The story – making much of very little – is here: “Gaza Christians say Israel travel bans separate families at Christmas,” Reuters, December 22, 2022:
As pilgrims from around the world flock to Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth for Christmas, members of Gaza’s Christian community wait to hear whether Israel will grant them a travel permit.
This year, Israeli authorities have approved travel for nearly 600 Palestinian Christians in Gaza, according to COGAT, a unit in Israel’s Defense Ministry that coordinates civilian issues with Palestinians.
But Palestinians say Israel’s permit allocations deny many families a rare opportunity to leave the strip and travel together because permits are not always granted to all family members.
“It is a tragedy when the mother or the father gets a permit and not the children or the opposite. That means there is no travel and there is no celebration,” Suhail Tarazi, director of Gaza’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
A “tragedy”? A tragedy is when someone dies, as for example when a terrorist blows up a bus, or a pizzeria, or a Passover seder. It is not a “tragedy” when someone can’t travel for Christmas with his family. It’s an inconvenience, an annoyance, but not a “tragedy.” The Israelis do not impose travel bans lightly. They do so only when their domestic intelligence service – the Shin Bet — believes there is a credible threat to the safety of its citizens or the security of the state. And besides, since when can people only have a “celebration” of Christmas when they visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or Nazareth? More than 2.6 billion Christians every year manage to celebrate Christmas without visiting those three cities.
“Such suffering happens to many families and it is repeated every year,” Tarazi told Reuters during a tree-lighting celebration in Gaza City on Dec 10.
The “suffering” — like “tragedy” a bit of self-pitying hyperbole — happens every year because, sad to say, there are some Gazan Christians who are weighed and found wanting, that is, determined to be security risks. Should Israel risk the safety – the very lives — of its citizens in order to avoid the soi-disant “tragedy” and “suffering” endured by at most two hundred Gazan Christians, while three times as many had their applications to visit the West Bank for Christmas approved?
COGAT said the accusations were an “absolute lie” and that it had denied about 200 applications from Christians this year on security grounds.
What’s next? Should the UN demand that Israel make public exactly on what it has based its decisions? Must Israel reveal to the world how it knows what it knows about those in Gaza who are linked to terror groups?
Gaza’s 2.3 million population comprises an estimated 1,000 Christians, most of whom are Greek Orthodox who celebrate Christmas in January.
So 600 Gazan Christians, nearly two-thirds of the total of 1,000, have been approved to visit the West Bank, for both the Latin and the Greek Orthodox celebrations of Christmas. Of the remaining 400, how many of those Gazan Christians would not have wanted to travel in any case, preferring to remain home at Christmas time? After all, only one-third of Americans – 113 million out of a total of 333 million – will travel during the Christmas holidays. Israel says it has refused permits to only 200 Gazans who applied for them. In the scheme of things, that is hardly a “tragedy” or a cause of “suffering” for them.
Gaza is run by the Islamist Hamas group. Citing security concerns, Israel restricts the movement of people and goods and maintains a naval blockade of the densely-populated coastal strip, where unemployment and poverty are high. Egypt also maintains some restrictions along its frontier with the territory.
The paragraph above leaves readers with the impression that the “unemployment and poverty” in Gaza are Israel’s fault. It is the thieving rulers of the Strip, the leaders of Hamas, who have stolen billions in aid meant for the Gazans. Just two of the Hamas leaders, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk, have each managed to amass fortunes of $2.5 billion. Many others in the top echelon of Hamas have made off, too, with millions, or tens of millions of dollars. This colossal corruption has nothing to do with Israel. Nor is Israel responsible for the fact that Hamas chooses to use so much of the aid that remains after the leaders have helped themselves, not on infrastructure, or help for small businesses, but on rockets, missiles, and a vast underground network of terror tunnels. And the glancing reference to Egypt’s “restrictions” at the border with Gaza minimizes the effect of that country’s blockade on the Gazans.
“I got a permit, but neither my wife nor my son did, therefore, I won’t be able to travel and enjoy Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus,” Majed Tarazi said. He is not related to Suhail, the YMCA director.
Why were his wife and son denied travel permits? Was it motiveless malignity on the part of the Israelis, or does the Shin Bet know something about Majed Tarazi’s wife that gives them cause for worry? If, as I suspect, his children are grown and in their 20s, the fact that the reporter carefully left that unsaid would have left readers with the impression that they are still small children. And that would have made Israel’s denial of a travel permit for them inexplicable.
For journalist Samer Hanna, the situation is reversed. He has been denied permits for the last 15 years on security grounds, while his wife and two children can travel.
“They get upset when they go and I am not with them, and if they stay here because of me, they still wish they could go to the West Bank or Jerusalem,” Hanna said.
Even though Bethlehem is only a 90-minute drive away, the travel ban has prevented him from reconnecting with extended family and friends in the West Bank.
“It is a big problem when I see people from all over the world going to Bethlehem easily and I can’t travel with my family,” he said.
The Palestinian Samer Hanna, who wants our sympathy, has been denied permits “for the last 15 years on security grounds.” Surely that means he is considered a serious, and continuing threat by Israel’s Shin Bet. God only knows what information the Israelis have about him; they’re not about to share their sources and methods. But those familiar with the Israeli security services know that they are not in the habit of turning someone down for such a permit 15 years running without very deep concerns.
It comes down to this: is Israel the villain of the piece, wantonly depriving some Gazan Christians of the possibility of visiting relatives and friends in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, for no conceivable reason? Or is Israel only trying to minimize the security risks to its own citizens, by preventing suspect Gazans from leaving the Strip? If you are one of the army of Israel-haters, of course you will deplore, as a “tragedy” and the cause of needless “suffering” among the Palestinians, Israel’s allowing “only 600” Gazan Christians to have travel permits at Christmas time. If, on the other hand, you are not part of that army, you should be willing to concede that Israel must have had good reason, which it obviously cannot supply to the public, to prevent those 200 Gazan Christians from traveling to east Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the Shin Bet fears they would be up to no good.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Merry Christmas to everybody – particularly those who celebrate it! 🎄🎁🎈
࿗Infidel࿘ says
For me, the news in this story is that there actually are Christians left in Gaza. You mean Hamas hasn’t yet converted them or driven them out or killed them? And on this story, what’s the issue: will Hamas not allow Christmas trees and decorations in Gaza, and do what those lone muslims did in France and Spain – chop down a tree or vandalize a Nativity scene?
Golem2 says
Playing the victim is an Arab thing.
Devasur says
The same is the case when Hindus visit their ancient holy places in Kashmir. where Muslims would do jihad attacks on Hindus. Yet MSM claims Muslims are persecuted in India.