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Open Letter from Gaza: Three Years after the Massacre, Justice or Nothing!

The One Democratic State Group in Gaza has issued this statement: We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights. 

"When they rape you don't object": Israeli "satire" show incites hatred of Muslims, Europeans

The popular Israeli web-based satirical show LatmaTV has released a musical video containing crude anti-Muslim stereotypes and mocking Europeans as “dummies” for supposedly allowing their countries to be taken over by Islam and turned into “Eurabia.” In one sequence, a Norwegian father tells his blonde daughter about Muslims: “When they rape you don’t object for that is politically incorrect.” 

Protests held at Lacoste stores across France against "racism" and censorship of Palestinian artist

Palestine solidarity activists staged protests on Christmas Eve at Lacoste clothing stores in several French cities to protest the censorship and expulsion of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from a prestigious art competition sponsored by the French luxury clothing. 

Merry Christmas from Gaza

Being a Muslim, I never celebrated Christmas myself, but having lots of Christian friends inside and outside Palestine has connected me to this day. I’ve always shared it with them one way or another, since I believe that religion shouldn’t stand as a barrier between human beings. Here, I describe how I celebrated Christmas and how Christians in Gaza celebrate it. I recall some of my childhood memories from my only visit to the Church of Nativity since I was 9 years old. 

Christmas in Gaza: Two Narratives

It’s Christmas Eve, and it has arrived in the Gaza Strip, the less holy part of the holy land. Palestinian Christians, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, are preparing to have festive celebrations despite the Israeli occupation’s repressive restrictions which have prevented most of them from getting to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, to celebrate with their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank. 

Christmas in Bethlehem

Bethlehem, the city of peace and the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has become a ghetto in the world we know today thanks to the Israeli occupation. With over 23 physical barriers surrounding the city, apartheid wall cutting through its outskirts, and settlements strangling the city of Bethlehem from all directions, the idea of living there or even visiting this holy city has become an unpleasant and dreadful idea.