Peace on Earth, good will to all mankind, that is the essential message of Christmas. The image of the babe born in Bethlehem is a symbol of tenderness and the hope for a future of peace and harmony.
How can someone take this gentle holiday message and distort it to serve an ideology of hate? That would surely be beyond belief.
Yet that is exactly what happened at the main campus of Al Quds University in Abu Dis in the Palestinian territories east of Jerusalem.
Earlier this month, university officials unveiled a Christmas tree decorated with photographs of murderers! “The Martyrs’ Tree” featured photographs of individuals involved in the recent wave of stabbings and car rammings on the streets of Israel, and, according to one report, included a photo of the founder of the notorious terrorist group, Hamas.
I wouldn’t have believed it myself, if I hadn’t seen the photographs. They are real. These photographs of the event were distributed by the Al Quds University press office. They show the unveiling ceremony, led by Imad Abu Kishek, president of the university, Greek Orthodox Bishop Atallah Hanna, and Mufti of Bethlehem, Sheikh Abdul Majeed Amarneh.
The pictures are shocking, and the speeches at the ceremony were similarly surreal. They claimed Jesus as a Palestinian; one more fiction in the ongoing project to erase all evidence – historical, archeological and religious – of Jewish ties to Israel. Like the tree itself, the narrative was an attempt to forge a link between the holiday of peace and a message of hostility and violence, which, sadly, is the signature message on Palestinian university campuses today.
The perverted notion of a murderers’ Christmas tree is terrible enough. What’s even worse is that your tax dollars and mine go to support the folks who erected the tree, the campus it’s on and its programs, administration and faculty. That’s right, Al Quds University’s list of financial supporters includes United States Agency For International Development (USAID) Al Quds University takes our money and violates our dearest principles. Under pressure from the university, an American college that runs a program for Al Quds students no longer hires Jewish faculty to teach there.
Senators and members of Congress are home for the holidays. Ask them to look into this.
Jesus is a sacred figure to more than 2 billion Christians worldwide. The baby born in Bethlehem - not very far from Al Quds University itself - represents mankind’s hope for peace. Let’s make sure we don’t support those who would cynically deface that hope – and the Christmas holiday itself – by installing a “martyrs’ tree.”
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