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Rooted in the Land Called Holy

Palestinian Christians rally for survival in the West Bank

A dusty dirt road four miles northwest of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank leads to a stunning view of Al Makhrour valley.

The steep, verdant basin, with its stepped agricultural terraces — treasured by its Palestinian custodians and designated a UNESCO World Heritage site — is ideal for growing sturdy olive trees and stone fruit. Christian Palestinian farmers have worked the land in Al Makhrour for generations. 

Increasingly, however, the valley has become a focal point of settler violence and Palestinian land displacement — part of the mounting pressures on Christian communities in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October 2023.

The war’s reach is not contained to the Gaza Strip, and West Bank Palestinians suffer from Israeli military incursions, resulting in the killing of 736 Palestinians as of October 2024 — 719 by Israeli forces, 12 by Israeli settlers and seven by unknown perpetrators.

Of the 2.7 million Palestinian residents in the West Bank, about 50,000 identify as Christian. Within this territory, Jerusalem and Bethlehem have been centers of Christian life since the time of the apostles. Arab Christians founded Ramallah in the 17th century, and it remains an important Palestinian Christian center.

Churches and advocacy groups have voiced concern for decades about the decline of the vibrant Palestinian Christian community in the region. Reports of increased discrimination and hate crimes against Christians and their churches by extremist settler groups, particularly in mixed cities, such as Jerusalem, have fueled existential fears.

Christians in the West Bank, along with their Muslim neighbors, also grapple with the challenges of living under military occupation, which have worsened since the outbreak of the war. Israel’s severe restriction of movement has hindered workers from moving between Israel and the West Bank, reducing the percentage of Palestinian workers employed in Israel from 22 percent to 2.3 percent since October 2023, according to the International Labor Organization.

State-sponsored efforts to displace Palestinians in the West Bank also escalated since last year. According to the United Nations, in the first 11 months of the war, “Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated or forced the demolition of 1,598 Palestinian structures,” including homes, schools and other communal buildings, displacing more than 4,000 Palestinians — among them about 1,700 children — more than double the number of people displaced in the 11 months prior to the war. Families have lost their homes and their livelihoods.

For almost two decades, Palestinians have prevented settlers from confiscating and squatting in Al Makhrour valley — but they are losing ground.

Alice Kisiya, 30, is a Palestinian Christian whose family has cultivated the land and resided in the valley for generations. Her family’s land on a terraced slope close to the top of the western hill is visible from the lookout. 

“We call it ‘heaven of Bethlehem,’” says Ms. Kisiya, “because it’s one of the last places that’s clean and unspoiled, where people can enjoy nature and watch the sunset.”

However, on 31 July, Israeli soldiers of the Civil Administration accompanied a group of settlers and presented her family with a military order. They evicted the family from their one-acre plot and declared adjacent land as a military zone. The settlers tore down the Kisiyas’ fence and erected a new enclosure as the Israeli army stood guard.

A religious bald man in brown habits stands at the door of a church.
Father Rami Asakrieh, O.F.M., ministers at the Latin Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem. (photo: Samar Hazboun)

By mid-August, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had announced a military order allocating 148 acres of land for the construction of a new settlement in the area west of Bethlehem. It followed the Israeli cabinet’s approval of five new settlements on 27 June in retaliation against the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic efforts to have the international community recognize crimes against the Palestinian people. Settlements in the West Bank are illegal in international law.

The family’s battle began in 2005, when civil authorities began stopping in every few months, claiming the family had no right to build on their land, says Ms. Kisiya.

The situation escalated in 2012, when Israeli soldiers demolished the family restaurant on their property, claiming it was built in 2001 without a valid permit. A cycle of rebuilding and demolishing ensued in 2013 and 2015. In 2019, their restaurant and their home were demolished, and the family resorted to living in tents, which were repeatedly torn down by Israeli soldiers and which the family would rebuild, says Ms. Kisiya. Throughout these years, the family remained on their land and continued to cultivate lemons, figs, almonds and apricots.

In 2019, seeking to resolve the case, the family decided to take legal action. Ms. Kisiya and her mother, both Israeli citizens — an advantage many Palestinians do not have — presented land registration documents they received from the civil administration to a district court in 2023 and lost. The legal battle included a claim by the Jewish National Fund that it purchased the family’s land in 1969 — a claim the Kisiya family denies. The family is planning to appeal.

The violence and uncertainty have taken a toll on Ms. Kisiya and her family. To fund the family’s legal battle, Ms. Kisiya took a delivery job, which ended with a serious road accident from which she continues to recover. An online fundraising appeal helps to pay for the family’s needs, cover legal fees and pay off debt the family incurred from rebuilding their home and restaurant after demolitions.

“We know we are going back. Sooner or later, we will take it back.”

Conversely, she says, her faith has been strengthened. The family has taken their approach of nonviolent resistance as an interfaith struggle. After the land seizure, the Kisiyas built a “solidarity tent” several yards from their land, where they lived for about a month and held interfaith sit-ins with supporters and activists, until the army took it down. Ms. Kisiya and her mother were arrested during this time, on 25 August, and released the next day.

In late September, the Kisiyas and several activists set up a church-like structure over three days on public land near their seized property.

Ms. Kisiya says priests, rabbis, sheikhs and non-religious activists came to the makeshift shrine to pray for peace and light candles. The Israeli soldiers dismantled the shelter the next day.

The family has not been permitted on their land since it was confiscated and now rents a house in Al Walaja, close to Beit Jala. Ms. Kisiya says she monitors the family land from a distance each day. At the end of October, a few settlers were living there in small trailers.

Ms. Kisiya attempted to reclaim the land with a handful of supporters on 26 October, when the initial military order was set to expire. They approached the Israeli soldiers at the perimeter of the closed military zone but were handed a new military order and turned away.

A nursery with cribs and infantes in them.
The Crèche in Bethlehem cares for abandoned children. Opposite, Alice Kisiya and her mother make bread at their home in Al Walaja, West Bank, in October. (photo: George Jaraiseh)

Ms. Kisiya claims the map on the new document does not include her family’s land and she is exploring action through legal channels. Unlike many Palestinian families who have no legal recourse after being evicted from their land, Ms. Kisiya says her family is not giving up.

“I am sure things will change and we will go back to this land,” she says. “We are watching them. We are not going away.”

“We know we are going back. Sooner or later, we will take it back.”

Christian charities have been helping to preserve the character of Al Makhrour valley and promote agricultural development.

A Palestinian Christian farmer in his 60s has a terraced plot of land in the valley down the hill from the Kisiyas’ land. After his wife died and his children were fully grown, Jamil, a pseudonym used to protect his identity, began farming his land in earnest, growing grapes, apricots and olive trees.

He says the land “healed” him from his grief. His grapevines, however, are only about six inches tall; they were growing back in mid-September after being trampled and destroyed by settler sheep. Bringing sheep to graze on Palestinian agricultural lands is a common tactic used by settlers to displace and demoralize Palestinians and their connection to their land.

“I put all my strength into the land, watering, growing my plants, but then I came to farm one day, and the sheep had eaten all the harvest,” says Jamil. “I used to want to fight them, but now [that they’re armed] I can’t. I want to live.”

Caritas Jerusalem, the charity of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land and a member of the Rome-based Caritas Internationalis, funded a new fence for his plot to fend off sheep and a water tank for better irrigation. This support has renewed his resilience.

“This land is my spirit, but my children are afraid for me,” he says, referring to the intimidation he has experienced when armed settlers have flashed their weapons at him.

“But I tell them I belong to this place.”

His sons come from Beit Jala to farm with him at Al Makhrour; he hopes they will experience the same healing essence. His youngest had worked in Jerusalem for the Lutheran Church, but his permit to travel out of the West Bank was revoked after the war started, and he has been out of work since.

Despite picking up odd jobs, including at churches in Beit Jala and Bethlehem, Jamil’s son has been talking about emigrating. Jamil says he is heartbroken by his son’s decision, but he understands young people need opportunities to thrive.

Bethlehem has been economically depressed since the outset of the war. Once packed with tourist buses, hotels, gift shops and restaurants catering to pilgrims from around the world, its winding streets are now quiet.

According to the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry, before the war, tourism constituted 23-25 percent of the local economy. With far fewer tourists, jobs are scarce. The rate of unemployment in the West Bank exceeds 35 percent and about 26 percent of the population is living below the poverty line, reports Samir Hazboun, who heads the chamber.

In mid-September, volunteers were laying out bags of fresh bread in the hall of the Arab Orthodox Benevolent Society in Beit Jala, two miles from Bethlehem, for people in need. CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has supported the group for many years. Imad Abu Mohor, the director, says due to lost tourism the needs are growing among the town’s population, which he estimates is 70 percent Christian. His organization also provides income support for school tuition and medical bills, but he worries donations will run out as the war continues and the situation becomes increasingly dire.

Mr. Mohor says a rising number of young Christians have been leaving the West Bank for Europe and Gulf countries since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and he worries about the erasure of Christian life in Palestine.

“The price of one missile could feed so many families.”

For young people who remain employed or have chosen to stay in the West Bank, the impact of the war has penetrated home life, says Father Rami Asakrieh, O.F.M., who ministers at the Latin Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem. The Franciscan priest spends his days counseling parishioners in their hardship, including many young couples troubled by the violence this past year and its financial impact.

“The price of one missile could feed so many families,” he says. “This war is destroying our society with long-term effects on the psyche.”

The parish is assisting families with food, rent, utilities, medicine and tuition. Previously middle-class families have plunged into poverty and many families cannot access health care due to the cost.

“We hear some families have left,” he says. “Many want to leave because of the terrible situation, but they can’t afford it.”

On the anniversary of the war, 7 October, his 5,000-member parish participated in the universal day of prayer and fasting for peace, called for by Pope Francis and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

“We’re hoping and praying for peace, and a return of the pilgrims.”

Sister Anna Salwa Isaieda of the Daughters of St. Anne runs the St. Francis Youth Group at the church, which provides work opportunities and faith-based retreats for about 150 young adults. She says these young people “are losing their hopes and their dreams.”

At the beginning of the war, “people were praying a lot, but now they seem more tired,” she adds. “They ask, ‘Where is God in my suffering?’ ”

On a sunny Friday in September, Sister Salwa was surrounded by several young adults, busy preparing the hall adjacent to Shepherds’ Field Chapel for a prayer retreat.

Lina Jackaman and Zain Sleibi, both in their early 20s, described how the war has impacted their lives and their dreams. Ms. Sleibi is studying to be a medical analyst but cannot get enough training hours, as her supervisors are often unable to get to the school laboratory in the increased security environment. Ms. Jackaman works at the Holy Family Children’s Home, known locally as the Crèche, in Bethlehem while studying to be a teacher. Teaching remains a viable profession that will allow her to support her parents.

The young women and Sister Salwa were looking forward to the retreat, aimed at helping young adults “find peace in the Word of God,” says Sister Salwa.

The word “peace” is mentioned in the New Testament more than 400 times, she points out.

“They want hope,” she says, gesturing to the group of busy young adults behind her. “I try to stay close to them, and I tell them, ‘You are not alone, God is with you even when you suffer.’ ”

The CNEWA Connection

For 75 years, CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has provided socioeconomic, medical and humanitarian support through its network of partners in the West Bank, including its long-standing partnership with the Arab Orthodox Benevolent Society in Beit Jala and the Crèche, which cares for abandoned children. Church-led organizations in the occupied Palestinian Territories provide more than 33 percent of all social services to the Palestinian people. Yet they do not receive government funding, relying instead on charitable donations, such as grants received from generations of CNEWA-Pontifical Mission donors.

To continue to support CNEWA-Pontifical Mission’s work in the West Bank, call: 1-800-442-6392 (United States) or 1-866-322-4441 (Canada) or visit cnewa.org/donate.

Read this article in our digital print format here.

Claire Porter Robbins is a freelance journalist and former aid worker who has worked in the Middle East and the Balkans.

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