As the calls for prayers were blasted from the minarets at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, someone said “there is a Norwegian over there”. Since I can’t resist an opportunity to speak my native tongue, I went over and introduced myself. He said he was a Norwegian Kurd who was in Hebron working for TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). His family had immigrated to Norway 40 years ago, so he still spoke Arabic. We were standing by the checkpoint at the mosque gate and he was documenting the detention of a young Palestinian man at the checkpoint who had been detained for 3 hours. The role of his organization is to document infractions against the Palestinians and bring them to the attention of the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority. TIPH consists of representatives from the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey.

From Hebron we went to the Tent of Nations. We were greeted by Daher Nassar and guided to a cave where a lovely lunch had been prepared for us. I felt immediately at home since on the wall right by me was written in Swedish: “Fred, rättvisa och skapelsens bevarande” (Peace, rights and the preservation of the creation). The Tent of Nations is on a 100 acre farm owned by the Nassar family. Daher’s sister Amal spoke to us after lunch about the history of the farm. Her grandparents, Palestinian Christians, had bought the land 100 years ago. The lived in caves on the land, which they still do. The grandparents had had the wherewithal to register the farm first with the Ottoman empire, then with the British Commonweath and also with Jordan, etc. When in 1991 the Jewish settlers tried to kick them off the land, they had their ownership documented and went to court. They have been in count since that day, but cannot be removed although several tries have been made. In the 90s, 300 trees were bulldozed and in 2014, 1500 trees were destroyed just before the fruit harvest.

Each time the family has refused to give up, once standing for 10 days in front of Caterpillars; but as Amal said: ”Don’t meet evil with evil. Keep hope alive. Plant new trees.” I’m proud to say that my name will be on one of the newly planted trees!! The message of hope that Amal gave us was very powerful. She told about meeting a Jewish woman from the settlement nearby and invited her home. She told to her about the message in the Jewish bible to get to know your neighbors. The woman was so impressed she brought her husband to hear the message too!!

Our last stop of the day was at the very impressive Christian school, the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala, which was started by the Mennonites. There Christian and Muslim children from Bethlehem attend classes together, some of them even living at the school.

Hope School quilt

After getting back to our hotel we heard a very strong message from an Israeli young man, Yigal Elhanan, and a Palestinian Christian man, George Sa’adeh. They belonged to Parent’s Circle, an organization bringing bereaved families together to get support from each other after having lost a family member by the hands of the “other” side.

In spite of their differences, and after having lost a sister (Yigal), and a daughter,(George), they sat together and told their stories. Their witness of forgiveness was incredible. The strong message I heard was for us Americans to put pressure on Israel to end the occupation.

~ Ann-Sofie Dean