Christmas for Gaza's Christians, at risk of disappearance amid endogamy and migration
The parish priest recounts the festive atmosphere for the celebrations and fears for an uncertain future. Escape attempts, especially by young people, are "an open wound" for "broken" Palestinian families. Protests against Hamas at the funerals of eight Gazans who drowned while attempting to cross the Mediterranean in barges. Fr. Romanelli: If Israel's policy does not change, the community "is doomed to die."
Milan (AsiaNews) - Migration is "an open sore" among Palestinian families "since the beginning of the Arab-Israeli war," proof of which is the fact that "it is hardly possible to find a family that was born in Palestine and every member of it has remained."
Even for those still living in the land today, the problem of division remains relevant because "from East Jerusalem, to Gaza and the West Bank, there are millions of people longed for among them" precisely because there is no freedom of movement.
Gaza parish priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli recounts the unresolved thorns of a region marked by conflict and violence, often passed over in silence.
He describes how he experienced the Christmas celebrations with "joy," but also feels moved to denounce the lack of prospects for a population marked by suffering. "Those who live in the Strip," he explains to AsiaNews, "cannot visit a relative in Bethlehem or Jerusalem. Moreover, almost everyone has a family member in Lebanon, Australia, New Zealand or America. A pain visible especially on the faces of the mothers, who silently watch their children leave. Broken families, without a solution or a perspective."
Hamas and migrants
Recently thousands of people attended the funerals of eight people, originally from Khan Yunis, who sank about two months ago while trying to migrate from Tunisia to the shores of Europe.
One of the many barges of despair plying the waters of the Mediterranean, in which sank the dreams and hopes of a group of young people who left Gaza, an open-air prison, to build a new life for themselves.
The funerals became an opportunity to show public dissent from Hamas, which has ruled a territory for 15 years under a harsh blockade imposed by Israel (and Egypt). The militant group is being accused of not caring about young people and not fighting to provide them with opportunities for work and redemption.
Fr. Romanelli explains, "emigration is not an uncommon phenomenon. I arrived in Gaza in 2019, the previous year estimates speak of at least 10 thousand young people left, most of them Muslims in the direction of Egypt, and the numbers are growing. We are 2.3 million inhabitants, many use cell phones and social media as a window to the real world and see that there are other opportunities for peace, freedom, where there is water and electricity. The crime for many is being born here, because normally criminals go to prison and there is no reason to lock up an entire population, denying them hope and a future."
"The movement to foreign countries," the priest continues, "is continuous, also because about 50 percent of them do not have jobs. There are attempts to escape by sea, but not the one from Gaza because it is impossible: a few miles offshore there is the Israeli navy, no one could force the blockade" and escape in the direction of Europe.
"The direction is always towards Egypt, then Libya or more often Turkey where there are barges that contract the crossing, leaving them in the territorial waters of Greece, even 14 or 15 km from the coast. Those who can make the last part by swimming, while the others remain waiting for rescue." The unfortunate ones sink and lose their lives, as happened to the eight boys whose deaths inflamed the squares of the Strip.
The violence and the wall of silence
The migration issue is linked to the violence - and deaths - in the Holy Land, which in the year that is coming to a close have been consumed in the silence of the international community more interested in other dossiers, foremost among them the Russian war in Ukraine.
Now they await the moves of the new government, which sees the return of longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the helm and described as the most right-wing ever in Israel's history.
"I have lived in the region for 27 years," says Fr. Romanelli, "and the inhabitants seem to have no confidence in any executive anymore. The common opinion is that they finally show themselves for the policies they have always pursued, regardless of right, center or left, since colonization has always continued."
In recent months, bombings, attacks and military operations are daily news so much so that they no longer make the headlines.
"A spiral of violence," the pastor recounts, "of dead and wounded with serious impairments, you don't need to be an expert to see the terrible consequences of war. Today it has become in many ways boring to talk about it, for many the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inherent in history but it is not true and it does not necessarily have to be always so in the future. The solution would be there if both sides come to an agreement. Adding that those who have more power have, at the same time, more responsibility in the search for peace."
However, with this policy of confrontation and occupation "we will get nowhere."
Christians, Christmas and endogamy
Finally, Christmas, which in Gaza "we celebrate first in the world" with the traditional visit of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on the last Sunday of Advent, the solemn Mass and by laying the child in the crib on the night of Dec. 18.
Christians in the Strip, the pastor explains, "are people of faith" who experience a de facto ecumenism: the Latin parish has 136 members, but at the midnight service the majority are Orthodox.
Some traditional rites took place again this year, such as the presentation and blessing of an infant, this year the same one who impersonated baby Jesus in the living nativity scene.
Then a baptism, seven first communions and seven confirmations.
"This is an enormous joy," stresses Fr. Romanelli, "with moments of community celebration with music, bingo and other games in which more than 400 people participated.
The festive atmosphere was countered by thorny, unresolved issues that endanger the future of Gaza's Christians.
"This year," says Fr. Romanelli, "exit permits to visit relatives and family members" in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other parts of Palestine are fewer than those granted in 2021 by the Israeli authorities, just over 600 compared to 722 the previous year.
The number was disappointing, proving that hopes were "in vain" for more concessions from the Jewish state's leadership for a right, that of displacement, which is vital for the very survival of the community.
"Let's not forget," says the Gaza pastor, "that there are 1066 Christians, perhaps fewer, and we already run a real danger of endogamy, with marriages in the same family, spouses who are cousins in the fourth, third and even second lines. If Israel's policy does not change radically, and not just for the holidays, the Christian community, which is a seed of peace and justice, is doomed to die."
"Christians," he concludes, "are not making extraordinary demands, but to be able to leave and go to the West Bank or elsewhere freely."
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