Promised Land or Land of Promise? • Part 6b

Two Christian families, a monastery and a convent struggle to hold on to ownership rights
“Price-tag” attacks on Christian institutions
By Mary Pneuman

A visitor to Israel/Palestine needs only a day or two to observe the damaging effects of the 47-year Israeli occupation on the Palestinian people in the West Bank. Nowhere have these been more dramatic than in the towns and rural communities near Bethlehem, home to a large Christian population. In the last ten years, especially since the Oslo accords attempted to set in motion a peaceful process to establish the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, there has been an accelerating proliferation of “facts on the ground” that have disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinian families and are the most probable cause of the emigration of young Christians.

According to the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, nearly 25,000 Palestinian properties in the West Bank have been seized or demolished since 1967. Confiscated land has been declared “absentee property” or “state land” and used for the continuing construction of Israeli settlements. Once a plot of land is designated as “state land,” the burden of proof of ownership falls on the Palestinian owner, and long and costly legal battles have mostly failed.

New construction on land claimed by Israel is deemed “illegal” and is subject to demolition orders, usually on the grounds that building permits had not been obtained; more than 90% of Palestinian building applications are rejected. Bethlehem is now nearly surrounded by three large settlement blocs that are connected through by-pass roads and served by an urban infrastructure of essential services. In the West Bank, more than 80% of the available water is allocated for settlement use, and 203 Palestinian villages are not connected to the power grid.

Below are accounts of two Bethlehem area Christian families, a monastery and a convent, as they attempt to preserve their ownership rights:

Daoud Nassar is a Palestinian Christian whose 100-acre family farm near Bethlehem was purchased by his grandfather in 1916. Despite the fact that the family has documents verifying ownership and payment of taxes dating to the Ottomans, British and the early Israeli government (and family members have lived and worked on the land continuously since the land was purchased) the farm has been designated as “state land.” Since 1991, Mr. Nassar and his brother have filed appeals through the Israeli military, civil and Supreme Courts to maintain ownership.

The hilltop farm, which produces olives, almonds, figs, grapes and other fruit, is located in fertile hill country 5½ miles southwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The “Wall” and a ring of five settlements that form a perimeter have nearly isolated the land from the rest of the West Bank. The Nassar farm is not connected to the power grid or to public water, and the main access road has been blocked by military authorities. The family has installed solar panels for power and cisterns for the collection of rain water, but because Israel requires permits for any improvements, these structures have been under demolition orders. Since no new structures can be built above ground, a chapel was built underground. Settlers from the nearby settlement have uprooted thousands of trees, damaged the cisterns and attempted to build roads across the farm. The surrounding area is under the total military control of Israel.

In 2001, hoping to find a peaceful and proactive means to keep his farm, Mr. Nassar, a business graduate of Bethlehem University, began to develop the Tent of Nations as an educational and environmental project bringing people from around the world “to build bridges of understanding, reconciliation, and peace.” Tents are provided for the visitors, and last year 5000 international visitors, including many Israelis, joined together to plant trees, harvest olives and fruit, teach at their Women’s Education Center, lead activities in Youth Summer Camps, and work together to pursue peace through non-violent activities. The credo of the Tent of Nations is “to bring people together who refuse to be enemies.”

On Monday, May 19, while Daoud Nassar was speaking in Seattle area churches (including Bellevue First Presbyterian and St. Mark’s Cathedral) the Tent of Nations came under an unannounced attack by the Israel Military. Bulldozers destroyed at least 1500 mature apricot and apple trees on the farm. In addition, the growing terraces were reduced to rubble to prevent any future planting. Under Israeli law, no demolition is supposed to occur until the appeals court has delivered a verdict. The Nassers were still awaiting a decision from the Military Courts regarding their latest appeals when the demolition took place. More about the Tent of Nations can be found on www.fotonna.org.

Claire and Johnny Anastas share a three story limestone brick home with her mother and their four children and his brother and their family, all Palestinian Christians. The Anastas house is located adjacent to Rachel’s Tomb, which is isolated on three sides by the separation Wall and off-limits to all but religious Jews. Because of its proximity to the Tomb, the home is always under military surveillance and control, and there are no neighbors. Before the construction of the wall began 12 years ago, the Anastas families had a thriving business selling carved olive wood artifacts to Christian tourists, with shops for home accessories and car repairs located on the premises, which used to front on the Main street to Bethlehem. These shops are now closed for lack of business. The souvenir shop still exists but is seldom open for lack of customers. Claire manages an online store and welcomes orders from overseas.

Photo from Friends of Bethlehem.org

Bob Simon (http://www.cbsnews.com/team/bob-simon/) featured the Anastas family in a segment on “Christians in the Holy Land” on CBS 60 Minutes in April, 2012. This program was seen by an estimated 70,000,000 Americans and is one of the few examples of news coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the Palestinian point of view, but it unleashed a torrent of criticism from some Christian and Jewish groups that blasted the report as unfairly portraying Israel as an oppressor of Middle East Christians. CBS stood by their award-winning journalist. Now 72, he won the prestigious Overseas Press Club's President's Award on April 24, 2014.

In late spring of 2013, the Cremisan monstery, about three miles from Bethlehem, was invaded by Israeli soldiers. Located on a hill about 2800 feet above sea level, the monastery was built in 1885 on ruins of a 7th century Byzantine monastery. The Salasian sisters of the adjacent convent have been in a seven-year legal battle to fight the annexation of their property by Israel. Now the government plans to extend the separation barrier through convent property. This will place the monastery (well known for its Cremisan winery, whose profits go to the school) and 75% of the convent’s land on the Israeli side of the Wall. The convent and primary school will stay on the Palestinian side, and 400 children will have to pass through a checkpoint to attend school. The barrier will also annex the farmland of 58 Palestinian families who would be given limited access via an “agricultural gate,” open for limited times of the day. While the courts have consistently ruled again the nuns, on January 29, the High Court ruled that construction in the Cremisan Valley should be postponed pending further study.

Along with travel restrictions and land confiscation, recent legislation has placed new obstacles and restrictions on Palestinians, both in the West Bank and Israel. A law passed in 2011 prevents Arab citizens of Israel from acquiring permanent residence or citizenship status for spouses from the occupied territories. Because Palestinian citizens have often married someone from the occupied territories or from other Arabic speaking countries, this law impacts the family life of over 25,000 Arab families who are forced to live apart or who choose to live together “illegally.”

Since its founding in 1948, no new Palestinian communities have been in established in the State of Israel. By law, Israeli communities can deny applications for homes if the “admission committee” feels that the applicant does not “fit” socially into the community. This law, approved by the Knesset in March 2011, makes it legal to bar Arab citizens from existing communities in the Galilee, home to many Christians. As a result, Palestinian communities are isolated; as they grow in density they become economically less viable. Human rights organizations have opposed the law in the belief that it discriminates against Arabs.

Recently, Christian churches and institutions have been confronted with property crimes and vandalism by extremist Jewish groups. Wrote Robert Ross for the Israel-Palestinian Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, USA in September, 2013, “Israeli settlers have been vandalizing Palestinian churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other Christian institutions in alarming numbers over the past three years.” These attacks, directed at secular and Muslim properties as well, are part of a “price tag” movement started by the settlers in 2011 to intimidate Palestinian into leaving by exacting a price whenever there is a perceived setback to the expansion of the Jewish state.

These acts of violence include fire-bombing of a Palestinian monastery near Jerusalem in August, setting fire to the door of the famous Latrun Monastery in 2012, and defacing a number of church or monastery walls with spray-painted graffiti mocking Jesus or calling for “death to Gentiles” or “Jesus is a monkey” in Hebrew. The Israeli government officially condemns these attacks but has prosecuted few of the attackers. This year, for the first time, the US state Department included price tag attacks in their annual country reports on terrorism and noted that the attacks were largely unprosecuted.

In the days leading up to the visit of Pope Francis on May 23, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal was quoted in the May 12 edition of the Jewish daily Ha’aretz as he described the “wave of extremist terror that stirs up deep concern among any sane individual,” adding that the “ Israeli government should be concerned at the damage the attacks are doing to Israel’s image around the world.“

On May 24, the Seattle Times reported that in recent weeks, Jewish vandals had “scrawled ‘King David for the Jews’ and ‘Jesus is garbage’ on a Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.” The Notre Dame Center, where the Pope was to stay during his visit to Jerusalem, was defaced with graffiti reading ‘Death to Christians.’” The Notre Dame Center was our home for a week while we attended the International Sabeel Conference in November.

Since 2009 there has been an alarming growth of religious nationalism in Israel. Many Jews are sympathetic with the Palestinian plight—some Israeli peace activists have joined Palestinian protest groups and also attacked by extremists—but there is an increasing number of members in the Knesset that represent the extreme political right wing that foments fanaticism. This seems to be fueling the drive for a state for only one religion, rather than two states or one truly pluralistic and democratic state.

With regard to attacks on Arabs, Latin patriarch Twal also called into the question the move by the government to pass a law making Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people. “‘A pressing question rises over how we educate our children, what do they learn about those who are different from them in terms of religion and ethnic and national identity?” he asked. (Ha’aretz, May 23)

No truly democratic state in the world is currently built on one ethnicity or religion alone. What would a “Jewish State” look like? How could this be achieved without discrimination or separation on grounds of ethnicity or religion? How would a Jewish state impact Palestinians, be they Muslim or Christian? Does such a move promote peace? Should we, as Americans, give our moral and economic support for a “promised land” or a “land of promise”?

Promised Land or Land of Promise? • Part 6a

Palestinian Christians Facing Threats to Religious Freedom
by Mary Pneuman

When we visited the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City during the first week in Advent, 2013, everyone was anticipating that preparations for Christmas would be in full swing. A tall tree was being uplifted near the New Gate entrance, but for the first time in my many visits, there was an almost ghostly quiet in the streets. The usual bustle of school children, nuns, and clergy in flowing cassocks was absent. Shopkeepers told us that there were few customers these days, and many shops have closed. The lines of worshippers at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were relatively short; only a few knelt at the anointing stone, and the queue to enter the Edicule, which marks the site of the Resurrection, was cordoned behind Israeli police barricades.

The Palestinian Christian population has fallen to below 2 percent since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, when some 70,000 Christians became refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In 1945 an estimated 32,000 Palestinian Christians lived in Jerusalem alone; now there are only about 10,000, according to Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, Canon Emeritus of St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem, where the Old City is situated, is being encircled by continuing settlement expansion. This ring of settlements, secured by the 25' concrete ”Wall,” separates the residents of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, including two other major Christian towns, Ramallah and Bethlehem. Of the nearly 600,000 Jewish settlers now living in the Palestinian West Bank, 200,000 of them presently live in East Jerusalem. Some settlers live in rooftop enclaves located above the Old City homes and markets; one settlement overlooks the limestone steps leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Bethlehem, also, is nearly surrounded by settlements and the Wall, along with some 32 additional barriers— settler by-pass roads, checkpoints, roadblocks of razor wire and rubble, and security buffers that separate Palestinians from their farms, olive groves and grazing lands, as well as from each other. Currently, 22 Israeli settlements have been built in the Bethlehem governorate. The Christian population of Bethlehem stood at more than half in 1990 but is now down to about 18% of this city of 22,000, dominated in equal measure by churches and mosques.

In the last decade, concerns about restricted access to Christian holy sites have been growing. For resident Palestinians, visits to traditional Christian pilgrimage sites are increasingly controlled by an Israeli permit system that unduly restricts freedom of worship and is applied arbitrarily. Three years ago, a US State Department report highlighted the problems of Palestinian Christians in reaching key religious sites, a complaint reportedly echoed by a recent internal EU document, but the suppression of religious freedom in Israel and the occupied West Bank has not attracted much media attention in the US.

In addition to problems with access, aggressive acts against worshippers attempting to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have been increasing. Following the Holy Saturday* celebration in April, 2013, thirteen Patriarchs and heads of churches issued the following statement:

We, the heads of Churches in Jerusalem watched with sorrowful hearts the horrific scenes of the brutal treatment of our clergy people and pilgrims in the Old City of Jerusalem…it is not acceptable that under the pretext of security and order that our clergy and people are indiscriminately and brutally beaten and prevented from entering their churches, monasteries and convents.

In response on May 31, 2013, Reverend Gradye Parsons, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA, wrote to the Reverend Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, to express concern about violations of the religious rights and the physical abuse of Orthodox and other Christian worshippers in Jerusalem. Not only do West Bank residents have limited access, but even Jerusalem Palestinians are finding it harder to gain entry even on their holiest days, he said. He especially decried the beating by Israeli police of 85 year old cleric Fr. Arsanios, head of the Coptic church in Ramallah.

In his letter to Suzan Cook, Rev. Parsons also expressed “growing concern over what appears to be the use of military permits to control/restrict the movement of visitors, including our fellow church-workers, many of whom have come to work with partners not only in Israel, but also in the West Bank. We have reported evidence that they have been required to sign affidavits that that they will not enter Area A [set aside in the Oslo accords for administrative and security control of the Palestinian Authority] or any area under the Israeli occupation, or Area C [the 60 percent of the West Bank now under both Israeli administrative and/or military control] without a special military permit issued by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.” Some are not been fully informed as to how to get the military permit that will allow entry into the West Bank and, as a result, are not able to do so, he said. “These measures create a significant obstacle to members of the Christian community to “fulfill their missions of humanitarian aid, compassion and support for our Palestinian partners.”

*Holy Saturday is one of the most important religious celebrations for Palestinian Christians. The ceremony takes place on the eve of the Orthodox Easter, when a flame, or Holy Fire, from the tomb is kindled and passed by candles and torches to thousands of worshippers in and on the roof of the Sepulcher. The flame is also used to light lamps that are transferred to other Christian communities. It is a time of great joy.

Providing context for Parson’s letter, ruling elder Robert Trawick, professor of philosophy and religious studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York and a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA’s Middle East Peacemaking Issues Committee, observed that these actions “ are part of a pattern of increasingly aggressive actions by Israeli security forces dating back a decade or more.” He also pointed out that a US State Department International Religious Freedom report that found preferential treatment was given to Jews celebrating Passover and to international visitors making pilgrimages, while the authorities enacted restrictions that impeded the activities of local Christians celebrating Easter.

Commenting on the situation, Ms. Hind Khoury, former international ambassador for the Palestinian Authority and board member of Bethlehem Bible College, said “People are not coming to Jerusalem anymore from the West Bank. Who wants confrontations and tear gas?”

Fast forward to Holy Week and Easter, 2014. The Guardian reported that “Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza are required to seek permission to travel to the Old City, a lottery in which it is never clear how many permits a family will receive, if any. Last week, Christian leaders complained that – as in recent years – they had faced either obstruction from the Israeli authorities or a lack of travel permits preventing many from celebrating Easter in Jerusalem.”

Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and head of the Catholic Church in Israel, Cyprus, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, stated during a visit of Palestinian Christian leaders to Ireland that the number of Palestinians attending Palm Sunday processionals this year was “very low,” and he blamed Israeli actions for the sparse turnout. “About 50,000 Catholic and Orthodox Christians live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and many need a permit to travel to Jerusalem in the days before Easter... Maybe there were less permits, maybe they came late, or they gave one to the father but not to the mother,” he said.

On Wednesday of Holy Week, Father Firas Aridah, priest of St Joseph's parish in Ramallah on the West Bank at the Latin patriarchate said, “The Israeli authorities have said they are giving more permits this year to come from the West Bank, but the point is that Christians should be able to come here without permits. I've spoken to people in Bethlehem. Most say they still haven’t received their permits, and among those who have, it is only a couple of members of the family. It may be those who don't have them now will get them one or two months later, as happened last year.” It is not uncommon for clergy to be denied permits to travel to Jerusalem.

Loss of access to religious sites (both Christian and Muslim) is the result of draconian policies of the Government of Israel that dispossess and discriminate against Palestinians, whether in the West Bank and Gaza or inside the State of Israel. These policies have been legalized by the enactment of an expanding array of laws that separate Palestinians from their lands and livelihoods and deny basic human rights. Since Benjamin Netanyahu became Israeli Prime Minister in 2009, the government has ramped up its program of land confiscation and settlement expansion, revocation of Palestinian residency permits and housing discrimination, and pressure on businesses through threats of closure for unpaid taxes. The process has been accelerated in East Jerusalem. Not untypical, a bookseller we visited in December said he was taxed on the basis of the number of books he was expected to sell, not the number he sold. A shopkeeper in the Christian Quarter said he had so little business he could scarcely afford to stay open.

When the separation barriers and buffers for the settlements are completed, the Wall will be more than twice the length of the 1949 armistice “Green Line,” the official boundary separating Israel from the West Bank. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 85% of the barrier will be inside the West Bank instead of conforming to the Green Line, isolating over 9% of the West Bank and E Jerusalem from other parts of the West Bank. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that about 150 Palestinian communities have part of their lands isolated by the barrier and must obtain “visitors” permits or receive prior permission to access these areas. Palestinians cannot enter or pass through Israel without special permission.

Of special concern is the isolation of some 11,000 Palestinians in 33 communities or households in the so-called “Seam Zone” area between the Wall and the Green Line between the State of Israel and the West Bank. The majority of these require “permanent resident” permits from Israel to continue living in their homes. Israeli settlers living in the Seam Zone are exempt from this regulation. Few health or educational services are available in this area, where residents must pass through checkpoints to reach their agricultural land, workplace or essential services. By tradition, Palestinian land owners have gone out from the villages, where they had their homes, to work in their fields, fruit and olive groves, and grazing lands.

Since 1948, confiscation of Palestinian land has been authorized by Israel’s complex and often expanded Absentee Property Law. The law was originally designed to permit confiscation of property from Arab refugees who had fled or were evicted from their homes during and after the war leading up to the creation of the State of Israel. By the end of the Six Day War, when the West Bank became occupied by Israel, the law applied to anyone who did not reside or was not physically present in the annexed area on the relevant date (June 28, 1967) and therefore considered to be an ‘absentee’ owner.

More recently, the law has been applied to Palestinians residents of East Jerusalem, who have been continually present, but by virtue of annexation or redrawn municipal boundaries are now considered “absent” from Jerusalem. As explained in the Israeli daily Haaretz (June, 2013), “this is about Palestinians who live in the West Bank – and sometimes, meters from their property in Jerusalem – who had their homes confiscated because they’re now ‘absentees,’ that is, no longer Jerusalem residents. … we’re not talking about the homes of Palestinians who are already spending a second or even third generation in Jordan or Lebanon or somewhere much further afield – we’re talking about people who still live in the vicinity, under Israeli rule, but now find themselves on the wrong side of the line for maintaining their property….”
Over the last decade, the combination of the Wall and other separation barriers, restrictive laws and zoning regulations has conspired to make it very difficult for Palestinians to maintain ownership control of their property inside municipal Jerusalem, the Seam Zone or any other parcels of land chosen by Israel for settlement construction, closed military zones or other purposes. Once declared “absent” there is little the landowner can do except appeal to the Israeli courts—a costly process which can take years and is most often unsuccessful.

Following Secretary of State John Kerry’s failed efforts to broker a compromise, Churches for Middle East Peace reported that, according to Israeli watchdog group Peace Now, the negotiations were a boon to the settlement enterprise. They calculated that, “During the 9 months of Secretary Kerry’s efforts in the region, the Israeli Government promoted plans and tenders for at least 13,851 housing units in the settlements and East Jerusalem - an average of 50 units per day and 1,540 units per month.” Most notably, “the average yearly number of tenders was 4 times higher compared to previous years.”

Next: Part 6b—the situation currently facing two Christian families and a Christian monastery, their legal efforts to hold on to their properties near Bethlehem, and more about “price tag” attacks on Christian institutions.