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It is just about 30 kilometers’ journey from Ramallah to Bethlehem. However, as a Palestinian West Banker, I have to drive around 60 kilometers, so it feels more like crossing into a different world.
To get here, I’ve passed through two main checkpoints, one that was recently situated at the north entrance of Ramallah City, limiting or restricting the access of Palestinians into and out of the city, and the second is the container checkpoint, a very well-known infamous checkpoint that serves as a bottleneck, basically, connecting the West Bank’s center and north to its south, meaning Bethlehem and Hebron. Today was less crowded, but still with a very heavy presence of soldiers and surveillance towers.
From there, the roads curving past the concrete wall, the settlements that are peeking from the hills above and finally into the heart of Beit Sahour, a quiet, resilient town that carries the weight of history and faith.
Here, just up the hill is the Greek Orthodox high school… a quiet, a proud part of a large cluster of church-run institutions. These buildings are more than just a place for education or for worship; they are sanctuaries for hundreds of families and thousands of families of Palestinian Christians, whether it’s physical or in spirit. This is a standing monument, an open door for a community that has been here for centuries, but now it is shrinking before our eyes.
I’m here to meet one of the most prominent Christian figures in the West Bank, Mr. George Saadeh, the head of the school, a man who carries not just the burden of leadership, but the weight of witness.
His personal story, his institution and, like many people around him, stand as a quiet testimony to the dwindling presence of Christians in Palestine. This is a slow exodus that is shaped by occupation, the economic pressures and the future that is now filled with uncertainty.
Read more about challenges facing Mr. Saadeh and other Christians in the West Bank in “Landscape of Loss” in the June issue of ONE magazine.