Christian woman in West Bank leads resistance against settler seizure of family land

AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — A group of Israeli Jews prayed Shabbat as the sun set in Al-Makhrour, a valley outside Beit Jala in the West Bank, on Friday, October. Recently, Palestinian Muslims returned to Mecca and performed their own evening prayers.

After prayers, the two groups sat on a plastic mat with several Christians and others, sharing meals, roasting marshmallows and getting to know each other in a peaceful vigil that was joined by 40 more people online. They had all come to support Alice Kisiya, 30, whose family was forcibly evicted from their 1.25-acre land by Jewish settlers with the support of the Israel Defense Forces in July.

Walking along an olive grove in the dark, his face illuminated by the light from his phone, Kisiya told online participants that IDF soldiers had arrived before, but he was surprised to see Jews, Muslims and Christians picnicking in the middle of a camp. War, they moved away. He said that evil is afraid of unity.

“What this society needs to be united and strong to achieve justice and peace is an interfaith community,” said Kisiya, a Palestinian Christian with Israeli and French citizenship. “Sharing different backgrounds and beliefs and learning how to love and accept each other is the path to a new era where everyone can live in peace and harmony.”

A. majority of the land The property in Al Makhrur, known locally as the “paradise of Bethlehem,” is owned by Palestinian Christians, who make up less than 2% of the West Bank population. Save Al-Makhrouran online community supporting Kisiyas’ cause, frames the family’s cause as a struggle for Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Kisiya property in the West Bank before the structures were demolished. (Photo courtesy of Alice Kisiya)

Save Al-Makhrour’s statement reads: “Christians in Israel and Palestine must stand together and not allow families to be destroyed one by one.” “Jews, Muslims and Christians must stand together for the vision of living side by side in this land and developing in freedom and equality.”

The Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank, said Alice’s father, Ramzi, began threatening the Kisiyas shortly after they opened a restaurant on the land in 2002. In addition to Christmas, Easter and Ramadan celebrations, it also hosted weddings and graduation parties. The administration demolished it in 2012, 2013 and 2015, citing lack of construction permits; However, Alice Kisiya said that the law did not allow this because the restaurant, which was built of wood, was, in her words, “an agricultural structure”. In 2019, the family’s house was also demolished with a jackhammer.

Kisiya said the family has legally owned the land since Israel was founded in 1948, but in 2017 Himanuta, a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund, claimed in court that it had purchased the land in 1969. reports of peace activists And Israeli press He described JNF’s land acquisitions as “suspicious” and the Kisiya family said a search of state archives found no trace of the transaction.

After their home was destroyed, the Kisiyas lived in a tent on the property until July 31, when a group of armed settlers supported by the Jewish National Fund blocked the family’s entry by installing a padlocked gate decorated with the Star of David. Comment requested, Coordination of Government Activities in the RegionsReferring to the controversial purchase, COGAT, a unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said the lockout was supported by “friction” between the “settlers and the Israeli citizen who was determined not to own the place,” it told RNS.

A few weeks later, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Israel’s plan to build Nahal Heletz, a settlement adjacent to Al-Makhrour that would connect settlements southwest of Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The settlement will be located in Battir, which, together with Al-Makhrour, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. Approximately 700,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem currently live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

The red settlement of Nahal Heletz, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the West Bank. (Image courtesy of Peace Now)

The Kisiya family has rented an apartment near Al-Walaja for now, and Alice, who works as a journalist and fitness instructor, decided that it was her turn to lead the family’s fight for their land. He plans to move forward with patient, nonviolent resistance, believing that God placed him where he is for a reason. “My mother and father taught me a lot about how to be strong, how not to lose hope, and how we can overcome evil by following the teachings of Jesus,” he said.

Knesset member of the Israeli parliament, Ofer Cassif, said that such land grabs have become routine during the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. International Crisis Group in September reported Settlement activity and settler violence have increased dramatically since Netanyahu’s far-right government came to power in 2022. The report recorded more than 1,000 cases of settler violence since the start of the war in Gaza, including 21 deaths and 643 injuries, the expulsion of 1,300 Palestinians from their homes and the theft of thousands of acres of land in the West Bank.

In February, Cassif, the only Jewish MP in the Hadash-Ta’al Party, was nearly expelled from the Knesset for supporting South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. Last week, the board agreed to suspend him for six months. He said sometimes death threats forced him to stay home. However, Cassif, who described himself as an atheist, said that he followed in the footsteps of the Jewish prophets who stood tall against evil.

“In my opinion, fighting for the rights of Palestinians is fair and justice is universal. … I don’t need to be Palestinian to support the liberation of Palestine,” he said.

In late September, an interfaith group built the Small Church of Nations near Kisiyas territory. Among those working in the building was Palestinian Muslim activist Munther Amira, who was recently released from administrative detention in an Israeli prison. Volunteers framed the 260 square meter structure with raw beams and covered its walls with stone-like wood veneers. A cross, crescent and Star of David were painted on one of the interior walls.

That evening, a vigil was held at the church while IDF soldiers stood guard nearby. Participants included the Rev. Munther Isaac, a Presbyterian minister and academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, as well as representatives from the Rabbis for Human Rights and the World Council of Churches.

Two days later the IDF returned with an excavator to dismantle the church.

The Church of Nations was built in late September 2024 near the Kisiya family land in the West Bank. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rajabi)

Kisiya was arrested and briefly detained on November 3 after settlers in the area accused him of hitting a settler and stealing items. A. video It shows one of the settlers attacking Kisiya in his car and trying to strangle him.

Palestinian university student and volunteer doctor Haytham Salameh, who is among Kisiya’s supporters, said, “If it can happen to Alice today, it can happen to my neighbor tomorrow, and to me the next day.” Salameh, a Bethlehem resident, had only encountered Israelis at border crossings and checkpoints until he arrived for the campfire picnic. “If we’re not going to be the ones standing up for and with Alice, who will be?”

The morning after the picnic, Kisiya and a dozen others walked to his family’s land, but before they reached Kisiyas road, the IDF encountered them.

Kisiya’s sister-in-law, Amira Musallam, whose 9-year-old son will inherit rights to the family land, said she presented the group with a map and an order designating the land as a closed military zone to deter soldiers’ entry. region — third place. Musallam said the documents actually belonged to a piece of land about 4 kilometers away.

“We can’t do anything about it,” Musallam said. “They are the IDF, they are in control. … Even if we want to go to court, the court does not help because everything is now under the state of war emergency.”

Kisiya continues to be hopeful, believing that he will return to his country. It is planning an international solidarity campaign in which participants will plant trees in Al-Makhrour’s name; this is a reference to the Jewish National Fund’s popular tree-planting project, the proceeds of which were used to support settlers and settlement construction.

He also dreams of building the first church of Al Makhrur on the site of the Church of the Nations, where Christians of all denominations could unite in prayer. He said that when the settlers stole the land, he would ring the bell to remind them that it was still there.

Kisiya: “We will keep our faith and will not give up” sent on Instagram on October 7. “We will unite and defeat evil. Love will win and light will rise above the darkness. Justice and peace are not earned, they are made, and we as a people (Christians, Muslims, Jews and non-believers who believe in humanity) will achieve this together.”