21 October 2017

View from the Tent of Nations of a new Yeshiva built this year adjacent to the farm.

This afternoon we drove through green, terraced land to the Tent of Nations farm for lunch and a tour. The farm has been passed down through the same family for 101 years. Despite having a clear paper trail of ownership stretching back through Jordanian, British, and even Turkish rule, the Nassar family has been locked in a 26-year long legal battle in Israeli courts to keep their land. Throughout this time, the six surrounding settler colonies have been rapidly expanding. This afternoon we drove through green, terraced land to the Tent of Nations farm for lunch and a tour. The farm has been passed down through the same family for 101 years. Despite having a clear paper trail of ownership stretching back through Jordanian, British, and even Turkish rule, the Nassar family has been locked in a 26-year long legal battle in Israeli courts to keep their land. Throughout this time, the six surrounding settler colonies have been rapidly expanding.

We heard about the many struggles that Tent of Nations has been confronted with over the years including:

• Israeli uprooting of 1500 olive and other fruit trees, in an attempt to claim the land is uncultivated
• Rubble dumped to block the road leading to the farm
• Demolition orders for the cistern rain collection system (there is no water or electricity service to the area)
• Legal notification papers scattered randomly throughout the property instead of being delivered to the office. Volunteers help keep an eye out for these documents, which must be given immediately to lawyers to contest various demolition orders. Through all of these attacks, Tent of Nations has retained a commitment to positive action rather than reaction.

Amal Nassar

To me, it is clear that the Nassars and the friends who work in partnership with them are constantly planting. They are planting olive trees, but they are also planting seeds of empowerment in their community. In particular, their empowerment program for women is an investment that bears fruit years down the line, as mothers share what they have learned with their children. There are many forces at work to uproot the work at Tent of Nations, but as Amal Nassar says, “we plant again.”

~ Sarah Morgan