational military force to protect Palestinian civilians.
Immediate cessation of all military actions by Israel against the civilian populations of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Enforcement of United Nations resolutions and international legal frameworks that recognize the rights of the Palestinian people to peace, security, and self-determination.
Accountability for those responsible for war crimes and violations of human rights.
We call on governments worldwide tostand against these atrocities and fulfill their moral and legal obligations toprotect the Palestinian people
As Christmas lights flicker across the world, illuminating trees in cozy living rooms and city squares, another kind of light dominates the skies of Gaza: the searing glare of American bombs. While carolers in the West sing of peace and goodwill, the people of Gaza, many of whom are Christians themselves, huddle in fear, mourning lives lost and futures stolen. It’s a bitter irony that the birthplace of Jesus—himself a Palestinian born under occupation—is now a stage for one of the most brutal and unrelenting sieges in modern history.
Jesus of Nazareth, often sanitized into a Westernized figure, was a man of the land known as Palestine. He lived under Roman occupation, preached liberation for the oppressed, and stood against tyranny—a legacy that should resonate deeply today. Yet, in a grotesque twist, the same Western nations that celebrate his life and message remain complicit in the ongoing Israeli occupation and slaughter of his people.
Consider the stark hypocrisy of governments like the United States and the United Kingdom, which, while decking their halls with messages of peace, funnel billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. These funds are used to perpetuate apartheid, flatten homes, and bomb hospitals—actions that even a first-century Jesus would have railed against. Politicians offer empty platitudes about “de-escalation” while actively fueling the fire, hiding behind the threadbare excuse of Israel’s “right to defend itself,” as though Gaza—a strip of occupied and long-sieged land deprived of basic human rights—is the aggressor in this unbalanced and sick equation.
Meanwhile, the so-called free press dutifully plays its part. Veteran media outlets, bastions of journalistic integrity (or so they claim), downplay the carnage with headlines that sanitize reality. Words like “clashes” are used to describe the bombardment of civilians. The death toll is presented as numbers, stripped of names, stories, and humanity. And when Palestinian voices manage to break through the noise, they are labeled as “extremists,” their grief politicized and their pain dismissed.
But the hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Western leaders who condemn Hamas with righteous indignation rarely spare a word for the children killed in Israeli airstrikes. Churches that teach the gospel of love turn a blind eye to the suffering of the very people whose land their Savior walked. The silence is deafening, and the complicity is glaring.
In Gaza, Christmas is not a season of joy but a reminder of loss. For the Palestinian Christians who remain, it is a time to mourn not only the absence of loved ones but also the erasure of their existence by a world that would rather not see them. And yet, amidst the rubble, the spirit of resistance endures. Just as Jesus stood firm against the empire of his time, Palestinians refuse to bow under the weight of oppression.
This Christmas, as you hang your stockings and sip your mulled wine, spare a thought for Gaza. Spare a thought for a land where the message of “peace on Earth” is drowned out by the hum of drones and the roar of explosions. Spare a thought for the hypocrisy that allows this to continue, year after year, in the birthplace of the Prince of Peace.
And if your conscience stirs, do something. Speak out. Write to your representatives. Boycott companies complicit in the occupation. Because Christmas isn’t just about celebrating the birth of Jesus—it’s about honoring his legacy of justice, compassion, and resistance to tyranny. And there is no better way to do that than by standing with Palestine.
