The Grinch That Politicized Christmas
December 8, 2011 17:55 by Pesach BensonThe Palestinian Authority is going to use Christmas to highlight their statehood push. Judging from this AP report, they’ve already become The Grinch That Politicized Christmas:
As part of the campaign, the Palestinians also offer pre-Christmas media tours to highlight Bethlehem area settlement expansion and the disruption caused by Israel’s separation barrier which surrounds the city on three sides. Israel announced or approved plans for thousands more apartments for Jews in the Bethlehem area in recent months, settlement watchdogs say.
“This Christmas will be an opportunity to show the real threat to the city of Bethlehem — the settlement enterprise and the wall that separates the city from its twin, Jerusalem,” said Ziad Bandak, an Abbas adviser on Christian affairs . . .
Local Christians say they have no problem with politicizing the holiday, saying the conflict with Israel affects everyone’s lives here.
“The settlements and the wall turned Bethlehem into a jail,” said Suzan Atallah, a 48-year-old teacher and mother of four . . .
Their media tours of settlements and security barrier are year-round — nothing Christmassy there. Getting locals to denounce Israel is also regular enough.
I’m sure residents would be happen enough to talk about the PA’s persecution of Christians — land theft, extortion and forced conversions — if these media tours are really about the full picture of what we might see in an independent Palestinian state.
Then there’s this snippet:
Israel portrays the wall as a defense against militants who during the years of violence would regularly infiltrate Israel, killing hundreds in suicide bombings and other attacks. The Palestinians denounce it a land grab, because in many places it encroaches into the West Bank, effectively pushing the de facto border forward.
The effects of the security wall are reported as factual, while Israel’s reasons for building it in the first place are just a portrayal?
Spoken like a real handler.
Related reading: 2 Christmas Season Stories We Can Do Without
(Image via Flickr/Tracy Hunter)
Politisierende Weihnachts-Miesmacher « Medien BackSpin
8:53 pm
Dec 09, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 9. Dezember 2011 [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Mr. Light-Bright
7:13 am
Dec 11, 2011
How fitting! Palestinians… and the day December 25 (not the real Jesus birth date) the day NIMROD was born (and rebirth)!
Gather around the fire Israelis/palestinian children, we are going to have a December 25 story! [children yell]: “Hooray”
It all started with Nimrod the sun God, which some who hear of the name think of “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!”
Now according to ancient Babylonian tradition, there was a fertillity goddess called EASTER, and she was married to…
[a child response]: “Satan.” [Story teller response]: NO No no!… he prefers to be called Nimrod in this story! go away and play with those old testament Jews over there, for you seem like one of them!
Anyways the story goes that Easter (or Astarte etc) was Nimrod’s mother, and at the same time married to Nimrod. Easter loved Nimrod so much, with his little pointy santa hat! Sadly and unexpectedly Nimrod dies and now lives on in spirit form!
That night a full grown evergreen tree so happened to grow from a existing dead tree stump! hence the CHRISTMAS TREE! With this tree came presents (gifts) from Nimrod to Easter! This would happen every year on December 25! CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! [children cheer) The End.
Latter in April, during easter time... [child interjects]: “You mean “Pesach” (the CH is a chet, and it means Passover). [Story teller responds]: “Using some hebrew word for the most sacred day! get out of here Jew!”
Ok now moving onwards… On Easter day, you will eat HAM, just like you do on CHRISTMAS in sad memory of the wild boar which killed Nimrod! [child interjects]: “That isn’t kosher, and I will be tolerant, but why do you have such unclean meat on passover…I MEAN EASTER… when the innocent lamb is suppose to represent purity and a boar would be defile-ing!?”
[Story teller responds]: “GET OUT YOU JEW!”
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Mr. Light-Bright
7:21 am
Dec 11, 2011
P.S. I am a Canadian Christian, who does not reject some Christmas celebration, but I am careful and mindful of the situation.
Wishing all a Happy Christmas, and an awesome Hanukah absent of paganism!
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Season’s Greetings From the Israel Bashers | The Conservative Papers
10:46 pm
Dec 28, 2011
[...] for a story with a seasonal flavor, usually a bitter one as far as Israel is concerned. That the same old stories are recycled more often than that Christmas or Chanukah present you just didn’t want, doesn’t seem to bother [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0