RAMALLAH, Thursday, December 23, 2021 – President Mahmoud Abbas said today, in his Christmas message, that Christmas reminds the world of the importance of justice, resilience, and the Palestinian people’s quest for human dignity and freedom.

Below is the full text of President Abbas’ message for Christmas 2021:

Celebrating Christmas each year is a glorious occasion dear to our hearts. Christmas carries its own splendour, as it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, the messenger of peace, who was born in a Grotto in Bethlehem, where the Church of the Nativity now stands.

Christmas brings love, tolerance, and joy to every home in Palestine, and carries a message of hope for a better future from Palestine to the hearts of millions of believers around the world. It is a solemn occasion that fills every Palestinian with pride, reminding us of Jesus Christ and of the importance of justice and resilience. In Palestine, we live the message of Christmas with hope and with a determination to uphold human dignity and freedom.

We embrace Christmas as both a religious and national celebration, and extend our greetings to all who celebrate it. The people of Palestine have cared for the Holy Sites for centuries as part of our national identity and duty. On this land stand mosques and churches visited for generations by the same people who today still struggle for their right to live in freedom and dignity including the rights to worship and to move freely as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The historic Status Quo of all Holy Sites including the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Ibrahimi Mosque, and others across Palestine is at the core of our national struggle. This Status Quo, and the historical reality of Jerusalem, are being threatened by a belligerent occupation and extremist Israeli groups, whether through attempts to impose Jewish prayers in Al-Aqsa, transform Jaffa Gate into another settlement outpost, or seize church properties that would divide the Armenian and Christian Quarters.

We are following with great concern the serious developments in the Armenian Quarter, the New Gate and Jaffa Gate areas, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and the repeated restrictions and provocations imposed on our people at Damascus Gate, alongside ongoing attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes.

We call on all countries and churches not only to oppose and condemn these Israeli policies and practices, but also to take concrete steps to stop and prevent them, in order to protect the Palestinian people and uphold their long overdue inalienable rights including preserving the historic Christian presence in Palestine, the Holy Land. This was clearly stated in the December 15 statement of the Heads and Patriarchs of the Churches of Jerusalem.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has been turned into an open-air prison, surrounded by 18 colonial settlements and more than 100,000 settlers, cut off from Jerusalem by the illegal Annexation Wall. The city continues to suffer the impact of COVID-19, in addition to the severe restrictions imposed by the Israeli government that prevent Christian and Muslim pilgrims from reaching their holy sites.

As part of our responsibility to preserve our heritage, we proudly inaugurated the restoration works at Hisham’s Palace in Jericho, carried out under our supervision. Together with the remarkable restorations of the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the recent UNESCO inscription of Palestinian embroidery as Intangible Cultural Heritage, these achievements remind the world of our cultural richness a richness that deserves to flourish, free of restrictions.

As we celebrate Christmas, we cannot ignore the reality of oppression around us: children whose homes have been demolished under illegal and immoral policies; families unable to reach Bethlehem for fear of settler attacks carried out with impunity; political prisoners spending the holidays away from their loved ones; and our people in exile or prevented from returning, including millions in the Arab world, all because of the ongoing occupation.

I pay tribute to our people, wherever they are, and say to them: be proud of your history and identity. And to the world, I say that Christmas carries a Palestinian message of hope a message our people continue to embrace with love and steadfastness in the pursuit of justice, freedom, and peace.

From the city of Bethlehem and the blessed land of Palestine, I wish the world a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. In particular, I extend my warmest and deepest Christmas greetings to Palestinian Christians, to the Palestinian people everywhere, and to all who celebrate.