Reaching out beyond our borders
Over the holidays, human suffering may be the last thing on our minds. Though inevitable, it can’t be ignored — Gaza is just hours away. While Hallmark cards proclaim Peace, Love, Joy, symbolized by an olive branch in a dove’s beak, Palestinian-owned olive trees are being destroyed to further limit food access. No harvest means an empty stomach and the $3.8 billion spent in federal funding for Israel’s defense is financing a bloodbath.
Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl was killed fleeing Gaza City along with her family members. She pleaded on the phone with her mother while blood gushed out of her mouth staining the dress she didn’t want her mother to have to wash.
Artist Frans Al Salmi was killed by the Israeli military while painting a canvas that became stained with her own blood instead of its intended colors, her depiction of a martyr facing the same fate as her own.
Issa Amro, longtime peace activist recently nominated for a Nobel Prize praises international solidarity for helping Palestinian resistance. “You are our energy, you are our power, you are our protection — and you are giving us hope to continue and remain fighting and staying in the land.”
Though “peace on Earth” may never be possible, “good will toward men” always is. By contributing this season to organizations like World Central Kitchen and Friends of Hebron we transform suffering into purpose and and give true meaning to the dove’s mission.