Palestinian Americans cancel Christmas celebrations, pray for survival of Gaza's Christians

Basem Hishmeh’s Montvale home is typically aglow with Christmas lights this time of year. Inside, his family celebrates the season amid a glorious spectacle of handmade ornaments, angel statues, embroidery and festive stained glass made by his wife, Muna, an artist.

This year, there is no tree, no décor, no party. For Hishmeh, a Palestinian Christian who has watched horrors unfold in Gaza since the outbreak of war, the season feels devoid of joy.

“It’s hard to celebrate when families are being killed and children — whole families,” Hishmeh said, his voice cracking. “I just can’t. It’s not the right thing to do.”

Like Hishmeh, many Palestinian Christians say they are curbing festivities this Christmas as the death toll in Gaza exceeds 19,000 according to officials, and people search for loved ones amid widespread destruction. In interviews, families said they are focusing on prayer and gathering with loved ones, but that celebrations are muted by grief.

Palestinian Christians call themselves “living stones,” tracing their history to the birth of the Church in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. Today, they fear Gaza’s small Christian community is being driven to extinction.

“It connects us to the story of Jesus and Mary and Joseph being sort of refugees wandering around, and the fact that they found nowhere to spend the night but in a manger or barn," said Samer Khalaf, who lives in Paramus.

“That’s what we see happening to the children of Gaza. There is nowhere left for them to spend the night, to live, to just be. That connection is very surreal to us.”

Christmas festivities canceled

For George Jaghab of South Plainfield, parties and decorating are now unthinkable. He and his family members will suspend gift giving and donate to charities working in Gaza, where people are facing starvation, he said.

“I’m glued to the TV, to YouTube,” Jaghab said. “I just want to hear something good. I don’t even want to eat, to tell you the truth. It’s sad what is going on.”

Jaghab’s family, who are Orthodox Christian, came to the United States in 1966 when he was 19 and keep close ties to their ancestral home.

“All the Palestinians, they are my family,” said Jaghab, a father of five. “We are brothers, sisters, cousins. We all share in the same cause. We are fighting for our existence.”

Toms River resident Heyam Aboudi will skip holiday shopping and will not bake the date-filled cookies she enjoys on Christmas.

“I see people celebrating and having Santa and decorating and lights,” Aboudi said. “I love it. I just feel like people are dying and I can’t be celebrating. No sweets, nothing. We’ll go to church, light candles and come home.”

“We feel guilty even to have food on the table, to have water to take a shower, to have internet, to have family, to have a house,” she said.

Aboudi worried about violence spreading to the West Bank, where her family lives.

“They worry they will be next after Gaza,” she said. “We really need a Christmas miracle for a cease-fire and peace. I’ve been praying and crying, praying and crying.”

The current fighting was triggered Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, while another 240 were taken hostage. About half the hostages were freed in a weeklong truce. At least 19,667 people in Gaza have been killed, according to health authorities, with many more missing under rubble. Civilians have been among casualties on both sides.

In total, 105 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israeli ground operations, according to the United Nations. Another 265 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by settlers and soldiers in the West Bank.

The war has echoed across the Palestinian territories. The Christmas season is typically celebrated with joyous festivities, processions and public light and tree displays, while the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a historic site where Jesus is said to have been born, swells with tourists.

This year, celebrations are canceled. The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, a group of leaders from different Christian faith traditions, asked congregants “to stand strong” with those facing war by “forgoing any unnecessarily festive activities.” Instead, they encouraged them to pray, advocate and donate to relief efforts.

‘Pray for us’

Robert Bateh of Warren said he and his wife are taking extra time to say the rosary, praying for peace. Locally, Bateh has tried to raise awareness at his children’s school and at his church about the conflict.

“People don’t consider, they don’t see our side, the humanity or lack of humanity coming out of Gaza now,” he said. “We are trying to show people to be aware of issues and what our plight has been for 75 years.”

Bateh wakes at 4:30 a.m. to watch the news before heading to work. A week ago, he learned the third oldest church in the world, the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, came under attack. On Dec. 16, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the regional church office, reported that an Israeli sniper shot and killed a Christian woman and her daughter at the Catholic church and that seven more people were wounded.

"No warning was given, no notification was provided,”  the patriarchate wrote in a statement. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there were no belligerents."

Tank fire also damaged a convent on church grounds that housed people with disabilities and destroyed solar panels, generator and water tanks, according to the statement.

The Israel Defense Forces have said that the incident is under review, but said it does not target civilians, in statements reported by Reuters and Fox News.  “The IDF only targets terrorists and terror infrastructure and does not target civilians, no matter their religion,” the military said, adding that it had been conducting anti-terror operations in the area.

On Sunday, Pope Francis decried the incident as “terrorism,” saying “unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings."

Bateh said Christians and Muslims were "united in our common struggle for legitimacy and self-determination."

“Pray for us. Pray for all Palestinians. Pray that there’s a cease-fire yesterday,” Bateh said.

“I hope politicians have the strength and courage to make hard decisions and force both sides to make necessary concessions.”

Gaza’s Christians

As bombs strike residential buildings, schools, mosques and churches, Palestinians worry that 2 million displaced people will be unable or barred from return. For Gaza's Christian community, which numbers around 1,000 people, fear grows that this war could lead to their demise.

Among all Palestinians, Christians make up less than 2% of the population, down from 11% a century ago, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey research. People have left for economic reasons, freedom and safety.

For families, roots in the world’s oldest Christian community are a source of pride. That feeling remains for those in diaspora.

Hishmeh recalled growing up in a religious family, ringing the bell at St. Andrew’s Church in Ramallah in the West Bank on Sundays. A former business owner, he and his wife today devote time to philanthropy, supporting educational and cultural programs in the United States and Palestine.

In 2010, they funded the renovation and expansion of an old Orthodox Church in the West Bank that had been damaged in the 1967 war. He wants to help the remaining Christian community survive and thrive, he said.

“If we don’t support those Christians who are there to stay there,” Hishmeh warned, “Christianity as a region of the area will disappear and all these places will become museums.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Israel-Hamas war: Palestinian Christians pray for Gaza this Christmas