It hardly feels like Christmas time this year!

On the 24th of the December throughout the World, Christians will gather in churches, with family, friends and communities to celebrate the birth of Christ. They will be chanting about an Holy Night in an Holy Land where the son of God was born and was welcomed by shepperds, foreigners and angels.

It certainly were very different times back when Jesus was born in that cold night, in that crib in Betlehem. The land was also under occupation, life was hard work and not much else. The Roman soldiers, like the Israeli soldiers today, were receiving the taxes for the Emperor, administering the local allegiances and keeping the "peace".


We are today, as we have been yesterday, and will be tomorrow at a crossroads to say and live up to that fundamental truth that :

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not the privilege of a few, it is the duty and endowment of all. In Palestine, as in many other places of the World, we are failing Humanity by being timid, coward and silent. To speak the truth, to proclaim it is our only option.