The churches and municipality of Ramallah in the central West Bank announced on Thursday the cancellation of all annual Christmas celebrations in the city, restricting the festivals to church services due to Israel’s destructive war on the Gaza Strip.
‘The municipality of Ramallah and the Council of Churches in Ramallah announce the cancellation of all Christmas celebrations held annually in the city. The celebrations will be limited to church services, prayers for our people in Gaza, for the souls of our martyrs, for the healing of the wounded, and for the grieving,’ Ramallah Municipality said in a statement.
It added ‘At this time every year, we prepare to decorate the city in celebration of Christmas, to welcome the holiday with joy and love. However, today, instead of bringing smiles to the faces of our children, we mourn for them. Instead of giving them holiday gifts, we can’t even send humanitarian aid to them (in Gaza) while they are under bombardment, war, and destruction.’
The statement lamented
that ‘our pain is profound’ as an isolated people standing in front of the occupation’s tanks and under the fire of its warplanes, which ‘carry out the worst massacres against our people in the West Bank and Gaza.’
‘We say to the world, stop the aggression on Gaza.’
This pain and loss of life are not recent but have recurred for 75 years, it said, adding, ‘Today, we have reached a point where we cannot even properly bury the bodies of our martyrs in Gaza and the West Bank due to the intensity of the bombardment and the destruction of all essential aspects of life.’
At a time when the world is preparing to celebrate the joyous Christmas season, the municipality said ‘Here in Palestine, the land of Christ, we welcome the holidays with increased pain and suffering.’
In every household, each of them is in pain, mirroring the suffering of Christ in his homeland, Palestine, it said.
Source: EN – Anadolu Agency