On Christmas, a Call for Love and Peace

A continuing meditation on refugees and our shared humanity

The holidays are a time of reckoning for many. We may see friends and family we spend time with only occasionally, prompting a “catch-up” on what we have been doing with our lives. We may take this time of year to reflect on what we have contributed to the world and how we have been in service to others.

Yet, as geopolitical conflicts multiply and threats to our freedoms escalate, we may also feel helpless, not knowing what causes or actions to prioritize. And we may feel repulsed by the evil in the world and want to tune it all out.

At moments like this it can be helpful to go back to basics and reflect on our shared humanity. We are all precious beings who deserve to be loved for who we are and respected for our unique gifts. We are all deserving of safe surroundings and good governance. From these essential considerations are born principles of justice and equity and sentiments of solidarity and compassion that sustain democracies and human rights initiatives.

This time of year, such reflections bring me back to the refugee. In last year’s Christmas message, I focused on those who bear the burden of wars and conflicts. The large numbers of those afflicted and displaced, and their depictions as part of a mass, can eclipse the refugee’s individual humanity.

This is why, in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine, I had wanted to interview Dr. Manuel Carballo, who is an epidemiologist and Executive Director of the International Centre for Migration, Health and Development and was a refugee himself as a child. Here is an excerpt from this illuminating conversation:

“The issue of prime importance with refugees is loss of place. When I say loss of place, I do not mean simply losing house or your apartment, but rather losing everything that constituted your life, all the investments that were made in your future, the memories, the family experiences that went with those physical situations.”

Last year at this time, Ukrainian refugees were being resettled around the world. Here is an infographic from December showing their distribution throughout Europe, and a UN report showing their global resettlement. This process continues today.

This year, they are joined by other afflicted populations. Over 6 million Sudanese have been displaced since the start of the war in Sudan between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in April 2023. Here is a UN infographic on their resettlement inside Sudan and elsewhere in Africa.

Sudanese refugees arrive in Chad, May 2023. Colin Delfosse/UNHCR

The Palestinians under siege in Gaza don’t have this degree of mobility. What will be the fates of those whose homes have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, but are not able to find even temporary refuge abroad? Unlike Ukrainians who found refuge in Poland and other nearby countries, Palestinians are unwelcome in the neighboring countries of Egypt and Jordan.

As I write, Egyptian autocrat Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has accepted more than 378,000 Sudanese, as per UN data, but is currently fortifying Egypt’s border to make sure Palestinians do not enter his country, even flooding tunnels that run beneath the border to make them unusable. And Jordan’s King Abdullah II has declared acceptance of Palestinian refugees a “red line” his country will not cross.

In part, such positions are motivated by a desire to support Palestinian statehood by keeping Palestinians in Palestine. In the short term, though, they contribute to a humanitarian crisis by depriving those who have lost shelter with an exit from the continuing destruction. This is one reason the death toll in Gaza has been so elevated. According to Palestinian health authority figures reported by Al-Jazeera, at least 10,022 Palestinians, including more than 4,100 children, were killed by Israeli attacks in the first month of the war alone.

War and civil conflict, along with natural disasters, are the biggest drivers of refugees. As autocracy spreads in the world, more deaths and displacements will be the norm. And war as waged by autocrats often results in more violence and less compromise, especially when the autocrat sees continuing that war as crucial to his self-preservation.

This is the situation in Russia, meaning that Putin will not back down on his mission to annihilate Ukraine as a sovereign entity. And this is the situation with Netanyahu and his extremist allies. A Dec. 2023 Israeli survey found that 72% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign, with 31% of those wanting him gone now and 41% feeling he should resign as soon as the war ends. As for Hamas, author of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, it desires to eradicate Israel altogether, as decreed in its original 1988 charter. Tragically, peace will likely not be coming to Israel and Palestine any time soon.

Autocrats and their supporters around the world have long weaponized fear of refugees and immigrants to justify their racist policies and repressive “public safety” measures. Former president Donald Trump’s talk of immigrants as “polluting the blood of our nation” and spreading disease, which he has elevated to a major campaign message, is in this tradition.

We can counter this dehumanization by shining the light of truth on the devastations caused by autocrats past and present, and by telling the stories of refugees and exiles from circumstances of war and conflict. As autocracy advances in the world, supporting democracy is not just a political choice, but a vote for the fundamental human values of compassion, solidarity, and love.