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 right 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 there 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 openly 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 just five kilo-metres 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 valley is undeniably beautiful, with steppes adorned with citrus and olive trees cut into its steep sides. 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 170 hectares Cremisan valley, residents say.
In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled 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 Cremisan area, the route of the 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.
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 sadly remarked.
“The presence of the Christian commun-ity here in the Holy Land makes this conflict a political conflict, not a religious conflict,” he said.
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 there 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 openly 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 just five kilo-metres 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 valley is undeniably beautiful, with steppes adorned with citrus and olive trees cut into its steep sides. 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 170 hectares Cremisan valley, residents say.
In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled 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 Cremisan area, the route of the 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.
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 sadly remarked.
“The presence of the Christian commun-ity here in the Holy Land makes this conflict a political conflict, not a religious conflict,” he said.
timesofmalta.com
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