We Refuse to be Enemies

The Christian family refusing to give up its Bethlehem hill farm bulldozed by Israel

A Palestinian Christian family that preaches non-violence from a farm in the West Bank is battling to hold on to land it has owned for 98 years. Now surrounded by Israeli settlements, the family is a living example of the idea of peaceful resistance.

On 19 May a Palestinian shepherd from the village of Nahalin was out at first light and saw the bulldozer at work in the field, guarded by Israeli soldiers. By the time Nassar arrived the whole orchard – the best part of a decade’s work – was gone. His English is far from fluent, but there’s no mistaking the pain in his voice: “Why you broke the trees?”

A spokesperson for the Israeli military authorities in the West Bank said the trees were planted illegally on state land.

Nassar’s sister, Amal, has a different explanation. The government, together with the Israeli settlers who live around the farm, is “trying to push us to violence or push us to leave,” she says. Amal insists that her family will not move from the land, nor will they abandon their commitment to peaceful resistance.

“Nobody can force us to hate,” she says. “We refuse to be enemies.”

There are five settlements in total (..) All of them are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

When they were informed, after 10 years in the military courts, that their Palestinian lawyer was not eligible to contest the case in Israel’s supreme court – because he carried West Bank identity papers – they found an Israeli firm willing to take it on. (..) When they were asked to bring witnesses in support of their claim to have farmed the land for three generations, they hired a bus to take more than 30 Palestinian villagers to the military court near Ramallah. “We had to wait five hours outside the court under the sun,” remembers Amal Nassar. “And then, after five hours, a soldier come out, they say, ‘We don’t want witnesses, go home.’

“Every time they see you are ready to meet their demands, they ask [for something] more and more difficult, [so] that you say ‘I am fed up, I cannot.’ Yes, this [is] always the process. We know it. It’s a game to push us to leave.”

The way Amal sees it, the Israeli military and the settlers, having failed to evict the family by legal means, are now trying to force them out.

“We are willing to build up a better future in a non-violent way… without hatred,” he says. “Our response to this injustice will never be with violence, and we will never give up and leave.”

They run summer camps for local schools, teaching Palestinian children about non-violence and encouraging them to develop a love for the land by working and playing on the farm. This is especially important, says Amal Nassar, for a generation that has grown up in the refugee camps and urban sprawl behind Israel’s separation barrier.

Zionist Harassment

The orthodox Jews are much like the Muslims in that they can not assimilate or leave those alone who do not share their beliefs; especially if they are in the majority. Years of brain washing by both sides has left both sides with feelings and thoughts that they are dealing with animals to be slaughtered.

My patience with any religion and their radicals has worn so thin it is hard to see; even by me.

So they are willing to forgive even though their whole orchard was bulldozed?

Shining example for others…

How many lives is a whole orchard worth?

Not one, from either side.

a reply to: voyger2

Some people know how to follow Christ. You know, the
one that secularism mocks and hates so much, with out
any knowledge as to why.

originally posted by: randyvs
a reply to: voyger2

Some people know how to follow Christ. You know, the
one that secularism mocks and hates so much, with out
any knowledge as to why.

This is a perfect example of where religion wins over corruption regardless of the end result for these poor people..

Wow,

A story about Christians acting like real Christians, such a better read than all that usual crap posted about Ice cream socials or prayer meetings while ignoring the starving homeless person just outside the churches door.


'I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.'

Mahatma Gandhi

a reply to: randyvs
a reply to: intrptr

"My father always said, 'We will never achieve peace in Palestine and Israel just by shaking hands - we need to work on people, to start with the grassroots'," says Amal Nassar. "So what we do now, as a family, is fulfilling the dream of my father that people can build bridges, for hope, for understanding, reconciliation, dialogue, to achieve peace. This is the idea."

Guided by that vision, she and her brothers have transformed the farm into a centre for peace-building and non-violent resistance called the Tent of Nations.

Amal Nassar (in the white T-shirt) singing with volunteers at the Tent of Nations farm.

For more than 20 years they have held workshops here, welcoming Israeli students, rabbis, and peace activists, as well as groups from across Europe and America.

The Israeli authorities in the West Bank insist that by destroying the Nassars' orchard and posting demolition orders on the Tent of Nations, they are simply enforcing planning regulations

the settlers who uprooted 250 young olive trees in 2002, and who permanently closed the road to the farm with rubble. The demolition orders posted on the gate, threatening to destroy the Nassars' home and water wells. The soldiers who, in 2009, forced her 72-year-old mother out of bed at gunpoint in the middle of the night and made her wait in the cold while they searched the farm.

Nonetheless, the IDF remains committed to fulfilling its mission of safeguarding security and stability in the region, in a highly professional manner based on the morals and code of ethics that stand as a pillar of all IDF activities."

Amal Nassar's younger brother, Daoud, is not impressed by the moral code of the men who uprooted his orchard. But neither is he angry: "We are willing to build up a better future in a non-violent way… without hatred," he says.

www.bbc.com...

originally posted by: SLAYER69
Wow,

A story about Christians acting like real Christians, such a better read than all that usual crap posted about Ice cream socials or prayer meetings while ignoring the starving homeless person just outside the churches door.


'I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.'

Mahatma Gandhi

Spot on... Maybe those types should take some lessons from these Palestinians..

But I thought all Palestinians were Muslims who want Israel wiped off the Map...

Sorry I'm no good at sarcasm...


How long before they're called "self-appointed human shields"?

How long before Hamas is blamed for forcing this family to fight back?

How long before people realise that Israel is a terrorist state, breaking International Law, every day, while we sit here and argue about who's right & wrong?

“We are willing to build up a better future in a non-violent way… without hatred,” he says. “Our response to this injustice will never be with violence, and we will never give up and leave.”

Revolutionary words...

Respect to this family, to the fullest!

S&F Voyger...
More great input from yourself!

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Thank you a lot I can't stay in silence before injustice. I sincerely hope that: who reads about things like these, take action, even if it's only some bits and bytes.

I congratulate you for the efforts to bring light to these Forum. Since I just had the opportunity to know about the thread you OP'd last July (Israeli Oppression Of Palestine... Breaking The Silence!!!) I was able to find the following recent story:

The Work

In the H2 section of Hebron movement is restricted, street by street, for tens of thousands of Palestinians as settlers slowly take over more land.

Stuck between an urban settlement and various streets that Palestinians are banned from walking on is a family home

A group of, mostly Israeli, volunteers spent the day helping to clean up the yard, which is their only pathway home.

Many settlers and students visiting the settlements walked by, vocally wondering why these volunteers would be helping "the Arabs".

Settlers are talking, wondering why the volunteers don't "help the Jews instead" and why they would work in the overpowering stench. "Peace, justice, solidarity, humanity" don't seem to clarify it for them. One teenage settler stops to help pick up fallen trash as a volunteer brings it to the dumpster. They are both silent under the beating sun. The volunteer says "תודה" and they each continue on their opposite paths.

Next to this Palestinian family's home is a settlement and a street sign. On that street sign are stickers. One of those stickers says "Kahane was right". Kahane was a Jewish supremacist and leader of a terrorist organization.

The other sticker above it says "Fun to be Jewish".

Somebody smashed the family's sewage pipe. Sewage was pouring out onto the path, their only route home. Volunteers worked together to fix it.

This is a traumatic place, but this was a long day that ended in a successful clean up.


Israelis in general should follow this volunteers example.

I see "rockets" will start firing from this place. Then, ISrael, poor, poor ISrael, will have to "protect themselves" and bomb the you-know-what out of it and kill all the people there, because they're "terrorists"! These illegal settlements have caused more human suffering, out-right thievery of peoples land, farms and homes, It's disgusting. It really is. These people better be watching their backs because the IDF will be coming to murder them and bulldoze everything they have because sky daddy told them that they are the one and that this land belongs to them. coo coo carazy!

Why do they have to go to a Israeli court anyway? Israel has no legal jurisdiction over that land that land belongs to Palestine.

Attacking the trees that the family owns is nothing new for Israel it is a tactic that they have used on the Muslims for decades by destroying their olive groves. If you take away their way of making a living then they will have to move.

I dont see why the Israeli military has so much hate?

Its there land and they are happy to co exist? So what's the issue?


The Israeli military are no different than the SS and YES I SAID IT!

They should call up egypt and see if they can have the land that the palestine pres. turned down and then let in those that have the same like minds.

originally posted by: deadeyedick
They should call up egypt and see if they can have the land that the palestine pres. turned down and then let in those that have the same like minds.

Why should they move from their HOME? Because of some jewish bullys, these people were there first and not causeing trouble?

a reply to: crazyewok
greener pastures i hear the neighbors where they live now are not very friendly and this group seeks peace against ones that seek death. The math is simple here.

anyone that believes that not moving from an area such as that should hold their breath until the world comes around to ending violence.

My respect goes to this beautiful family.
But regardless....
Just like they did to Rachel Corrie, they will do the Christian family with no hesitation.
Passive, non-violent, peaceful, babies, women, elderly... The Zionists will crush you regardless.

When they chant in unison " Death to Arabs" , of course the Christians are also included, they're Palestinians after all.