The World Stands Together With One Christmas Wish: A Ceasefire
The moment Christmas Eve arrived, we were bombarded with the usual dose of cheerful and merry content with a backdrop of snow and festive music wafting out across our social media platforms. There is one difference though as while you watch these videos you’ll then see the colors slowly beginning to fade and the music changing to Fairuz’s “Laylit Eid” with a backdrop of the sound of bombs zapping through the air. Smoky skies and homes left in rubble showcase a starkly different reality, that of the harsh and unfortunate fate of the people of Gaza. All these videos end with one simple call for a resounding need for a ceasefire.
Along with these videos, many Palestinian content creators and journalists are taking to Instagram to shed light on the realities of Christmas in Gaza this year. Khaled Beydoun, a Lebanese-Egyptian-American author of the critically acclaimed book American Islamophobia, made it clear in a post that the Israeli military knows that it is Christmas and that people are not tuning into the news so they are making use of the occasion by mascaraing hundreds at Maghazi Camp as well as bombing the Jabaliya Refugee camp for a 5th time.
The power of the change in the narrative of not merely sharing cheerful Christmas videos but lacing them with the realities of Gaza showcases how many people in the world don’t want Santa and don’t want to celebrate Christmas but rather want an end to the ongoing violence and genocide.
