I’m a Palestinian Christian in Gaza. I want peace—for my homeland and my family.

 Rami Aljelda 

December 20, 2023

"My dream is a place where I can live and work, where my wife is working, and my children can be living in a peaceful environment where there is no violence "

 

Rami, his wife Maryan, and their daughter Kylie on the day his daughter was baptized, which occurred in late October while they were sheltering in Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius.

I have been living in Gaza my whole life but, honestly, I can barely remember the details of my life before two months ago. So much has changed—and it was already a year of major change in my personal life.
 
In May of 2022 I married my wife, Maryan. Over the past year, we designed and built our house together, inch by inch. Maryan chose the color of the curtains, the furniture. We did everything together, going here and there, to restaurants, to people’s homes. We had a life. We had community. And in June of this year, we had a daughter.
 
Even though we have lived through other conflicts before, this is the first one that has happened since I married and had a child. It is totally different. I don’t know how to describe it, but with everything that happens to me, I always think about my wife and my daughter, Kylie. It is not like before. I have responsibility as a new father.

 

I’m a Palestinian Christian living in Gaza. We have a small community of Christians here—about 900 people out of two million. We all know one another because we are all one community. Of course, we have had bad times before, with smaller escalations happening. But we were able to overcome them. We didn’t have to leave our homes. This time, we knew it would not be the same. Within two days of the start of the conflict, without any hesitation, my family went to St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church. We have lived in the church for nearly two months. I can say we are “living” in the church—not staying or taking shelter—because it’s really like we are living here... READ MORE

 https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/12/20/christian-gaza-wartime-church-community-246754

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES or quotes or watch videos IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]