This hypocrisy reveals a deeper truth about who we are. We like to see ourselves as noble, empathetic, and just, but our actions betray this self-image. We are the people who, despite famine and war raging right outside our windows, choose to keep the party going. Christmas cheer offers no reprieve from this truth—it only amplifies it. While this weekend may seem to add another layer of ignorance under the guise of festive indulgence, the reality is far starker: ignorance is not incremental; it is absolute. Either we attune ourselves to the nature of the empire we live in, or we do not.
Make no mistake: the war criminal Netanyahu and his cadre of murderous accomplices are well aware of how deeply enveloped we become in our elective oblivion during the holidays. They know that even those with a conscience will set it aside, trading their outrage for the fleeting comfort of holiday cheer. For a moment, or perhaps longer, the genocide will be forgotten in favor of finding the “Christmas spirit.” And in that moment, the murder, bombings, and atrocities will escalate—because they know we aren’t paying attention. Worse still, we are complicit in our silence, actively seeking excuses to indulge in our ignorance, as if willful blindness were a gift we could wrap for ourselves under the tree.
The message of Christmas—peace, love, and goodwill to all—never makes it past the barriers of convenience, consumption, and apathy. Even the very food we eat, the gifts we exchange, and the traditions we cherish are built on a system that exploits the resources of the world and keeps the Global South subjugated. Our celebrations, instead of embodying the spirit of love and equality, perpetuate the very structures of oppression we claim to oppose.
Until Palestine is free, none of us are. But even then, freedom cannot be confined to a single place or a single moment in time. We must confront the global systems that keep the many in chains for the benefit of the few. And we must ensure that this freedom is not fleeting but enduring—reaching not only those alive today but also generations yet to be born.
If Christmas truly meant anything, it would compel us to act—to dismantle empires, to share resources equitably, to live in genuine solidarity with the oppressed. Until that day, the lights we string and the songs we sing are hollow echoes of a message we refuse to hear.