Perilous
Times
Israel: West Bank Christians pray for threatened valley
By Sara Hussein | AFP
A handful of Palestinian Christians stand on a ridge under grey
skies at an open-air mass, praying for protection for the sweeping
valley that descends from their feet.
For decades, the dwindling Christian community of Beit Jala and
Bethlehem has joined its Muslim neighbours to work the land of the
Cremisan Valley during the week, and picnic here with their
families at the weekend.
But the route of Israel's controversial separation barrier will
soon cut them off from the valley, placing it on the Israeli side
and out of their reach -- a route that residents say was designed
to grab their land.
Locals say the barrier is part of a long-standing Israeli attempt
to annex territory belonging to the southern West Bank town of
Bethlehem, effectively separating it from Jerusalem, which is five
kilometres (three miles) away.
"With this confiscation, Jerusalem and Bethlehem will no longer be
connected. That's something that the Christian world should
understand," said Xavier Abu Eid, a Palestine Liberation
Organisation spokesman who comes from a Beit Jala family.
Residents say the land grab is part of an Israeli plan to fragment
the West Bank, and make the formation of a coherent Palestinian
state impossible.
In Bethlehem, it has dispossessed the area's once-thriving
Christian community, pushing them to move overseas as their
village lands are annexed to Jerusalem and eaten away by expanding
settlements.
The Cremisan valley is well-known for its vineyards which are run
by Roman Catholic monks from the Salesian order, and which provide
wine to churches throughout the Holy Land.
The threat to Cremisan is especially hard to bear, said Hind
Khoury, a former Palestinian envoy to Paris, because the area is a
rare remaining green space.
"For me, as a Bethlehemite, Cremisan is particularly important,
it's a breathing space for us," she said.
"As a child, it was the place where we went for picnics, that's
where we went for Sunday outings and where families got together."
The valley is undeniably beautiful, with steppes adorned with
citrus and olive trees cut into its steep sides.
Abu Eid said he grew up hearing about his grandfather's work in
the stone quarry that sat on the northern side of the valley.
Now, the top of the northern ridge is dominated by the Jerusalem
settlement neighbourhood of Gilo, home to 35,000 people; on the
southern ridge is Har Gilo settlement, with a population of around
500.
Both sit on land belonging to Beit Jala, and more of that land
will disappear as the barrier rips through the 1,700 dunams (420
acre, 170 hectares) Cremisan Valley, residents say.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that parts of the
barrier were illegal and should be torn down.
But Israel's defence ministry insists it protects Israelis and
that the route is determined by "specific security considerations"
of the area.
"In the Beit Jala region, it is there solely to keep terror out of
Jerusalem," said spokesman Josh Huntman. "The barrier saves
lives."
In the Cremisan area, the route of barrier deviates sharply from
the Green Line, the internationally-accepted line marking the
divide between Israel and the territories it captured in the 1967
Six Day War.
Landowners have petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to intervene on
their behalf, and are waiting, with little hope of a reprieve, for
a ruling sometime in January.
For Ibrahim Shomali, Beit Jala's parish priest, the loss of the
Cremisan will only push more of the area's shrinking Christian
community overseas.
"Families will lose their land, their work and their future for
their children, what will they do? They will leave the country,"
he said.
"The presence of the Christian community here in the Holy Land
makes this conflict a political conflict, not a religious
conflict," he said.
Abu Eid agrees, saying Israel's ongoing seizure of land is rarely
mentioned in connection with the falling number of Christians in
the Holy Land.
"When people are talking about Christians emigrating, it's
important to know that one of the factors is that basically we
have no land anymore."
Abu Eid says Beit Jala alone has lost over 10,000 dunams (2,471
acres, 1,000 hectares) to settlements, annexation and the barrier.
"This whole area has been confiscated slowly but surely," adds
Khoury, who says the barrier's route, snaking from the southwest
of Bethlehem to the north east, will leave the region "literally
closed in".
"This is a successive thing. They don't want the Palestinians, but
they want their land."