As 2025 ends Israel's violence in Gaza during sacred holidays reveals more of their inhumanity

Gaza's ancient Christian community—dating back to the time of Christ—is now on the brink of extinction due to decades of Israeli oppression, attacks, displacement, and the destruction of holy sites.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

 

As the world marked the sanctity of Christmas and Hanukkah in late December—a season traditionally devoted to peace, reflection, and family—the Gaza Strip faced unrelenting violence at Israeli hands into the year’s final days. Reports from the region depicted ongoing Israeli military operations that showed no pause, turning potential moments of respite into further devastation.

For example, air strikes continued across Gaza during the holiday period, with attacks reported in areas like Shuja’iyya and other neighbourhoods, resulting in civilian casualties and underscoring a disregard for humanitarian norms, despite a ceasefire which Israel signed with Hamas in October. These were not isolated events as Israel’s unrelenting assault on Gaza over the holidays killed dozens, including children, in locations throughout the enclave. Such actions shattered any holiday spirit and heightened the existential threat to Gaza’s ancient Christian Palestinian community—one of the world’s oldest—now on the brink of extinction due to decades of prolonged conflict, displacement, and the destruction of holy sites.

Gaza’s Christian Palestinians, numbering fewer than 600 today, trace their roots back over 2,000 years, predating many modern religious and political boundaries. The ongoing bombardment, combined with Israel’s 16 year long siege and blockade, has drastically reduced their numbers, with churches damaged or destroyed and family lineages wiped out. Holiday periods in prior years witnessed attacks on sacred sites, including church compounds that resulted in deaths and injuries. This pattern points to Israel’s systematic erasure of cultural and religious heritage in Gaza, pushing Palestinian Christians toward oblivion amid actions widely described by international human rights organizations, genocide scholars, Jewish intellectuals, and international bodies like the United Nations and the International Court of Justice as carrying genocidal intent. The irony during the holiday season is stark. Hanukkah celebrates light triumphing over darkness and resistance to oppression, yet the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s policies contravene these principles, oppressing a vulnerable population in ways that contradict Jewish scriptural commands—such as the Torah’s 36 exhortations not to oppress the stranger and the Talmud’s teaching that destroying one life is akin to destroying an entire world.

These developments occurred against more than 800 days of genocidal violence by Israel, with the Palestinian death toll exceeding 75,000 as of mid-November, with more than 30% of the victims being children and 20% being women. In addition, the humanitarian crisis has worsened due to restrictions on aid crossing into Gaza, resulting in famine, disease, and severe winter hardships. Even as leaders worldwide shared holiday messages, Israel’s military assault continued in violation of international law, including the Genocide Convention, prompting widespread condemnation from human rights groups. This continuation of military attacks during sacred holidays exposes an unwillingness to heed universal pleas for mercy, demonstrating again Israel’s utter disregard for Palestinian lives and international law.

In Canada, diverse voices have raised alarms about these events. On December 23, 2025, advocacy groups gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in a media conference to highlight the crisis, drawing from religious, ethical, medical, Indigenous, and human rights viewpoints. Organizations like Independent Jewish Voices, Doctors for Humanity and others urged stronger action, stressing Canada’s duties under international law. Since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza Jewish Canadians opposing the violence have also voiced profound distress, contending that Israel’s conduct abuses power and contradicts core ethical tenets of Judaism, including Hanukkah’s emphasis on justice. Indigenous leaders, via the Assembly of First Nations—representing over 600 chiefs and hundreds of thousands of First Nations citizens—have also expressed solidarity with Palestinians, drawing parallels to colonial experiences of genocide against Indigenous people in Canada and have criticized Canada’s complicity in Israel’s crimes.

As 2026 approaches, Canadian leaders must respond to the millions of citizens who, over more than two years, have demanded resolute steps to address the crisis in Gaza. Polls indicate growing consensus with over half of Canadians viewing Israel’s actions as genocide, with figures around 52% in recent surveys linking aid restrictions and military operations to such crimes. Another poll showed similar concurrence near 49%, signalling increasing frustration with Ottawa’s restrained approach. Protests, petitions, and parliamentary initiatives have reinforced these calls for alignment with human rights standards.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s silence amid Israel’s holiday attacks echoes the failure of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to fully acknowledge Palestinian suffering or uphold international human rights norms, which jeopardize Canada’s international moral standing. To stand on the right side of history, the government must move beyond its mealy mouthed rhetoric, that does nothing to change the reality on the ground in Gaza, into policy and action. The fact that Canada labelled Russian violence in Ukraine as “genocide” in a unanimous April 2022 parliamentary resolution but refuses to do the same for Gaza, despite comparable atrocities by Israel, like targeting civilians and destroying infrastructure, speaks volumes about the embedded anti-Palestinian racism of Canada’s political elites. Without direct intervention by Western democracies, including Canada, which are the only ones with the power to halt Israel’s atrocities, this nation and others in the Western alliance will be remembered for abandoning the rule of law and enabling horrific crimes on par with what Nazi Germany committed during the Holocaust.

Ending this violence also requires reclaiming compassion and independence from external pressures. Zionist lobbying has long influenced Canada’s Middle East policy, with legacy Jewish organizations acting as agents of the Israeli government. In caving to their pressure Canada has abandoned its international legal obligations under the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention. But Carney and his government must resist the pressure of these lobbies to restore national autonomy and empathy. Nations like Ireland, Norway, and Spain provide a blueprint for the path Canada should follow. They have recognized Palestinian statehood without conditions (unlike Canada), denounced Israel’s military actions as genocide, and implemented measures like trade reviews and arms restrictions. Ireland has pushed for broader European Union trade sanctions and supported South Africa’s ICJ case alleging genocide under the Convention. Norway and Spain have also indicated their intention to intervene in the case, and Spain has labelled Israel’s actions as genocide halting arms exports and barring arms from other nations heading to Israel from transiting its territory.

These steps—halting preferential trade, sanctioning officials, and backing accountability—prove that ethical positions can reinforce international law without undermining security or sovereignty. In contrast, Canada’s ongoing arms transactions with Israel constitute criminal complicity in its crimes in Gaza. To stop the suffering and align with the principles of universal justice, Ottawa should implement a comprehensive two-way arms embargo, apply targeted sanctions on Israeli leaders, implement a broader trade embargo, and enforce a lasting ceasefire—standing in solidarity with Palestinians being subjected to horrors the rest of us can only imagine.

Inaction by Canada would cement this nation’s position as criminally complicit in another erasure of Indigenous peoples. Palestinians, as the historic inhabitants of the land with ancient ties to historic Palestine, endure dispossession reminiscent of Canada’s genocidal legacy with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. The residential school system, assimilation policies, and land seizures amounted to policies of genocide, the effects of which continue to be felt to this day. Supporting or ignoring similar patterns with Palestinians—mass displacement, cultural destruction, community obliteration, land theft—would make a lie of Canada’s support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, as well as its reconciliation commitments to its own Indigenous people. Indigenous voices in Canada have highlighted these connections, advocating solidarity with Palestinians to avoid repeating past wrongs. By partnering with principled nations and fulfilling its international legal obligations, Canada can safeguard its international standing and aid the cause of justice and freedom for Palestinians.

In this pivotal moment, with the holidays receding and as the New Year begins, the choice is clear. Israel’s unchecked criminal actions over decades, and especially during sacred holidays for Christians and Muslims, exposes a profound and deliberate moral failing, one that Canada can no longer excuse or ignore. Listening to Canadians, pushing back against external pressures from Zionist agents of the Israeli government, and joining global efforts to end the genocide will not only save Palestinian lives but redeem this nation’s soul. The alternative—complicity—will condemn future generations in this country to grapple with yet another enduring moral failure and damage this country’s international reputation beyond measure.

Yet, as 2026 dawns, there remains a profound reason for hope for the Palestinian people. Their extraordinary resilience—evident in the enduring spirit of families attempting to rebuild amid ruins and ongoing Israeli attacks, communities preserving ancient traditions, and a global movement growing ever stronger in solidarity—affirms that no amount of violent oppression by Israel can extinguish the quest for justice, freedom, and dignity. With increasing voices worldwide demanding accountability and change, the New Year carries the promise that sustained international pressure will finally pave the way for a just peace, allowing Palestinians to reclaim their rights, rebuild their homeland, and hopefully achieve a lasting peace.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

A broken world on the eve of Christmas: Where is Christ's message in the West?

The irony is stark, Western nations, born from Enlightenment ideals intertwined with Christian ethics, now export a version of "faith" that is weaponized for a powerful oppressor.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As the world hurtles toward Christmas Day 2025, over 2.3 billion Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ—a figure whose teachings of peace, compassion, mercy, and justice have shaped civilizations for two millennia. Yet, in this season of supposed goodwill, the actions—or inactions—of leaders in the world’s Western predominantly Christian nations reveal a profound hypocrisy. The Western alliance, led by countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, claims a heritage rooted in Christian values. But their policies and silences in the face of atrocity tell a different story—one of moral abdication that mocks the very ethos of the faith they profess.

Consider the land where Jesus Christ was born, preached, and died—the Holy Land, now a cauldron of genocide and suffering in Gaza and the broader Palestinian territories at the hands of Israeli oppressors, one that has been this way for decades. Here, amid the rubble of what was once Bethlehem’s neighbour, heinous crimes unfold daily—indiscriminate bombings, forced displacements, ethnic cleansing and a humanitarian catastrophe that the International Court of Justice has labelled as plausibly genocidal, and that the United Nations has labelled as undoubtedly genocidal.

Christians and Muslims alike—brothers and sisters in humanity—are caught in this vise of violence, their lives extinguished or upended in ways that echo the ancient laments of the prophets. Palestinian Christians, a dwindling community, and one on the brink of extinction in Gaza, tracing their roots to the time of Christ, face existential threats, their churches destroyed and their faithful scattered. Muslims, too, endure unimaginable horrors, from starvation sieges to the targeting of hospitals and school, and the destruction of anything that could sustain human life.

And what of the West’s response? These self-proclaimed beacons of Christian democracy arm the genocidal Israeli perpetrators—the US vetoes UN resolutions calling for ceasefires, and nations like the UK and Germany offer platitudes about “self-defence” while ignoring the disproportionate carnage. The US, under both Republican and Democratic administrations that routinely invoke God in speeches, provides billions in military aid to Israel, enabling the very genocidal acts that ravage the birthplace of Christianity. Canada, the UK, Germany, and France follow suit, condemning and suppressing domestic anti-Genocide protests, labelling criticism of Israel as antisemitism, and turning a blind eye to war crimes documented by human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In all of this where is the Sermon on the Mount? Christ’s call proclaiming “blessed are the peacemakers” rings hollow when Western leaders prioritize geopolitical alliances over halting a slaughter that has claimed over 75,000 Palestinian lives, with more than a third of them children.

This isn’t a mere policy failure, it’s a betrayal of Christ’s core teachings. Jesus preached love for enemies, turning the other cheek, and caring for the least among us—the poor, the oppressed, the stranger. He flipped tables in the temple against exploitation and hypocrisy. Yet, Western leaders, many of whom publicly identify as Christians—think of US presidents quoting scripture or European prime ministers attending Christmas services—embody none of this. They champion “Judeo-Christian values” as a cloak of indemnity while preparing for endless wars, and doing nothing about growing economic inequality, and environmental catastrophe, all while allowing atrocities in the Holy Land to continue unabated.

Germany’s “Staatsräson“ policy ties its identity to Israel’s security, but at what cost to Palestinians, Christian or Muslim? France’s laïcité policy masks its oppression of Muslims seeking justice for Palestinians and its complicity in the horrors Israel is committing. The UK’s historical role in decades of oppression, subjugation and brutalization of Palestinians, beginning with the Balfour Declaration and continuing through its decades of unequivocal support for Israel, is a stain that will never wash away. And Canada, with its multicultural veneer and claims of being a defender of international human rights, joins in blocking international accountability for Israel by opposing the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International court of Justice.

The irony is stark, these nations, born from Enlightenment ideals intertwined with Christian ethics, now export a version of “faith” that is weaponized for a powerful oppressor. They decry religious persecution elsewhere—say, in China or Iran—yet fund it in the cradle of Christianity, the land were Christ lived and spread his message. If he returned today, would he recognize these leaders as his followers? Or would he see Pharisees, more concerned with rituals and alliances than with justice and mercy? More likely the latter.

The world feels irreparably broken, fractured by endless conflicts, climate crises, and a erosion of shared humanity. It’s easy to despair, to see only the darkness enveloping places like Gaza, Ukraine, or our own divided societies.

What can or should we do about how seemingly broken the world is? Can we really do anything to fix it when our efforts are so small when compared to the enormity of the task at hand? History and our experiences teach us that what is broken can be mended with time, tenacity and the collective will of people who desire a world better than one we have.

However, in so doing we must remember to do it with humanity and love that is generous, deliberate and unconditional. The truth is the world we see around us, that seems to be falling into darkness, is actually waiting for the light that’s in all of us to shine forth and begin to heal peoples, societies, environments, and the soul of our world.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Reflections on Christmas in a fractured world

Empathy, a cornerstone of the Christmas story—where a "king" is born in poverty to uplift the marginalized—has been supplanted by apathy and self-interest. 

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As the twinkling lights adorn our streets and the carols echo through frost-kissed air, Christmas arrives once more like a gentle snowfall, blanketing the world in promises of peace on Earth and goodwill toward all. In its purest essence, this season commemorates the birth of a child in a humble manger—a symbol of humility, compassion, and the radical idea that love can upend empires and heal divisions. It’s a time when we’re called to pause, to extend kindness to strangers, and to envision a world where swords are beaten into ploughshares.

Yet, in the glow of our holiday hearths, one can’t help but wonder: What does this ancient message truly mean in our hyper-connected, hyper-divided, hyper-capitalist era? Amid the festive cheer, Christmas serves as a stark mirror, reflecting not just our joys but the profound dissonances of the society we’ve built and in which we live.

Consider the irony woven into the fabric of this season. Christmas carols speak of silent nights and holy nights, invoking a tranquility that feels increasingly elusive. For eleven months of the year, the world churns with discord—violent conflicts rage unchecked, political vitriol poisons societal discourse, and empathy seems a scarce commodity. Then, as December dawns, a collective mass amnesia sets in. We exchange pleasantries with people we ignore for most of the year, donate to food banks we forget by February, and preach unity while scrolling past headlines of suffering. If the figure at the heart of Christmas—a teacher who championed the poor, challenged the powerful, and preached forgiveness—were to walk among us today, what verdict might he render on our progress? Would he recognize the “goodwill” in a society where kindness is rationed, confined to Hallmark cards and holiday parties, rather than a year-round ethic?

Those of us who came of age in the latter half of the 20th century remember a different cadence to history. From the early 1970s through the late 1990s, despite the Cold War, regional conflicts, and the shadow of nuclear annihilation hanging like the sword of Damocles over us, there was an undercurrent of optimism. The civil rights movements had borne fruit, environmental awakenings like Earth Day promised stewardship of our planet, and the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded an end to the Cold War as millions behind the “Iron Curtain” experienced freedom and democracy for the first time.

We dreamed of a future where technology bridged gaps and improved lives, the economy lifted all boats, and global cooperation tamed existential threats. But the turn of the millennium brought a seismic shift. The horror of the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, didn’t just scar a city skyline, they planted seeds of fear that have blossomed into today’s thorny vines of extremism. What began as a response to terrorism morphed into endless wars, surveillance states, and a resurgence of authoritarian impulses that echo the dark preludes of the 1930s.

Today, that once-unimaginable world stares back at us, unrecognizable and unforgiving. In the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth, democratic institutions—forged through generations of struggle—are besieged and being dismantled by forces that prioritize power and control over democracy and principle, eroding hard-won advances in equality, justice, human rights and environmentalism.

In Canada, we have a leader in Mark Carney elected as a Liberal on progressive promises and a commitment to push back against Donald Trump’s economic and political aggression, governing with a conservatism that blurs ideological lines. Across the aisle from him in Parliament the leader of the Official Opposition—Pierre Poilievre—pines to remake Canada in the mold of America’s most conservative of Republican states, where individual freedoms are suppressed, corporate interests are elevated, and cultural wars are used to advance regressive policies. This isn’t the enlightened era Boomers, Gen Xers, or Millennials envisioned growing up. It’s a landscape where fascism’s spectre looms not as a ghost but as a living threat, fuelled by rising right wing extremism, disinformation, division, and a yearning to make things “great” again.

At the core of this malaise lies a profound inversion of values. Empathy, a cornerstone of the Christmas story—where a “king” is born in poverty to uplift the marginalized—has been supplanted by apathy and self-interest. We inhabit a realm where accountability doesn’t exist for the rich and powerful, where petty offenders languish in prisons while titans of industry evade justice for crimes that span continents and affect millions.

Corporations ravage ecosystems in pursuit of quarterly profits, turning forests into wastelands and oceans into plastic graveyards, all while political leaders dither amid the flames of a climate catastrophe that has gotten worse by the year. The planet warms, droughts, floods and fire storms rage, and thousands of species vanish, yet the response is often a shrug, a denial, or a greenwashed press release. How is it that we have normalized this?

The top ten wealthiest individuals in the world hoard wealth like a dragon hoards gold, and that wealth eclipses the GDP of 147 of the least wealthy nations combined, yet they dodge taxes that could fund schools, hospitals and sustainable futures and eradicate poverty. The rest of us foot the bill, watching as inequality grows and festers like a gaping wound, and wonder how the obscenity of a single man having more wealth than could be enjoyed in a hundred lifetimes is allowed to exist.

Worse still is the moral contortion evident in global affairs. On our screens, we witness atrocities unfold in real time—a genocide that echoes the horrors of World War Two, with civilians caught in crossfires of indifference. In Gaza, for more than 800 days, Palestinians have faced horrors that we thought had been left behind in World War Two, with people being slaughtered daily, even during the season of peace and goodwill for three consecutive years, while those with the leverage to intervene opt for silence, political platitudes or complicity. Truth-tellers who decry environmental ruin, economic exploitation, or systemic oppression are marginalized, censored, or worse, by elites who guard their wealth and power. This is a world turned upside down, where humanity’s better angels are drowned out by the clamour of greed and grievance.

We scroll through a daily deluge of ugliness—poverty amid plenty, division amid diversity—and yet, where are the mass mobilizations of people to storm the political barricades? Why aren’t people flooding the streets, demanding a reckoning with these injustices? The future we once hoped for has curdled like sour milk into a dystopia, and we should grieve for the children inheriting this legacy—a planet scarred by our shortsightedness, societies slowly fracturing from our failures.

Yet even in this bleak tableau Christmas whispers a counter-narrative, one that refuses to surrender to despair. The season’s enduring message isn’t mere nostalgia, it’s a clarion call to reclaim what we’ve lost. Peace on Earth isn’t a passive wish—it’s an active pursuit, demanding we extend goodwill beyond December’s borders. Imagine if we harnessed the fleeting kindness of the holidays as a catalyst for lasting change. What if the energy we muster for Christmas family gatherings was extended year-round to the homeless in our streets, the single parent working two jobs to just get by, or the generosity of gift-giving fuelled campaigns against inequality?

History teaches us that progress isn’t linear, it’s forged in moments of collective awakening. The same generations that marched for civil rights and environmental protections can inspire today’s youth to rise against fascism’s tide, to hold leaders accountable for catering to corporate elites, and to innovate solutions for a warming world.

In the manger’s shadow, there’s hope in humility—the recognition that no empire is eternal, no injustice invincible. We’ve seen glimmers in grassroots movements amplifying voices against genocide, youth-led strikes demanding climate action, and communities bridging divides through dialogue. The rich might hoard wealth but they can’t monopolize compassion or activism.

As we “deck the halls” this year, let Christmas be more than ritual, let it be revolution. By embodying its spirit daily throughout the year—choosing empathy over enmity, accountability over apathy—we can weave a new tapestry for tomorrow. The world may seem uglier now, but in the quiet miracle of a single act of kindness lies the seed of redemption. This season, we should do more than celebrate the light, we should become it. Let’s illuminate a path toward the peace we’ve long desired but most of us have seldom pursued. In that pursuit, perhaps we’ll find the just and peaceful world we always imagined—not perfect, but progressing, one hopeful step at a time.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Christmas in Gaza doesn’t mean peace or goodwill, only genocide with Canadian complicity

Refusal of Canada's leaders to condemn Israel, or aggressively prosecute Canadians for genocide, betrays the very essence of Christian ethics—love thy neighbour, defend the oppressed.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As Canadian families, including our political leaders, gather around festively decorated trees to celebrate the Christmas season with their children and grandchildren, exchanging gifts and sharing meals in warmth and security, a profound and tragic disparity unfolds half a world away in the Holy Land. In Gaza, a mere 75 kilometres from Bethlehem—the birthplace of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace—there is no semblance of holiday joy, no “peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Instead, the historic Christian communities of Gaza teeter on the brink of extinction, ravaged by Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. Imagine the anguish of families huddled in bombed-out churches, their prayers drowned out by the whine of Israel drones and the thunder of artillery near the very sites where Christ once walked, turned into testaments of despair. 

For Palestinian Christians in Gaza and the West Bank, the Christmas season doesn’t bring celebration, but a soul-crushing despair, as relentless violence, displacement, and deprivation strip away any reason to rejoice, leaving behind only echoes of shattered lives and a faith under assault. This Christmas, like the two before it since October 2023, serves as a grim reminder that the message of hope embodied in Christ’s birth has been utterly eclipsed by unimaginable human cruelty in the very land where it originated.  

The suffering in Gaza is not abstract, it is a visceral, heart-wrenching nightmare that pierces the soul. Palestinian children and their families endure repeated bombings, sniper attacks, weaponized starvation through deliberate blockades of humanitarian aid, lack of sanitation, and inadequate shelter—all orchestrated by the Israeli government. Picture innocent toddlers, their tiny emaciated bodies shivering in the cold December temperatures, eyes wide with terror as explosions light up the night sky, their cries blending with the wails of grieving mothers. This has persisted for over 26 months, turning what should be a time of reflection and renewal into an endless cycle of agony. As we approach Christmas 2025, the supposed ceasefire declared on October 10 has proven illusory, violated by Israel more than 730 times through airstrikes, artillery shelling, sniper fire, and demolitions.

These breaches have claimed at least 394 Palestinian lives and injured 1,075 others, predominantly women and children, according to the Gaza media office. United Nations experts have documented at least 393 violations by late November, resulting in 339 deaths, including more than 70 children. Beyond the direct violence, Israel has systematically obstructed humanitarian aid, defying the ceasefire’s provisions and exacerbating misery through hunger, disease, and exposure to the elements—acts that scream of deliberate cruelty, designed to break the spirit of an entire people.

This calculated inhumanity was exacerbated in early December when Storm Byron battered Gaza, killing at least 14 people, including vulnerable children who succumbed to hypothermia and flooding amid inadequate shelter. Among the heartbreaking victims were eight-month-old Rahaf Abujazar, whose family tent flooded in Khan Younis; 33-day old infant Taim al-Khawaja in Shati camp; and a two-week-old Muhammed Abu Al-Khair who perished after heavy rains inundated his family’s makeshift home. How can one not weep at the thought of a newborn, barely entered into the world, freezing to death because blankets and tents are banned? Israel’s prohibition of essential winter items like tents, blankets, and building materials has weaponized the winter cold against Gaza’s population, who have already endured more than 800 days of genocide. United Nations officials report that Israel has rejected over 100 aid coordination requests since October, allowing fewer than 200 aid trucks daily—well below the agreed minimum of 600. This is not mere negligence. It is a deliberate strategy to increase suffering, to make every moment a struggle, every day a testament to survival against overwhelming odds.

The toll of this genocide is staggering, a mountain of grief that defies comprehension. Euromed Human Rights Monitor, the only independent organization still providing casualty figures for Gaza, places the death toll at over 75,000 Palestinians since October 2023, but experts suggest the true number is far higher when accounting for indirect deaths from starvation, disease, and lack of medical care. Professor Yaakov Garb of Ben Gurion University estimates the total dead could exceed 377,000, including those “disappeared” and presumed dead. Australian academics Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, in their detailed study, push the figure even higher, to over 680,000 dead, factoring in excess mortality from imposed deprivation.

These are not just statistics. They represent shattered families and destroyed hopes and dreams. They represent mothers burying their children, fathers carrying lifeless bodies through rubble, and orphans wandering aimlessly in a landscape of destruction. In Gaza, the ancient Christian community, once a vibrant part of Palestinian life, has been decimated, with churches gutted, congregants displaced or killed, and their presence all but erased by Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. The survivors, fewer than 500 now from an already dwindling population, cling to their faith amid ruins, their Christmas hymns choked by sobs of loss.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Palestinian Christians face an escalating deluge of terror that threatens to wash away 2000 years of heritage. Land seizures, settler violence, and restrictions on movement prevent pilgrimages to sacred sites like Bethlehem, turning the journey to the Church of the Nativity—where tradition holds Christ was born—into a gauntlet of humiliation and danger. Since October 2023, Jewish settler attacks have surged to unprecedented levels, with over 150 incidents documented during the 2025 olive harvest season alone, the highest in recent years. Extremist Israeli settlers, often armed and emboldened by government inaction and backed by the Israeli military have torched olive groves, vandalized homes, and assaulted villagers with impunity, displacing entire communities and instilling a pervasive fear that chokes daily life.

In July 2025, a wave of violence reached the Christian village of Taybeh, where settlers attacked residents, destroying property and leaving families traumatized, their sense of security shattered like broken shattered glass. Just recently, a new settlement near Bethlehem was announced, further encroaching on Christian lands and accelerating the erosion of Palestinian presence in the area. As one Palestinian mayor noted, these actions exploit global distractions to hasten annexation, while UN reports highlight more frequent home demolitions, property seizures, and arrests of innocent Palestinians that compound the suffering. For Palestinian Christians, Christmas is not a time of peace but a painful vigil, their churches standing as fragile bastions pushing back against a tide of Zionist hate, their prayers laced with pleas for survival in a land governed by an ideology hostile to their existence.

Yet, as Canadian leaders like Prime Minister Mark Carney bask in the glow of holiday lights with their loved ones, they appear to give scant thought to this misery. They will sing carols of “Joy to the world” while ignoring the cries of Palestinian children buried under rubble or starving in tents. One has to ask how their hearts remain unmoved by such profound human tragedy? This wilful blindness is particularly galling for those who profess the Christian faith, including Carney himself, who has positioned himself as a leader guided by ethical principles. But what of the Sunday School lessons on Christ’s teachings? The Sermon on the Mount, with its calls to bless the peacemakers, the merciful, and the persecuted? The parable of the Good Samaritan, urging compassion across divides? These seem forgotten in the corridors of power in Ottawa and across the country, replaced by political expediency that betrays the core of faith and supports an evil unseen since the Holocaust.

Since October 2023, Canadian politicians have steadfastly supported Israel, refusing to unequivocally condemn its apartheid regime or the genocide commenced in the fall of 2023. Since then Canada has continued arms transfers, maintained diplomatic ties, and upheld economic relations without imposing any meaningful sanctions. This stance renders Canada complicit in violations of the “rules-based international order” that our leaders so often invoke. As a signatory to the Genocide Convention and supporter of UN resolutions, Canada is legally obligated to prevent and punish such atrocities. Instead, under both former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and now Carney, the government has dragged its feet, offering political platitudes while allowing military exports to flow, including through loopholes that route weapons via the US. This is not Christian mercy; it is moral abdication, a stain on the nation’s soul.

In fact, the behaviour of these “Christian” leaders mirrors the complicity of German Christians who stood silent during the Nazi genocide against Jews and others. Just as ordinary citizens and officials in 1930s and 1940s Germany claimed ignorance or powerlessness while trains carried victims to death camps, Canadian politicians today avert their eyes from Gaza’s horrors. They rightly condemn antisemitism but fail to recognize the parallels between the Nazi genocide and Israel’s systematic extermination of Palestinians. History will judge those who enabled genocide through inaction, and future generations will view Carney, Trudeau, the Liberal Party and the Pierre Poilievre Conservatives as enablers of unspeakable evil. Their refusal to unequivocally condemn Israel, impose a two-way arms embargo, apply sanctions akin to those on apartheid South Africa, or aggressively prosecute Israeli leaders for genocide, betrays the very essence of Christian ethics—love thy neighbour, defend the oppressed.

This lack of a moral compass extends to domestic enablers. Canadian supporters of Israel, including domestic Zionist organizations who claim to speak for all Jews, which through words and actions, have committed hate crimes by endorsing genocide, yet face no repercussions. Leaders like Carney have failed to decisively act against such incitement, allowing it to fester under the guise of free speech. Meanwhile, humanitarian groups in Canada—Doctors for Humanity, Humanity Auxilium, Independent Jewish Voices, Justice for All Canada to name a few—have lobbied Parliamentarians, held media conferences and issued scores of media statements urging Canada to comply with its obligations under international law. They have called for enforcing the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, halting arms sales, divesting public funds from Israeli-linked companies, arresting Canadian citizens who joined Israel’s military during the genocide, and advocating for UN-led humanitarian corridors. The calls to action by these organizations, grounded in morality and law, go unheeded, drowned out by the silence of power.

As a nation that claims to be a defender of human rights, Canada must confront its hypocrisy as Christmas looms. While families here unwrap presents, Palestinians in the Holy Land unwrap nothing but grief, their dreams crushed under the weight of occupation and the inhumanity of genocide. In committing its atrocities Israel has also silenced truth-tellers by killing over 270 Palestinian journalists since 2023 (more than all the major wars since World War One combined), and blocking Western media from entering Gaza to tell the truth untainted by Israeli propaganda. This censorship nsures the world sees only sanitized versions of the horror, further enabling complicity and allowing the cycle of suffering to continue unchecked.

In this season of supposed peace and goodwill, Canadian leaders must rediscover their moral bearings, or risk being remembered as those who turned away from the light. Anything less dishonours Christ’s birth and perpetuates injustice. Peace and goodwill demand action by ending complicity, imposing broad sanctions, and standing in defence of basic humanity. Only then can the Holy Land—and the world—glimpse true joy, healing the wounds of a people crying out for mercy.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

The price paid for Western enabled Zionist supremacy in historic Palestine is a region denied peace and stability

Zionist ethno-religious supremacy results in a region denied peace, fuelling a cycle of violence that undermines global security, breeds extremism, and erodes the principals of justice and human rights.

 

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In societies across the West, where Jewish individuals have been fully integrated—rising to elected office, leading major corporations, and contributing profoundly to cultural and intellectual life—a stark contradiction persists. These same open democracies, which have repeatedly demonstrated that Jewish citizens thrive without need for ethnic exclusivity, often extend unwavering support to a system abroad that enforces precisely such exclusivity.

 

Zionism is the ideology that has driven this system for generations. It has transformed the Middle-East into a perpetual flash point of conflict, fuelling tensions that exacerbate divisions far beyond the region. In the absence of this ideology and the apartheid state—Israel—founded on this racist, ethno-supremacist ideology, the Middle East could have evolved toward shared prosperity, with historic Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities coexisting as they did for centuries prior to the imposition of a state defined by racism, ethnic exclusion, demographic engineering and territorial expansion.

If we are being honest with ourselves then we have to acknowledge that the state of Israel is not a legitimate democracy defending itself from external enemies but rather a settler-colonial project sustained by a regime of state terrorism and an incremental genocide, enabled by the United States and its allies and shielded by a sophisticated propaganda apparatus. This is not a specious argument, but a documented history, with legal precedent, and political analysis demonstrating that Israel is an apartheid state.

From the 1948 Nakba, which involved the systematic expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of hundreds of villages, to the ongoing brutal occupation of Palestinian territories, the pattern involves land confiscation, illegal Jewish settlement expansion, and the maintenance of Jewish supremacy through legal and military means. In Gaza, this has escalated into an overt genocidal campaign since October 2023, characterized by relentless aerial bombardment of densely populated areas, the deliberate targeting of hospitals, schools, shelters, and entire neighborhoods, the imposition of a total siege blocking food, water, medicine, and fuel, and the destruction of 90% of civilian infrastructure, while ethnically cleansing Palestinians into shrinking “safe zones” in Gaza that are subsequently attacked.

These actions extend far beyond any plausible claim of “self-defence”, revealing a calculated effort to dismantle Palestinian society. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck designated evacuation routes, humanitarian convoys, and medical facilities, including multiple assaults on health care facilities resulting in the complete dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system, resulting in no operational hospitals capable of treating the wounded amid outbreaks of disease and trauma. 

Starvation has been systematically employed as a method of warfare, with aid deliveries deliberately obstructed, agricultural lands bulldozed, fishing restricted, and water infrastructure destroyed, leading to acute malnutrition—particularly among children—and thousands of preventable deaths from disease. The explicit statements from Israeli officials about wiping out Gaza’s population or rendering it uninhabitable, combined with the scale of destruction and deprivation, align directly with the international legal definition of genocide—acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The International Court of Justice has been focused of this matter since South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel in December 2023, with ongoing proceedings examining plausible evidence of genocidal intent and acts, reinforced by findings from UN commissions and human rights organizations Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Israeli group B’Tselem. 

Death toll figures reveal the true magnitude of this ongoing catastrophe, far surpassing official counts that rely solely on recovered bodies. Independent analyses indicate far higher casualties than often reported in mainstream accounts. A data-driven study by Ben Gurion University professor Yaakov Garb, published via Harvard Dataverse, estimates that between 377,000 and 400,000 Palestinians are unaccounted for and presumed dead, with nearly half believed to be children. This suggests a death toll substantially exceeding official counts, which ignore deaths resulting from anything other than direct Israeli violence. Similarly, research by Australian academics Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, factoring in both direct violence and imposed deprivation such as famine and disease, projects totals reaching hundreds of thousands, with estimates up to 680,000 Palestinian dead by mid-2025 when accounting for the full demographic impact. As of December 2025, Gaza’s health authorities report over 70,000 direct deaths, predominantly women and children, but these figures exclude the vast indirect toll from collapsed services and ongoing deprivations. These numbers reflect not isolated incidents but a sustained assault that has erased entire family lineages, killed or maimed tens of thousands of children, and inflicted generational trauma on survivors, while winter conditions and flooding exacerbate vulnerabilities in makeshift shelters. 

Western nations, positioning themselves as steadfast guardians of the “international rule of law,” exhibit profound inconsistency in addressing these violations. In 2011, these powers authorized a robust military intervention in Libya, deploying airstrikes and enforcing a no-fly zone under UN auspices to protect civilians from threatened mass atrocities during a civil uprising. By contrast, in the face of overwhelming evidence of mass civilian casualties in Gaza, engineered famine, and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, responses remain limited to verbal condemnations, with arms supplies continuing unabated and vetoes by the US blocking meaningful UN action. This selective enforcement fosters a clear indication of Western support for Israeli impunity, where a disproportionate military response, collective punishment, and attacks on protected sites proceed without substantive repercussions, even as international bodies affirm the genocidal nature of the campaign. 

Such exceptionalism reinforces a conviction among Israeli leaders that violence against Palestinians can always be cloaked in self-defence rhetoric, regardless of their impact on civilian lives. In the West Bank, punitive home demolitions, administrative detentions without charge, and unchecked Jewish settler violence persist alongside settlement growth, entrenching dual legal systems that afford Jewish settlers full rights while subjecting Palestinians to military courts and restricted freedoms. Checkpoints, barriers, and permit regimes fragment Palestinian communities, stifling economic life and daily movement in what has become one of the most prolonged and brutal occupations in contemporary history, compounding the humanitarian crisis across the Palestinian territories. 

Notably, numerous Jewish leaders who have attained prominence in Western pluralistic societies—serving in parliaments, heading major corporations, and leading major academic institutions like Harvard—frequently lend support to and justify Israel’s racist regime. Their achievements in environments valuing equality and diversity illustrate that communal security need not depend on ethnic supremacy elsewhere, yet this recognition seldom informs calls for consistent application of human rights principles across borders. Harnessing such influence toward advocacy for dismantling exclusionary mechanisms could significantly hasten progress toward justice and reconciliation.

The entrenched nature of Israel’s occupation, now spanning six decades, has normalized the suffering and hardship of Palestinians, diverted resources from social development to militarization and perpetuated resentment that feeds broader regional instability. Without the commitment to Jewish ethno-religious primacy through ethnic cleansing, land theft and occupation by Israel, viable alternatives like confederated arrangements or a one state solution with equality for all might have taken hold long ago, averting immense loss and fostering mutual respect and growth amid shared historical ties.

The price paid for Zionist ethno-religious supremacy in historic Palestine, enabled by unwavering Western political, military and economic support, is a region denied peace and stability, fuelling a cycle of violence that undermines global security, breeds extremism, and erodes the very principals of justice and human rights that Western societies claim to uphold. Additionally, from the standpoint of Western societies that have embraced Jewish participation without qualification, the path towards peace and stability in historic Palestine demands unwavering commitment to universal standards. Ending complicity—through arms embargoes, broad economic sanctions, and, where necessary, military interventions to protect the innocent parallel to historical precedents—would ensure that no state stands above legal accountability for its criminal actions.  

Palestinians, enduring dispossession and oppression since the Nakba are now confronting the existential threat of genocide as Israel continues to slaughter people barely surviving in Gaza despite a ceasefire. They merit the same safeguards to live in peace and dignity extended to others. Enforcing a single standard of law would alleviate the current suffering, deter future atrocities, and cultivate enduring stability, liberating the Middle-East from cycles of violence rooted in Jewish supremacy while honouring the inclusive values that have enriched Western democracies through contributions by people of all faiths and ethnicities.

The price paid for Zionist supremacy in historic Palestine, enabled by unwavering Western support, is a region denied peace and stability for decades in a cycle of violence that undermines global security, breeds extremism, and erodes the very principles of justice and human rights that Western societies claim to value. 

From the standpoint of Western societies that have embraced Jewish participation without qualification, the path forward demands unwavering commitment to universal justice. We must end complicity in Israeli crimes through arms embargoes, broad sanctions, and, where necessary, military interventions parallel to historical precedents that would affirm that no state stands above accountability. The cost of continued inaction is not merely the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people but a world increasingly fractured by hypocrisy and double standards that make it a more dangerous place, and crushes the hope and dreams of millions of innocent people.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

800 days of genocide in Gaza and little action by “moral” Western nations to stop the slaughter

The West's apathy towards Palestinians today mirrors the 1930s treatment of Jewish refugees on the MS St. Louis fleeing Nazis in 1939, who were denied entry by Cuba, the US, and Canada. 

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

Today, December 16, 2025, the world marks a sombre milestone—800 days since Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza began on October 8, 2023. What was initially framed as a defensive response to the October 7th Hamas attack has morphed into a relentless campaign of death, destruction, and displacement, that international legal experts, Holocaust scholars, human rights organizations, and the United Nations have described as the crime of genocide. And despite a tenuous ceasefire established in early October 2025, daily violations by Israel continue, and the humanitarian catastrophe persists unabated. Palestinians in Gaza, trapped in what was already the world’s largest concentration camp, now face existential annihilation, their plight met with global indifference that underscores their status as the most persecuted minority in the world today.

The evidence of this systematic persecution lies not only in the staggering loss of life but in the West’s deliberate refusal to intervene and its aggressive efforts to muzzle voices condemning Israel’s actions. Western governments—the so-called defenders if the “international rule of law’—including the United States, Canada, and European nations, have provided billions in military aid to Israel while offering Palestinians mere platitudes and minimal humanitarian support. This double standard, coupled with systematic suppression of pro-Palestinian activism, reveals a profound anti-Palestinian bias embedded in Western policies, governments, and institutions.

Consider the words of former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on November 10, 2023: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed.” At that point, mere weeks into the conflict, the death toll was already deemed excessive. Now, over two years later, the death toll as reported by Euromed Human Rights Monitor, one of the only international organizations able to verify Palestinian casualty figures, places direct deaths at over 75,300, with more than 173,800 wounded. These numbers, however, are widely acknowledged as underestimates due to the total collapse of Gaza’s civil infrastructure—hospitals bombed, morgues overwhelmed, and bodies buried under rubble without identification.

Independent analyses of Palestinian casualties paint an even grimmer picture. A study by Ben-Gurion University professor Yaakov Garb, utilizing Israeli military data and published by Harvard Dataverse in June 2025, estimates that between 377,000 and 400,000 Palestinians are unaccounted for, presumed dead or buried under Gaza’s rubble. This figure aligns with reports of mass graves and unrecovered bodies under destroyed buildings. Even more alarming is the epidemiological assessment by Australian scholars Gideon Polya and Richard Hil, who, in their July 2025 report “Skewering History: The Odious Politics of Counting Gaza’s Dead,” project a total death toll exceeding 680,000 by mid-2025 when including indirect deaths from starvation, disease, and deprivation. This estimate, which factors in a ratio of four indirect deaths per direct violent one by Israel, draws from precedents in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been referenced by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. In a September 2025 briefing, Albanese suggested that if verified, this could mean 380,000 deaths among children under five alone, describing the situation as “apocalyptic” and a “collective crime.”

These figures represent an average of hundreds of deaths per day over 800 days, even during the nominal ceasefire. Over 30% of identified victims are children and 20% women, a disproportionate toll that far exceeds civilian casualties on the Israeli side during the October 7 attack—where the reported 1,200 deaths include military personnel and those killed by Israeli troops under its controversial Hannibal Directive, which prioritizes preventing capture over saving lives. The deaths of Palestinian children, potentially in the hundreds of thousands under broader estimates, have become the emblem of this horror, with images of lifeless bodies in the rubble fuelling global outrage. Yet, this outrage is met with inaction, implying to many that there exists an “acceptable” threshold of Palestinian suffering—a perverse calculus that echoes the dehumanization seen in the actions of Nazis towards Europe’s Jews.

If Blinken’s early assessment was “far too many,” what phrase captures the current reality? The scale rivals the Holocaust in the systematic nature of Israel’s brutality, though differing in the number of dead. Palestinians today are the most persecuted people globally, their oppression evidenced by the West’s complicity. Unlike Ukraine, where Western nations swiftly provided over $330 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian aid, allowing Ukrainians to defend themselves, Palestinians—lacking an army, navy, or air force—receive paltry levels of aid and no military assistance by comparison. The US alone has funnelled at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since October 2023, including $4 billion expedited in March 2025, while aid to Gaza is restricted or blocked by Israel, exacerbating famine and disease. This disparity highlights a racialized hierarchy of victimhood, where brown and Muslim lives (Palestinians) are deemed expendable, while white and Christian lives (Ukrainians) are worth saving.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly intervened, issuing provisional measures in January 2024 and beyond, ordering Israel to prevent genocide, ensure humanitarian access, and halt incitement. In an October 2025 advisory opinion, the ICJ declared Israel’s occupation unlawful and called for its end, noting plausible risks of genocide in Gaza. Yet, Western powers, including the US with its veto power at the UN Security Council, have shielded Israel from enforcement, allowing violations to continue unchecked.

This inaction is compounded by active suppression of dissent. Western governments have waged a sustained assault on pro-Palestinian voices, using smear campaigns, legal restrictions, and police to silence criticism. In the US, legislation equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, leading to job losses, doxxing, and investigations of activists. Universities have fired professors and disbanded student groups for Gaza solidarity. In Europe, Germany has banned pro-Palestine conferences, like the April 2025 Palestine Congress in Berlin, ruled unlawful by courts but emblematic of broader crackdowns. France and the UK have imposed disproportionate restrictions on protests, weaponizing terrorism laws against anti-genocide demonstrators.

A 2025 report by the International Federation for Human Rights documented this trend, warning that such actions erode democratic freedoms and violate fundamental rights. Social media platforms, have also censored Palestine-related content, banning accounts and removing posts. This orchestrated silencing ensures that Israeli narratives are given priority while those calling for justice for Palestinians are marginalized, and narratives that call out Israeli war crimes are suppressed.

There are historic parallels that amplify the tragedy. The West’s apathy towards Palestinians today mirrors the 1930s treatment of Jewish refugees. The MS St. Louis, carrying nearly 1,000 Jews fleeing Nazis in 1939, was denied entry by Cuba, the US, and Canada, leading to over 250 of them being killed during Holocaust. Canada’s infamous “none is too many” policy epitomized this racism. Today, Palestinians face similar abandonment with refugees denied asylum, aid convoys bombed, and pleas for intervention ignored.

In Canada, this moral failure is acute. Despite acknowledging its genocidal history against Indigenous peoples—residential schools, forced assimilation, and land theft—the political establishment repeats the pattern with the Indigenous people of historic Palestine. Governments under Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney have prioritized ties with Israel, ignoring the designation of the nation as an Apartheid state by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch years before the start of the Gaza genocide. Weekly protests in major cities across Canada, which have drawn tens of thousands, demanding sanctions and justice, have been systematically ignored. An August 2025 Angus Reid poll revealed 52% of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide, with 61% agreeing aid is deliberately blocked—a sharp rise from prior surveys. Yet, leaders dismiss these voices, complicit in what has been labelled “the most transparent genocide in human history.”

The commitment of ordinary Canadians and global citizens is unwavering. Over two years, millions have marched worldwide, horrified by Gaza’s transformation into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with more than 90% of infrastructure destroyed, farmland poisoned, water contaminated. Daily life is a struggle against starvation, with children scavenging amid rubble. This has galvanized a new wave of activism, including hunger strikes and boycotts, bridging divides and sustaining resistance.

Canadian politicians—Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau, Pierre Poilievre, Mélanie Joly, Anita Anand, and others—must heed history’s judgment. Unless aggressive action is taken to intervene and halt Israel’s action, their legacy will be one of criminal complicity in genocide, war crimes, and the oppression of a people brutalized for over 75 years. The blood of innocents stains their hands, and Canadians will not forget this moral crisis. Until the West enforces accountability, lifts the blockade, and amplifies suppressed voices, Palestinians remain the world’s most abandoned minority. The 800 days of transparent genocide demand not just words, but transformative action demonstrating that being Palestinian is not a crime.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.