How Palestinian Christians fight for their land

The Nassar family has owned their land for around 100 years, but the Christian Palestinians cannot move freely on it. Israel has claimed the land for itself – and is asserting its claim by force.

In order to get to the Nassar family’s land, you now have to travel long distances. It’s actually a short distance, just a few kilometers from Bethlehem in the West Bank – but now Israeli soldiers have closed the road and it takes about an hour more to get there.

Today there is a visitor from Germany: a delegation from the Jerusalem Association is there. The organization of the German Protestant Church has been caring for Christians in the Holy Land for more than 170 years. And the Nassar family is also Christian. Amal Nassar, a woman with sunglasses and black hair, points down into the valley.

“It’s all my land, up to the valley. But I can’t go near it,” she says. “They point a gun at me. They say this is a military road, it’s for security, I’m not allowed to be here. I want to work on my land.”

A long struggle for land

The family has a long history of suffering, even though they have owned the land for almost exactly 100 years. Amal has documents from the Ottoman period, the British Mandate period and the Jordanian occupation. But in 1991 it was declared that the land belonged to the State of Israel.

Shadin Nassar, Amal’s niece, is 24 and is currently completing her master’s degree in international law. Even when she was a child, violence was part of her life, she explains: “I grew up here on the farm in the shade of the olive and fruit trees. Since I was little, I have been exposed to what it means to be a Palestinian under the Occupation to live.”

She saw early on how the Israeli settlements grew – with more and more Palestinian land being expropriated. And she also experienced the struggle of her family. The fight for your own land and the right to own it.

Foreign destruction on their own land

There are five Israeli settlements surrounding the 42 hectares of land owned by the Nassar family. And there is always anger and destruction. There were Israeli orders to demolish buildings. In 2014, around 1,500 trees were destroyed – olives, apricots and almonds, according to Shadin and her aunt Amal.

Wolfgang Schmidt, the chairman of the German Jerusalem Association, has known the family for a long time. Until 2019 he was provost at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. He often visited the family.

“It really touches me every time I hear how things have developed. Because I simply imagine how one can even exist here under these living conditions,” explains Schmidt. “And I imagine having to expect daily attacks from the military and settlers is extremely stressful.”

“We refuse to be enemies.”

While there are outbreaks of violence all over the occupied West Bank in these weeks – with deaths and injuries – the Nassar family is relying on non-violent resistance. The family’s motto is painted on a stone in several languages: “We refuse to be enemies.” Since October 7th, the day of the terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip on Israel, the situation here near Bethlehem has also worsened. Family members are increasingly threatened by settlers and soldiers.

Amal Nassar doesn’t actually want to talk much about her faith because, in her eyes, Christian and Muslim Palestinians suffered equally under the occupation. But then she says something: “It’s not easy to be a Christian in Palestine. Because you always have to love your enemies and forgive them. We always have to believe in the good – even in the face of violence. It’s not easy to be calm stay. But we say ‘no’.” No one can take away their strong faith, she concludes.

The next round in the court battle over the Nassar family’s land will take place on July 2nd. On this day too, they need faith, love and hope, says Amal as they say goodbye.