Israel Raided Bethlehem on Christmas Eve - Where are the Christians?

The grip of Western racism is so powerful that attacking Arabs trumps religious solidarity.

It is nothing short of hypocrisy that the world's Christians remained silent as Israel raided Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. While professing to celebrate the birth of Christ in that city, Christians have turned a blind eye to the plight of Arab children in Christianity's holiest site.

The racism inherent in Western Christianity is laid bare - the lives of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, who are closest in heritage to Christianity's original followers clearly matter little in the face of a much stronger allegiance to a White-dominant Israel. Time and again we have seen that solidarity with fellow worshipers ends where melanated skin begins.

The insidious effects of colonial white supremacy run deep. Over time, Europeans have almost entirely forgotten Christianity's roots in the Middle East - that it arose from the same cradle as Islam and Judaism, with the followers of all three faiths looking remarkably similar. Through the intentional "whitening" of religious iconography like portrayals of a blond, blue-eyed Jesus and angelic hosts lacking in melanin, Christianity in Europe has been distorted into a thinly-veiled cover for white supremacy.

Stripped of its origins, the faith has been reconstituted into a caricature that serves only to justify domination over those deemed racially inferior. This deliberate severing of Christianity from its actual ethnic and geographic birthplace has had genocidal consequences, enabling Western powers to ignore or even directly target Muslim and Arab Christians in service of an ethnostate bearing little resemblance to the religion's origins. If Europeans remembered that Christianity is indelibly intertwined with Middle Eastern peoples and culture, the dehumanization of Palestinians and justification for their oppression could not so easily continue.

Thus, claims of religious ties mean nothing when White supremacy is threatened. That attacking Bethlehem on Christmas elicited no outrage exposes how empty Christian principles of peace, justice and human rights have become. When push comes to shove, White racism ensures the denial of even the most basic protections for Arab lives.

If Jesus Christ himself was reborn in Gaza today, would Christians still stay silent as Israel carries out genocide? Probably. The truth is being revealed - skin color and ethnic affiliation matter far more than any religious teachings to many Western Christians. Through its inaction, the Church has effectively sanctioned and participated in the dehumanization of Palestinians.

If Western Christianity has any integrity left, it starts by loudly and unapologetically condemning violence against Arab Christians on holy ground. Silence is complicity, and on this many Christians stand guilty as charged.