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Israeli officials fear the pope's vocal criticisms and symbolic gestures - such as this year’s nativity scene in St Peter’s Square featuring baby Jesus resting on a Palestinian keffiyeh - may influence global public opinion.

Created by Bethlehem artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi, the nativity scene prominently features Palestinian materials, including olive wood, a symbol of Palestinian resilience.

During its unveiling, Pope Francis condemned the global arms industry for profiting from human suffering and reiterated his call for an end to all wars, urging the faithful to remember those suffering in the holy land.

The display, praised by many as a message of solidarity and peace, drew backlash from Israel’s supporters, who accused the Vatican of promoting a pro-Palestinian agenda.

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[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

Takes a special kind of genocidal asshole to be upset at a message calling for NOT killing kids.

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 39 points 2 days ago

They're gonna call the pope an antisemite

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[-] bokherif@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago

HOW CAN YOU CRITICIZE US KILLING CHILDREN????

[-] LSNLDN@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 days ago

Because they’re antisemites ofc

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[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Those assholes have used that word so much its lost all meaning.

[-] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago

Israel's children killing business is cutting into the church child molesting business. It's a conflict of interest.

[-] OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world 154 points 4 days ago

This is NotTheOnion material. Like, are you actually mad that the fucking Pope is not on board with killing children?

[-] TotallyNotADolphin@sh.itjust.works 36 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Ofcourse the catholic church is not onboard with murdering children. How will the clergy get laid if all the children are killed?

But on a more serious note, the current pope is actually doing a decent job of calling out atrocities and promoting some of the decent aspects of their faith, and not propping up all of the bad stuff as god's will

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[-] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 32 points 4 days ago

Crossposted 👍

[-] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Crosspost was removed for being 'Not onion-y'. Oh well.

[-] OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Despite being highly upvoted and the comment section agreeing with the onion-y-ness as far as I saw. Ridiculous. Still a good post

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

But, security... Aren't tens of thousands of children's lives a small price to pay to stop the violence?

/s

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[-] Darkard@lemmy.world 106 points 4 days ago

Remember that part of Jesus's story where he had to flee because a mad king was systematically murdering children because he was scared that the child was "the king of kings".

What a wild parallel.

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[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 54 points 3 days ago

Imagine getting upset over "Don't kill children"

[-] Elrecoal19@lemm.ee 98 points 4 days ago

"Child murderers complain that their child murdering is being called out"

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 45 points 4 days ago

The pope is Hamas!

[-] frostysauce@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago
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[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 49 points 3 days ago

Israel thinks this is what's going to give them a poor public opinion!?

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago

only an anti-semitist would say "don't kill children". they should get him fired for this.

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 68 points 4 days ago

If you’re on the pro-killing children side, it’s probably time to look in the mirror.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 74 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

“Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty, not war,” the pontiff declared last Saturday, lamenting the immense humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

Israel lashed out in response, accusing the pope of ignoring its security concerns.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein accused the pope of ignoring the broader context of Israel’s military actions, which have resulted in the killing of 17,000 children.

Maybe everyone should ignore a "security concern" if the only way to alleviate that concern is murdering 17,000 children?

Because whatever group you're concerned about, probably won't like you anymore after you murder 17,000 of their children....

Especially when the reason for your concern is people are mad you keep killing them in the first place.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 21 points 4 days ago

To be precise, not all 17k Palestinian children had the luxury of immediate death from being blown up with American bombs by Israeli terrorists. Many of them were in fact killed by sniper fire, with an alarmingly large percentage of the murdered children dying from headshot or chest shot sniper wounds. These are kids as young as 5 and 6 being headshot from miles away by Israeli snipers. This has been corroborated many times over by American doctors who were working in the Gaza hospitals, before all of those hospitals got blown up too.

There is no possible security concern which could justify such acts of terrorism. Israel’s motivation is clearly a land grab, and Netanyahu’s is clearly to remain in power throughout the slaughter. They are absolute monsters.

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[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago

This is probably a good time to mention that Israel, like all developed nations, has been experiencing a slowing birth rate.

This was a problem for them because the birthrate in the occupied territories was higher, and if you can’t maintain a Jewish majority in the country, how can you maintain the country as a Jewish homeland? This existential doom has hung over Israelis like climate change or the heat death of the universe: even if they aren’t destroyed in fire, they’ll simply dissolve over time until they disappear, and it will all be for nothing.

So you know. I’m not saying that killing Palestinian children was the solution they came up with. But the prospect of a justified way to wipe Gaza clean came their way, and it was too important an opportunity to pass up. If some children must be killed in the process, they think, silently, in the quietest corner of their hearts, then so be it.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 17 points 3 days ago

This isn't some secret. Listen to John Mearsheimer, who has talked about this for years. it is simple logic.

There is about the same number of Arab Palestinians and Western Israelis in the area. So for the Jewish supremacy ethonstate that Israel wants to be there is only three options:

  1. Indefinite Apartheid. This is extremely costly and as the Arab population keeps growing more and more difficult to maintain. Also it is just preserving the status quo

  2. Ethnic cleansing. Drive all the Palestinians out. However then your neighbors have to harbor them, they form a resistance there, and they keep demanding their right to return.

  3. Genocide. By eradicating them all, you get the "final" solution to permanently steal and settle the land.

So what we see is Israel maintaining option 1 and looking to escalate to option 2 and 3 whenever possible. Notice how they first tried to expel the population of Gaza into Egypt? When this option wasn't possible and they knew that their western supporters in the US, UK, Germany and others were okay with genocide, they escalated to genocide.

The only way to get out of this situation with minimizing further destruction and murder is to abandon the Zionist project in favor of a just state that grants equal rights and justice to everyone living in Palestine.

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[-] UrbonMaximus@feddit.uk 5 points 3 days ago

Unfortunately the data doesn't support your thesis. child birth graph Haredi jews are having more than double births than the average Israeli Muslim.

Combined (secular etc.) Jewish birth rate is on par (slightly higher) than Israeli Muslims and Palestinians in Gaza. (This was even before all the bullshit started last year)

[-] shaserlark@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Just a correction: what you call „Israeli Muslim“ are Palestinians. Very few Palestinians identify as Israeli. The Christians in the plot are also Palestinians.

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[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Well I got this information from some Israelis I guess you’d describe as “secular Jews” so their POV agrees with their data point in your graph anyway.

Still not shown by this data though, is the birth rate in the territories. I’m not talking about Israeli Arabs and wasn’t before either. It would also help to have some sense of proportion. Haredi Jews are 13% so although their birthrate is high it doesn’t characterize Jews as a whole.

But thanks for providing at least some data here.

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

I have no proof of this, but I think Israeli intelligence knew the October Hamas attack was coming. Probably didn't realize how severe it was going to be, but they may have wanted it for an excuse for everything they did after.

I can't even wrap my head around what the goal of Hamas was with their attack. Surely they knew that Israel's response would be total insanity. Maybe they're drinking their own koolaid even at the top.

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[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 39 points 4 days ago

The vatican is finally right about something, even relevant, for once. Good for them. They have a lot to make up for, and this is a start.

[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 45 points 4 days ago

So, if not murdering children is pro-Palestinian, then I guess I'm pro-Palestinian.

And logically, that means being pro-Israeli (or at least pro-Israeli government, because I know there are lots of Israelis who are not happy about what their government is doing) is also pro-child-murder. Their logic, not mine!

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[-] tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works 28 points 4 days ago

There's nothing that says victims can't become aggressors. This is true for individuals as well as large groups of people, including nation-states. A child who was abused can become an abusive parent. A religious group that was persecuted for years can become an oppressor. Jews were victims of a genocide a few years ago, and were persecuted for years and years before in Europe, but Israel is not a victim anymore and the rest of the world should tell it to stop acting like one because they are the one commiting genocide.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 23 points 4 days ago

Bethlehem was and is in Palestine.

[-] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago

Way to tell on yourself, Israel.

[-] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago
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this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
707 points (97.4% liked)

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