Spirit of Christmas and realities of 2022 - EDITORIAL

In six days, we will be celebrating Christmas - the birth of the Christ-child in a stable at Bethlehem in Palestine. Sadly today, Palestine has now been turned into battlefield, where Palestinians have been brought under the jackboot of Israeli occupying forces. 

In our own country, UNICEF has revealed more than 5.7 million people, including 2.3 million children, require humanitarian assistance. As Christmas dawns this year, our country - Sri Lanka - is listed among the top ten countries with the highest number of malnourished children. The UN body warns these numbers may be expected to rise further.

In the face of this human suffering in our homeland, Christian Churches must be congratulated for the strident call they have made to their followers on the need for charity and turning the spirit of Christmas into a reality by sharing with our less fortunate brethren. 

Catholic Archbishop, His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has for some time has gone further, calling for change and social justice in the country. At an event organized by the Palestine embassy a few years ago - the lighting of the Christmas tree at the embassy - the Cardinal spoke of his personal witness to the occupation of Palestine and Palestinians being driven out of their homes by Israeli authorities... 
He described witnessing mothers with babes-in-arms dragging a few belongings behind them as they fled the destruction of their homes at the hands of the Israeli occupiers.

Today, according to initial information from local community and media sources, six Palestinians including two children were killed between 7 and 11 of this month. ‘Middleeastmonitor.com’ reveals Israel has killed 183 Palestinians since the start of 2022 in Israel-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. 
The UN Middle East envoy to Palestine says ‘2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN began tracking fatalities in 2005... 

Christians the world over celebrate the birth of Christ - a man of peace - on December 25. But in his birthplace –Palestine - peace is not even on the horizon, with the continuing carnage of Palestine and its people. 
Sadly the nations of this world who like to refer to themselves as ‘Christian’ make no effort to halt Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and the persecution of Palestinians.

While the carnage in the Middle East continues with the blessings of the US and the EU, these selfsame countries are pouring billions of dollars-worth arms and armaments into Ukraine; claiming a need to defend Ukraine after Russia annexed portions of that country. Russia meanwhile claims annexation was necessary for Russian security!
Rather than defusing the circumstances which led to the conflict, the US and EU pour billions of dollars into arming Ukraine, in a war it (Ukraine) can never win.
But that is another story.

The US State Department on November 10 announced its latest drawdown of US$400 million (which includes additional arms, ammunitions and equipment from the US Department of Defence inventories), brings the total US military assistance for Ukraine’s war effort to approximately US$19.3 billion since the beginning of the US President Biden’s Administration in January 2021.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in April this year that the Ukraine conflict has triggered a “global and systemic emergency” across the food, energy and financial sectors. He added the crisis risks pushing as many as 1.7 billion people globally, or more than one-fifth of the planet — into poverty, destitution, and hunger. 
The World Food Programme (WFP) in April said it was scaling up response in the face of the crisis to reach 22 million people in West Africa. This includes eight million in dire food need across five Sahelian countries. 

To meet needs, WFP said it urgently required an additional US$951 million over a period of six months. Nikoi, the Regional Director WFP for West Africa stressed however, the need was for longer term solutions. 
While the US alone spends billions of dollars to continue destructive wars, the world’s nations are apparently finding it difficult to raise sufficient funds which could ease hunger and malnutrition in West Africa. What a colossal shame...?

It is in light of this chronic wilful misuse of this world’s resources, the local Christian community’s call for combining both the need for charity and change, as well as for showing society that the two (charity and change) are not mutually separate entities, but two sides of the same coin need to be viewed and appreciated.