photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler
“We exist and we live here,” reads the large sheet draped between two olive trees at the Cremisan Monastery near Bethlehem. Children waving Palestinian flags run among the trees while four priests deliver a mass. Here, for three Fridays in a row, Palestinian Christians and Muslims have gathered for a mass in protest of the separation wall being built between the community of Beit Jala and the Catholic monastery.
The monastery has served not only as a place of worship and retreat, but its olive orchards and grounds provide one of the few places in Bethlehem District for families and community groups to gather in a park-like atmosphere. This past summer, MCC partner, Lajee Center, spent a day there with their summer camp, teaching the children how to care for the land and olive trees, and of course, to play in the natural environment that is hard to find in a refugee camp.
Now, with the planned expansion of Gilo, one of many Israeli settlements that are illegal according to international law, and the wall annexing the monastery’s land to Israel, Cremisan will be isolated from the community it yearns to serve.
photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler
“We exist and we live here” may sound like a simple slogan, yet under occupation this is a powerful statement of the Palestinian steadfastness and determination to overcome the oppression imposed on them. In Palestine, existence and living is a struggle. The daily effects of land confiscation, checkpoints, lack of access to water, arrests, closures, and a pervasive uncertainty of the future, makes merely inhabiting this land a form of nonviolent resistance. To live and exist takes on a form of nonviolent resistance, which requires suffering, struggle, and sacrifice – the three Ss that Marten Luther King Jr. used to describe authentic nonviolence.
“So we will pray here every Friday until the Israelis finally build the wall and take our land?” my teenage neighbour asks me part way through the mass. As I look at the surrounding hilltops that were once covered with trees and are now replaced by the concrete and stone of illegal settlements, it is difficult to give any kind of positive answer.
Although demonstrations and lawsuits brought by activists from the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Budrus have succeeded in re-routing the wall to seize less of their land, neither demonstrations nor international court rulings have stopped Israel from building the separation wall. Masses and demonstrations such as this may seem like a sign of hope that the Palestinian people have not given up, without similar support from the international community, Israel’s policies of land confiscation and division will continue.
photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler
We must learn from our Palestinian brothers and sisters how we can participate in nonviolent resistance so that the occupation ends. We too must suffer, struggle, and sacrifice in order for there to be a just peace so that all people can exist and live.
We can begin this resistance by standing in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. One way of doing so is by joining with them every Friday at 3:30 p.m. in prayer for an end to the construction of the separation wall, the abolition of policies of land confiscation, and the implementation of a global just peace. For other ways to support a just peace contact the MCC Ottawa or MCC Washington Office.
