Thread by @hilderestad

You never know where life will take you. In my case, I happened to marry a guy, who in turn happened to be a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. You know, where Jesus was born. The place you sing Christmas songs about. I know, because I sang a lot of Christmas songs about

Bethlehem while growing up in Norway. But what, and where, is Bethlehem? Spending time in the birth place of Jesus, including baptizing our son in the Nativity Church, is pretty different from the Bethlehem of Western Christianity's imagination. I suspect Christians in the West

don't think much about the fact that their holy figures and sacred events and places come from the occupied West Bank and the illegally annexed Jerusalem. If they did, the songs would not be so hopeful, and Christmas not quite so cozy.
Palestinian Christians think about it every

day however, because living under occupation affects every aspect of your life. And every year we celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, we have to take into account the architecture of the occupation, with the gigantic separation wall and the military checkpoints.

This year, Christmas is cancelled altogether in Bethlehem, because of the ongoing slaughter of their Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza. Many people have asked me what they can do. Sadly, there are hardly any ways to reach Gaza with help right now. The only organization

with the reach that is needed is @UNRWA, the U.N. organization the Trump presidency cut funding for.
So if you would like to contribute to the Holy Land this Christmas, consider giving to UNWRA. donate.unrwa.org/gaza/~my-donat…

@UNRWA *Not the *only* organization, but one organization with the reach and capacity and experience needed, is UNRWA. Where is that friggin' edit button, Xwitter!?