I was listening Amal speaking today and I wished I could put her words in this post…
“Amal” means “Hope” and she’s part of a Palestinian family who live in a piece of land near Bethlehem… they are all Christians and she really values the Hope God gives … she was saying how sad she feels when people here lose Hope and simply immigrate due to the hard conditions they face every day…
Her great grandfather, Daher Nassar (the drawing on top inside the cave ) came from Lebanon to this land in 1916 when this was an abandoned and barren land… he and his family lived in caves on that time, and soon in 1924 they bought and registered the land as their own, paying all the taxes and whatever was needed to make it official… On that time this man had a vision that this land would one day be a place of peace where people from many nations would gather and have fellowship… He never saw that with his natural eyes, but I’m sure he envisioned what is NOW happening… a man of faith I would say…just like Abraham ☺
Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish), then came under the British control, then in 1947 the UN decided to divide Palestine territory into a Jewish State and an Arab State… Israel came to existence as a State in 1948 ,and in 1949 Palestine was divided into Israel, Jordan and Egypt …So, no more place for the Palestinians, who became refugees in their own land…
This whole situation is too complicated for me to even try to explain, but what I can see now is a so called “Occupied territory”, the “West Bank” and the “Gaza strip”, which is not Israel, but it’s also not Palestine coz the Israelis still control it in different ways…
It’s seams to be the place where Palestinians are allowed to live, but not really free… They cannot cross the borders of this territory for instance, unless they are allowed by Israelis at the “Check Points” (border controls)… some are privileged and have a “blue identity card” which allow them to cross this check points without being stopped or denied access…and if they don’t have the blue ID, they need to ask a permit and depend on the “good will” of the person at the desk office that day…
Amal was just giving the example of young people who need to wake up at 4am, some at 2am if they want to get on time at their university… this because they need to wait hours just to cross the “Check Points” …
So, here I am in a piece of land (Daher's Vinyard) that belong to this family since 1916… now they are surrounded by 2 “settlements” (ilegal occupation), which are basically occupied by Israelis, mostly religious Jews who claim this land as being their “promised land”… they arrive here in caravans and soon they start building their houses on the top of the hills… and they don’t stop building…from here they look like 2 big cities, pretty organized and structured, big houses, nice cars at the door, with electricity and running water… and right between this “rich settlements” this family lives, without electricity, without running water, and with a process in court for 15 years already to try to prove that this land is theirs…
Amal was telling us how one day the “settlers” came in with bulldozers, with guns and accompanied by Israeli army… they wanted to open a road across the two “settlements” (their idea is always to connect the settlements and join them together, and this is how they “conquer” more territory)… “We didn’t react with violence because We have HOPE”, Amal said… They called a lawyer and the “captain” of the settlement for them to see what was going on…In the end they realize they actually have a case in the court to prove the land is theirs, so they cannot do anything before the case is finished…
This was 3 years ago, and the court started much before…they have been spending a lot of money with all this… But they believe in their cause …and they also want to set an example and encourage other Palestinians who are losing hope and simply going away to find jobs and a better life … This family work in different things in Bethlehem to support this land… Amal is a physiotherapist for instance… Soon the wall will separate them from the other Palestinian cities and they will not be able to work there anymore… So, the solution is to move definitely to the land… And they are ready for that !!!
Amal and all the family believe they can live in peace and they can resist without using violence… They believe we are to love our neighbours, and even our enemies…
So the way they reacted when those settlers came was beautiful…
They planted trees, they sang and danced right in front of their eyes ☺…
For this family, planting a tree, and specially an Olive tree, is the best sign of HOPE… “Even if someone would tell me tomorrow would be the end of the world, I would plant a tree today”… This is having HOPE for the future!!!
Amal wants to be a role model to the younger generation who don’t believe there can be a good future here… Everyone is leaving and Immigrating, and that makes Amal very sad…
O.K, this is getting too long already… and I could tell so many more stories…
I’ll just put some pictures with subtitles for you to have an idea of some of the things that we did or saw on this land…
Arriving in the land !!! the hill in front of us …
Daoud showing us some paintings that some palestinian kids did… he was telling how that help to bring out what’s inside those kids and make them think more Hopefully !!!
Daoud showing the Setlement on the other hill and explaining how they cannot have running water , electricity and not even build in their land, while the Setlers have everything...
One of the cutest goats of the land...this one use to escape often...I don't know how he does it !!! :-)
Playing soccer with the volunteers and some kids form the area who came to spend the day...
Daher taking the girls for a ride on the donkey !!! Maren loved the donkeys :-)
Yan and Bastian, 2 of the german volunteers who spent the last year in the land doing their "civil serviitce"... amazing guys...here in the picture with Emma who met them last year as she also volunteered...they are her little brother...really sweet guys ...
This is one of the walls with an amazing work with tiles and paint... a volunteer who passed by who did it...
That's where we slept...a huge tent with beds and matresses for all those who come by :-)
Emma and Bastian picking figs for our lunch ...delicious !!!
the girls into hard work... cleaning out the stones from a garden!!!
A cute old lady from the family picking the good lentiles for our lunch... she was sweet!!!
Making some nice bread with Olive oil and "zatar"... so good !!! and the stove was perfect..they cooked the bread on top of small stones as you can see in the picture...
Singing together worship songs in different languages...
Breaking the bread and wine with the convoy family... Anne and Jonathan were leaving :-( ... But we had a nice time praying for each other and remembering what Jesus did for us and how through Him we are now a big family of God :-)
That's how the water is collected in this cistern during the winter... then it has to last for the reat of the year !!! As I said they are not allowed to have water coming on pipes as the settlements or the villages around...
caring the water from the cistern on the tractor for the small trees who need a lot of water in this hot days...
And we went to water them one by one...few hundreds...
Picking up some nice almonds :-)
Building up walls for the new stable for the goats and dunkeys... there are a lot of stones, they need to be used somehow :-)
Cleaning the goats shit in the morning... :-)
Picking up grapes to make grape syrup...sooooo good, but such a long process !!! we picked the grapes, we cleaned it, we smashed it to take only the juice (here Maren with Daher's mom)...
they added no sugar at all... next day at 6am we started to make the fire and the big pots boiled till lunch time...
wow... but so tasty in the end :-)...
people eat it with tahini (sesame oil) too, it's really good combination !!!
O.K, pretty big already... CHECK THE WEB SITE ON THE TITTLE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO SUPPORT THIS FAMILY OR HOW YOU CAN COME AS A VOLUNTEER !!!
PEACE
SHALOM
SALAAM
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