Amid the fear, insecurity, and isolation of life under Israeli occupation and apartheid, Palestine’s small Christian community faces a struggle to survive. Mays Nassar, of the Palestinian Christian ecumenical non-violent movement Kairos Palestine, describes how Palestinian Christians continue to resist.
KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
I am a Palestinian Christian, born and raised in the city of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. I work for Kairos Palestine. We seek to provide a unified Christian perspective about the situation in Palestine and for Palestinian Christians under Israeli occupation. We engage with Christians and churches worldwide to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and encourage all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers to put pressure on Israel to end its oppression and disregard for international law.
Many Palestinian Christians feel hopeless, desperate. Each city in the West Bank is isolated from the others amid the ongoing war in Palestine and genocide in Gaza. We are isolated from our families, from our work: we are locked in. Wherever we live now, there is a settlement taking away our land, and also raising fear and insecurity. Checkpoints and gates at the entrance and exit of each city restrict movement. The only road connecting southern and northern West Bank cities has a checkpoint: if this closes, no-one can pass and anyone can be kept for hours being checked, or assaulted. In many places, Israeli soldiers almost daily raid homes at night, assault families, arrest men and children and hold them in ‘administrative detention’. Our news has become a litany of numbers and statistics: numbers of martyrs, casualties,
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destructions. We are being dehumanised. Yet we still have to showcase and explain the injustices we live under. We all feel frustration, anger, hopelessness, fear. The constant fear and anger are driving people out of Palestine. Since October last year at least 30 Palestinian Christian families have left the country. Palestinian Christians are less than 1 per cent of the population – if this genocide continues, there is a real threat to our existence. I struggle to keep hope alive. But we must never give up. For me a source of inspiration is my parents, who worked hard to grow our connection to this land and to our roots. I feel I must carry this forward. The resilience of our fellow Palestinians in Gaza is a source of hope and motivation for me. But there is also a feeling of guilt amid the ongoing genocide. As a Palestinian in the West Bank, I still have a roof. I still have food on my table. I still have a job. But Gazans do not and their resilience inspires and motivates me, as a person, and in my work.
Our goal is to dismantle the occupation. We want our voice to be acknowledged, our right to self-determination and to live on our land. My hopes are for freedom and justice for all in Palestine. If Israel manages to kill the sense of hope in all of us, it will kill our soul and drive us out of our lands. n
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