The Gaza priest spoke of the festive atmosphere of the celebrations but also of the fears that uncertainty about the future arouses. People try to flee, especially young people, and this is “an open wound” for “broken” Palestinian families. Anti-Hamas protests at the funerals of eight Gazans who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean on barges. Father Romanelli: If Israel’s policy does not change, the community “is destined to die.”
Milan () – The issue of emigration “is an open wound” for Palestinian families “since the Arab-Israeli war began.” Indeed, “it is difficult to find a family that was born in Palestine and in which all the members have remained there.” Even for those who still live on this earth, the problem of division remains relevant: there are millions of people hoping to meet again and they are “in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank”, “precisely because there is no freedom to move”.
It is an unresolved knot in a region marked by conflicts and violence, which often occur and are covered with a cloak of silence. And the one who speaks to us about it is the parish priest of Gaza, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who has lived the Christmas celebrations “with joy”, but at the same time denounces the lack of prospects experienced by this population marked by suffering. “People who live in the Strip cannot visit their relatives in Bethlehem or Jerusalem,” he explains. “In addition, almost everyone has a relative living in Lebanon, Australia, New Zealand or the United States. And the pain is seen above all in the faces of the mothers, who, in silence, watch their children leave their land. They are broken families, without a solution, without prospects”.
Hamas and migrants
Recently, thousands of people attended the funerals of eight people from Khan Yunis, who were shipwrecked about two months ago while trying to emigrate from Tunisia to the shores of Europe. It was one of many barges of despair that ply the waters of the Mediterranean, in which the dreams and hopes of a group of young people who left Gaza, an open-air prison, sank to build a new life. The funeral provided an opportunity to publicly show people’s disagreement with Hamas, which has ruled for 15 years a territory subject to a harsh blockade imposed by Israel (and Egypt). They accuse the militant group of not caring about young people and of not fighting to offer them employment and reintegration opportunities.
“Emigration is not an unusual phenomenon,” explains Father Romanelli, “I arrived in Gaza in 2019 and estimates from the previous year estimated that at least 10,000 young people had left – the majority Muslims, in the direction of Egypt – and the numbers do not stop growing.
We are two million 300 thousand inhabitants, many use mobile phones and social networks as a window to the real world and see that there are other opportunities: to live in peace, in freedom, places where people have water and electricity. For many, the crime is being born here, because criminals usually go to jail and there is no reason to lock up an entire population, denying them hope and a future.”
“We continually see people going abroad”, the priest continues, “and this happens, in part, because about 50% of the inhabitants do not have a job. There are attempts to escape by sea, but not from Gaza because it is impossible: a few miles from the coast is the Israeli navy, and no one could get around the blockade” to flee to Europe. “The direction is always towards Egypt, then Libya or many times Turkey, where there are boats that charge for making the crossing, and leave people in Greek territorial waters, even 14 or 15 km from the coast. Those who can swim the last stretch, and the rest wait to be rescued.” The unfortunate sink and die, as happened with the eight young men whose deaths sparked public protests in the Strip.
Violence and the wall of silence
Migration is related to violence -and deaths- in the Holy Land, which in the year that is about to end was consummated before the silence of the international community, more interested in other issues, first of all the Russian war in Ukraine.
Now awaiting the measures of the new government, with the return to power of the veteran prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described as the most right-wing in the history of Israel. “I have been living in the region for 27 years,” says Father Romanelli, “and the inhabitants no longer seem to trust any executive. The common opinion is that they will show up for the policies they have always followed, regardless of whether they are from the right, center or left, since colonization has always continued. In recent months, bombings, attacks and military operations have been part of the daily chronicle and no longer even appear in the headlines.
“It is a spiral of violence, deaths and injuries with serious consequences, it is not necessary to be an expert to see the terrible consequences of war,” says the parish priest. In a sense, it already becomes boring to talk about it. For many, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inherent in history, but that does not necessarily imply that it will always be so in the future. There would be a solution if both parties agreed. “Those who have more power have, at the same time, more responsibility in the search for peace,” he adds. However, with this policy of confrontation and occupation “you get nowhere.”
Christians, Christmas and inbreeding
Finally, Father Romanelli tells how they celebrated Christmas. “In Gaza, we were the first in the world to celebrate it”, with the traditional visit of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on the last Sunday of Advent, the solemn mass and the placing of the child in the manger on the night of December 18.
The Christians of the Strip “are people of faith” who live a de facto ecumenism: the Latin parish is made up of 136 faithful, but in the midnight celebration the majority are Orthodox. This year there were also several traditional rites, such as the presentation and blessing of a newborn baby – which this year was the same year that personified the baby Jesus in the living manger. Then we celebrated a baptism, seven first communions and seven confirmations. “A great joy”, underlined Fr. Romanelli, “with moments community party with music, bingo and other games in which more than 400 people participated.
The festive atmosphere was overshadowed by thorny and unresolved issues that threaten the future of Gaza’s Christians. “This year,” says Fr. Romanelli, “fewer exit permits were granted to visit relatives and relatives in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other areas of Palestine. The Israeli authorities granted just over 600 compared to 722 the previous year.” . The people had deluded themselves, and “in vain” they expected greater concessions from the leaders of the Jewish State, regarding a right that is vital for the very survival of the community: to move. “Let’s not forget that there are 1,066 Christians, perhaps fewer, and we are already in real danger of inbreeding, with marriages in the same family, spouses who are cousins in the fourth, third and even second line,” says the Gaza priest. If Israel’s policy does not radically change, and not just for the holidays, the Christian community, which is a seed of peace and justice, is doomed to die.” “Christians do not make extraordinary demands,” he concludes. They only ask for “power leave and go to the West Bank or anywhere else freely.”
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