Day: December 25, 2023

The agreement will become permanent and replace a similar temporary pact in force since 2019. The previous deal facilitated mutual trade with Iran and increased it to $6.2 billion in 2022 from $2.4 billion in 2019.

The Eurasian Economic Union comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Both the region and Iran have taken on additional significance for the Kremlin after Western sanctions over Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine limited Russia’s foreign trade routes and forced it to look for markets outside Europe.

The new deal will eliminate customs duties on almost 90% of goods, while the agreement establishes a preferential regime for almost all trade between Russia and Iran.

Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said the deal would allow Russian business to save around 27 billion rubles ($294 million) each year.

By Bishop Munib Younan

Amid the ongoing war and violence in Gaza, Christ reveals to us the sanctity of every life, regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, political, or denominational affiliation.

War turns precious human lives into mere numbers. Jesus, even from the manger, emphatically assures us that every human has the image of God imprinted upon them. Every human therefore has equal worth and deserves equal dignity.

God loves each one of us equally, as it is written, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,” (John 3:16), and “I have come that you may have life, and life abundant,” (John 10:10).

It is God’s will that all may live with full dignity and full freedom. No one has the right to take away another’s God-given humanity, whether they are friend or foe, whether they share the same or different political or religious beliefs, whether they speak the same language or live on opposite sides of a border.

This is a reminder that even in the lowest places on Earth, even the most troubled places, even amid rubble, there must be sanctity of life.

The war in Gaza has opened Pandora’s box. Some mistakenly consider the war a religious conflict. I want to assure you that this is not a religious war. Religious people have known for a long time how to live together in harmony in our Holy Land.

Others have interpreted the Bible to see this war as eschatological and even apocalyptic. Those that hold this view, even if they call themselves Christians, have failed to see the light from the manger in Bethlehem.

The birth of Jesus has revealed again and again that God is love, and this God would never use human life or human suffering for evil. Jesus himself is the fulfillment of prophecy, not some imaginary apocalyptic nightmare.

Still others are calling the war in Gaza a “just war.” Frankly, I don’t believe there is a war that is just. We in the Holy Land do not need a just war, we need a just peace. We need no more weapons, oppression, hostilities, attacks, statements, or denial of human rights. Justice and only justice is our desire and our demand, so that the light of life we know through Christ will be for all people.

These words challenge Christians and churches all around the world. How can we carry the light of love and justice in our world, especially here in this place, at this time?

And so, from the Holy Land, we call on Christians everywhere to actively work for the immediate cessation of war. On Dec. 15, Pope Francis said: “May the killing of children touch the hearts of those who can stop the war.”

We ask for more humanitarian aid and we want the world leaders to know that peace with justice is still possible in the Holy Land. In fact, if the war could cease now, this could be a kairos moment when serious peace talks can finally happen. This is a time to realize the end game for the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

From Jerusalem we light a candle for the victims, the bereaved, the injured, the traumatized, the prisoners of war, the displaced, those whose homes have been destroyed, for the Palestinian Christian community, and especially for the children.

* Bishop Munib Younan is a former bishop of Palestine and Jordan and former president of the Lutheran World Federation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand his country’s war against Hamas in Gaza, as health authorities in the enclave reported dozens of victims in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp.

“We are expanding the fight in the coming days, and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,” Netanyahu told members of his Likud party Monday.

Israeli strikes pounded central Gaza late Sunday and into Monday. Heath authorities in the Hamas-run territory said at least 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit that Maghazi refugee camp.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the reported strike in Maghazi, while reiterating its commitment to minimizing harm to civilians in its war to eliminate the Hamas militant group.

News reports say Egypt has proposed a plan to end the current conflict with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the formation of the Palestinian government of experts to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. There has been no official response to the proposal from Israel or Hamas. 

Meanwhile, Israel has reported several more deaths among its soldiers in the conflict, pushing the number killed since Friday to 17 and the total number of Israeli soldier deaths since launching its ground operation in Gaza to 156.

The Israeli offensive, which has included thousands of airstrikes in addition to ground operations, has left vast parts of Gaza in ruins and killed 20,400 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The fighting has also displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, with many trying to find safety in overcrowded, U.N.-run shelters in southern Gaza.

At a solemn Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis lamented that Jesus’ message of peace is being drowned out by the “futile logic of war” in the land where he was born.

“Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world,” Pope Francis said as the death toll continues to climb in Gaza.

The head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday the health system in Gaza was being destroyed and reiterated his call for a cease-fire.

“The decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We persist in calling for #CeasefireNow.”

As of December 20, WHO had registered 246 attacks on health care in Gaza, including hospitals and ambulances, resulting in 582 deaths and 748 injuries.

Hamas militants poured into the Gaza border on October 7 and attacked southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israel. The group, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and others, also seized around 240 hostages, of whom 129 remain in Gaza.

In response, Israel vowed to crush Hamas and launched an air, land and sea offensive on Gaza.

Israel said Hamas is to blame for the high civilian death toll, citing its use of crowded residential areas and a system of tunnels throughout the enclave.