Christian Voices from the Holy Land

In We Belong to the Land (Harper Collins, 1990), Father Elias Chacour, parish priest of lbillin, Israel, described the destruction in 1953 by the Israeli military of Biram, his family's village in Palestine.

The Biram villagers gathered on a nearby hill, weeping as they watched explosives being put in place around their houses. Then Israeli Air Force planes roared over them and began bombing the village. In horror my family saw the houses explode and the trees catch fire. The screaming villagers ran to the edge of Biram and saw that bulldozers were already working to complete the destruction. Soldiers met the people and said, 'If you want to return now, you can go. The bulldozers will bury you under the rubble of the houses'.

He goes on to explain why the loss of land is especially devastating for Palestinians.

Mobile Western people have difficulty comprehending the significance of the land for Palestinians. We belong to the land. We identify with the land, which has been treasured, cultivated, and nurtured by countless generations of ancestors. Some of our trees were planted more than a thousand years ago... Other trees in our village were closer to two thousand years old. People in our generation plant trees for their children's children.

H. B. Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Easter Message, 1998

The promise of total freedom remains a pure promise. In the meanwhile, the fabric of society is beginning to disintegrate. Suffering, death and emigration are going on and prisoners are waiting in their prisons to be given back their freedom and dignity.

The picture is dark. This is the reality there is no alternative to peace, a true peace based on justice and dignity for every person, every community and people. It is difficult, if not impossible, to begin reconciliation as long as there are injustices imposed upon one party.

Mitri Rabeb Palestinian Evangelical Lutheran Pastor living in Bethlehem, From I Am A Palestinian Christian (Fortress Press, 1995)

I am a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation. My captor daily seeks to make life harder for me. He encircles my people with barbed wire; he builds walls around us and his armies set many boundaries. He succeeds in keeping thousands of us in camps and prisons. Yet, he has not succeeded in keeping my dreams from me... I have a dream of two people who live side by side in peace with one another. I think of two people who keep the name of God holy and do not misuse it to further their own interest and suppress others.

Canon Naim Ateek Anglican Canon of St. George's Cathedral, East Jerusalem. From Justice and Only Justice (Orbis Books, 1997)

The conflict, indeed, was political... it had to do with the usurpation of a country with the expropriation of land, with refugees, with the denial of the political and human rights of an entire people. The church suffered, as its people suffered, not because of their faith, but because they were Palestinians. Thus, inadvertently, the church was caught in the midst of political forces and became a victim itself...

Salim J. Munayer Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian and Professor, Bethlehem Bible College

The Palestinian Christians in the State of Israel are calling for freedom of religion for all religious groups, not only freedom of worship, but freedom to be able to express their faith to others without restrictions. Christians are called to be peacemakers. Palestinian Christians are calling for peace between Israeli Jews and Palestinians for an end to the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza so that their people will be able to form their own destiny and shape their future. The daily misery, the killing, the economic conditions, sometimes make it impossible to see a positive light in the relationship between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians in the occupied territories.