Minneapolis, MN – On December 23 holiday shoppers were greeted by pro-Palestine banners displayed by protesters at metro-area malls, including the Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka and Rosedale Center in Roseville, as well as the Mall of America parking ramp that overlooks Highway 77 in Bloomington.

Banners included messages like “No Christmas as usual during a genocide,” “Bethlehem is in Palestine” and “Israel kills, USA pays.” They were seen by thousands of shoppers before being removed.

Activists also distributed flyers explaining the purpose of the action: calling attention to Israel’s ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, and particularly during the holiday season, the plight of Palestinian Christians.

The action took place as the number of Palestinians killed surpassed 20,000. Unprecedented, huge protests worldwide have continued, demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, lifting of the siege of Gaza, an end to U.S. aid to Israel, and the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees to their national homeland.

“Many Americans are unaware that a significant portion of Palestinians are Christians,” explained Wyatt Miller of the Free Palestine Coalition. “Although Israel’s violent occupation isn’t really about religion – it’s about land and the geopolitical interests of its American sponsors – we have to recognize that Palestinians of all faiths are being denied the peace and family time that Christians associate with this time of year. Instead, they’re being starved and bombed, with entire extended families wiped out.”

Over half a million Palestinians are Christians. The Palestinian city of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, typically is visited by millions of pilgrims each year as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

This year, however, Bethlehem has announced that Christmas celebrations are canceled, to mark solidarity with Gaza and highlight the worsening conditions for Palestinians everywhere. While Gaza has borne the brunt of Israel’s campaign of violence, hundreds of Palestinians have also been killed or abducted by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

There has been increasing pressure from Christian leaders on Israel to stop its war on Gaza. On December 17, Pope Francis deplored Israel’s killing of two unarmed women on the grounds of Gaza’s only Catholic church, calling Israel’s strategy “terrorism.” On December 21, Patriarch Theophilos III, on behalf of the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem, delivered a message calling for a ceasefire to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

Holiday protests will continue on Christmas Eve when then MN Free Palestine Coalition plans to march on the Minnesota governor’s mansion to demand he divest state worker pensions from Israeli companies and companies that are complicit with apartheid Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.

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