A nativity scene in solidarity with Gaza was unveiled in Dublin on Saturday, featuring the baby Jesus laying in a manger of rubble.
The “Gaza solidarity nativity” was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and sits beside the Molly Malone Statue on Suffolk Street.
The group said the rubble surrounding the baby Jesus is designed to “echo the horrors being inflicted on the people of Gaza”.
“As Israel continues to rain down bombs on Palestinian children, and babies and their mothers are buried under rubble, Ireland expresses its solidarity,” it said.
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Musicians and artists, including singer Eoghan O Ceannabhain, and the Resistance Choir, performed reworked “carols of solidarity” with the people of Gaza.
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign chairwoman Zoe Lawlor urged the Government to “move beyond empty platitudes and take concrete measures”.
“The Government must refer Israel to the International Criminal Court immediately. It must also legislate to end Ireland’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes; it must enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill without further delay,” she said.
The nativity scene in Dublin mirrors that of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Church where a figure of baby Jesus lays wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh atop a pile of rubble. The figure lies beneath an olive tree, which, for Palestinians, is a symbol of steadfastness.
Meanwhile, the heads of the Christian, Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox churches in Jerusalem issued a joint statement calling on their congregations to “stand strong with those facing such afflictions by this year foregoing any unnecessary festive activities”.
“While the world is celebrating, our children are under the rubble,” they said. “While the world is celebrating, our families are displaced and their homes are destroyed. This is Christmas to us in Palestine.”
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