Merry Christmas in spite of it all By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

[Please Note: From FY2008 to the present, annual U.S. bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip has averaged over $600 million, including annual averages of over $200 million in direct budgetary assistance and over $100 million in non-lethal security assistance for the PA in the West Bank. Additionally, the United States is the largest single-state donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)]

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Merry Christmas in spite of it all

Date posted: December 24, 2012
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Everyone loves the Christmas season with its decorated trees, lights, family get-togethers and overall cheer. The Palestinians are no different, both Christians and Muslims alike. This year in Palestine, Christmas will be celebrated with a mixture of hope for the future and frustration over the present. Palestinian Christians who work for government institutions will unfortunately have to make do with half their salaries this month as the PA continues to try and hold its head above water. With the financial crisis eating away at the Palestinian economy and tens of thousands of pocketbooks, some Christians will have to cut down on the festivities this year for lack of funds.

This crisis is crushing from every aspect. While employees cannot be blamed for wanting their salaries and therefore taking protest measures to demand them, neither can the PA be fully blamed for not being able to deliver. Israel is withholding money that is rightfully ours and the Arabs have yet to make good on their promise of providing a financial safety net to the PA. While many may say the government has not managed the crisis very well, if anyone or anything is to blame, it is the system created by the Oslo Accords that allows such crises to happen in the first place. The fact that the Palestinians are almost completely dependent on Arab and foreign aid coupled with the uneasy fact that Israel can freeze the transfer of our tax revenues whenever it wants, means this is a faulty system from the get-go. The Palestinians can never have a stable and viable economy as long as this lopsided and discriminatory system is in place.

This brings us to the element of hope this Christmas. The Palestinian leadership, very aware of this faulty system, have started to turn things around. The recent status upgrade for Palestine at the UN to a non-member state is a quantum leap for the Palestinians. While the road is understandably still long and full of obstacles, the wheel has been put into motion. Palestine is now a state under occupation, a status recognized by the overwhelming majority of world countries. Israel is violating international law by its presence in this occupied state in the form of settlements and the Palestinians have now been empowered by the tool of international criminal courts to fight this. Things are changing, even if slowly.

So even though pockets may be almost empty this Christmas, Palestinians still count their blessings. Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, our own Palestinian-born prophet and his tremendous sacrifice for humanity. We know a thing or two about sacrifice and therefore never ever lose hope.

Merry Christmas to all from the occupied State of Palestine.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.