09378
May 7, 2009

Palestinians living next to settlers on seized farms insist on peace

by Emma Halgren
Ecumenical News International

BETHLEHEM — When three-quarters of the land you have farmed for 75 years has been confiscated and you have to live right next to the occupiers, it could lead to violent conflict. Yet a Palestinian farmer and his family are insisting on peace.
 
“A land is nothing without people, and people are nothing without a land,” says Palestinian farmer Daoud Nassar.

And when he speaks of the intimate connection between people and their land, he talks from hard-won experience.

Nassar, a Palestinian Christian, lives with his family on 42 hectares (100 acres) of fertile land west of Bethlehem. His grandfather bought the land in 1916, and the Nassar family has farmed there ever since, growing olives, almonds, grapes, pears and figs.

In 1991, Nassar said he learned the Israeli authorities were planning to confiscate three-quarters of his land — a practice that is illegal under international law, but nonetheless widespread on the West Bank.

Since then, the family has been locked in a costly legal battle with the Israeli government.  Nasser told a visiting ecumenical delegation that the situation persists despite the fact that he possesses all the documents necessary to prove his family’s ownership of the land.

The delegation — made up of a team traveling on behalf of the World Council of Churches, under a program called Living Letters — visited the Nassar farm along with church leaders and civil society groups in Israel and Palestine in March.

During the legal battles the family said they have faced harassment from surrounding Israeli settlers, but they are sticking to the path of peace. The Nassars have opened up their land to locals and people from around the world to participate in educational and peace-building activities.

The Nassar farm is part of a parcel of land that includes eight nearby Palestinian farming villages that Israeli authorities hope to annex in order to expand the Gush Etzion settlements, whose population is around 50 000 . It is close to both Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Many families on the West Bank, however, do not have the official documentation required to prove ownership of their land, let alone the resources to be able to fight lengthy court battles.

Since their first court appearance in 1991 to challenge the confiscation order, the Nassars have been thorough and persistent with their documentation.  Nassar estimates that the family and those who support his project have spent around $145,000 in legal and other fees, and attended numerous court hearings. The result is that, for now, the land is safe.

“We refuse to be enemies,” said Nassar.

The family farm is already surrounded by Israeli settlements and family members have been harassed, like many other Palestinians. In one instance, Nassar’s mother was threatened with a firearm. In another, settlers uprooted 250 olive trees from the property.

It is acts like this, Nassar says, that can easily fuel violence among Palestinians. For many others, the only possible option seems to be to resign themselves to the situation, or to emigrate.

The Nassar family decided there should be another option — to refuse to be enemies. So they established on their land a project called the Tent of Nations. Its overarching aims are to build bridges between people of different backgrounds, and between people and land.

“We wanted to move away from a circle of blame, and channel our frustration into something positive,” Nassar told the visiting team.

The Israeli authorities have forbidden any permanent infrastructure development on the site, and denied access to the electricity grid and public water, so the Nassars have refurbished seven underground caves, painting them, fitting them out with comfortable rugs and cushions and connecting them to electricity from a generator so that they could be used for meetings and other gatherings. There are now plans to install solar panels and build wind turbines on the farm.

Since the establishment of the project in 2000, the Nassars have garnered significant local and global support. Children from Bethlehem are given the opportunity to reconnect with the land through tree planting and helping with the grape and olive harvest.

A women’s project equips women from the nearby village of Nahalin with English, computer and craft skills. Restrictive permit systems prevent many women from leaving the village for education or work, so the project provides a rare opportunity for them to pursue an education.

Each year, the Nassars run a tree planting campaign on the farm. In 2009, the goal is to plant 1,000 trees on the land, with the help of the hundreds of people — including local Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and international supporters.

Volunteers also visit the farm throughout the year to help with the grape, almond, fig and olive harvests, and to take part in artistic projects.

In one show of support, members of European Jews for a Just Peace visited the property in 2003 and planted 250 olive trees to replace those ripped out by settlers.

At the local level, Nassar says, the activities of the Tent of Nations have contributed towards promoting understanding between Palestinians and Israelis. In early 2008, a woman from a visiting group of peace activists invited her friend from a nearby Israeli settlement to come and visit the Tent of Nations. The woman had been living in the settlement for nine years but was not aware that there were Palestinians living in the surrounding areas. The visit gave her an insight into the living conditions of the Palestinians in the region.

Actions like these may not change the reality of the occupation, but they are a small step towards better relationships between these deeply divided groups, said Nassar.

“What we are trying to do here, in a simple way, is to motivate our people, and show them there is a future,” Nassar said, explaining that his project will encourage other Palestinians not to see themselves as victims, but rather to look at the future with hope.

This is an edited version of a story that Emma Halgren, an intern with the Word Council of Churches communications team, wrote for the WCC. The WCC is one of the main sponsors of ENI.