Bringing Our People Back to the Land
Amal Nassar, Jerusalem Women Speak, 16 April 2007
During my father’s time, when people used to buy land, their contract would have been a handshake.
I grew up learning that if we don’t have our piece of land, we have nothing. My family and I worked the land day and night, and slept in the caves in order to protect it.
Today, my land, which is located in Bethlehem, is under the threat of confiscation. It is trapped between four Israeli settlements. In 1991, the Israeli government issued an order against us to present papers that prove our ownership, or otherwise they would have the right to take it over. We have been fighting this battle in court for 16 years.
After the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli government issued a law saying that if a piece of land remains uncultivated for three years, they can legally confiscate it for their own purposes.
Moreover, they are also allowed to take the land from those who are absent from their land. If the land is not registered, Israel claims it as state land. Palestinians always need to prove to the state of Israel that the land they have owned for generations is theirs.
The Israeli government requires maps, registration, receipts from tax paid during the British Mandate, and the papers recording sales of anything from the land. If maps are old, they ask for new maps, which means we have to hire a cartographer and spend a lot of money and time making new maps.
There are reasons behind the Israeli attempts to make it as difficult as possible for Palestinians to hold onto their land. Because they know that in the end some will give up and immigrate.
My family chose to stay and resist nonviolently through the creation of “Tent of Nations – People Building Bridges.” This is the fulfillment of the dream of my father – to make his land a meeting point for locals and internationals.
We believe that land without people has no future and also people without land have no future. Land and people should be connected together.
The Tent of Nations is raising awareness among people to stay connected to their land by showing presence, cultivating it and planting trees. This connection to the land and the presence there are very important things in protecting and preventing it from being confiscated for settlements.
Tent of Nations invites people, locals, internationals, Israelis, volunteers and journalists and informing them about the land. We want the Israeli people to understand the situation in Palestine and the conditions Palestinians are living in.
Moreover, we want this generation of Palestinian young men and women to retrieve their relationship with their land, and become tangibly attached to their cause.
As I sit to write this article, all I have can think of is hope, the idea that if we maintain our presence on this one piece of land- one of many under the threat of confiscation- we will continue to exist.
You are all welcomed to come to Palestine, observe the situation, and plant a tree that will continue to survive.
Amal Nassar is a Christian Palestinian and a nurse at Caritas Children’s Hospital and a founder of the Tent of Nations program on her family's land near occupied Bethlehem. She is traveling throughout Wisconsin this month with two other women, one Muslim Palestinian and one Jewish Israeli. For more information see www.partnersforpeace.org.
