“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.
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.
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| 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”?
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