Tent of Nations

A couple of weeks ago, the 6 of us YAGM volunteers, along with our director and his wife, embarked on our retreat. We spent 2 days and 2 nights at the Tent of Nations, an organization in Bethlehem. The Tent of Nations was founded in 2000 with the vision of preparing young people "for a positive contribution to their future and culture by bringing values of understanding and tolerance into their life experience, and to teach them the true belonging to their country" (taken from their website, http://www.tentofnations.org/index.htm). The 100 acres of land on which the Tent of Nations is located has a very unique story. In the early 1900's, while Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, every Palestinian was required to register his/her land. However, this meant that they would also have to pay taxes to the Ottoman Empire which, for obvious reasons, many were not excited to do. So many landowners would create loopholes to this rule and only register a portion of their land, thus ensuring that they wouldn't have to pay the full taxes. While it may have benefitted landowners to do this at the time, this has created problems for their descendants today. Many Palestinian landowners are losing their land to Israel today because they don't have the correct papers from the Ottoman times to prove that their family owns the land. Specifically for the Tent of Nations, Israel has been searching for ways to take the land from them, and one of the ways in which it has tried to do so is through issues of land ownership. Currently there are 3 major settlements (for more info on settlements, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement) surrounding the Tent of Nations, and Israel has tried many times to purchase the land from them. The Nassar family (who owns the land) refuses to sell their land to Israel and therefore has had to go to multiple court trials to defend their ownership. Luckily for them, their grandfather was one of the few Palestinians to register all of his land during the Ottoman period, so they were able to win the first battle. However, Israel then required that all of the neighbors of the land sign a legal document reinforcing that this land really does belong to the Nassar family. Well, there is a problem with this, as the neighbors would need proof of their own land boundaries and ownership. Also, many of the neighbors were reluctant to sign anything, fearing that the Nassar family was selling its land to Israel. Despite the problems, the Nassar family was able to get the signatures. In response to this, Israel then demanded that there be witnesses who could attest to the family's ownership. So the family organized the transportation of 40 such witnesses. On the day of the trial, the witnesses waited and waited and waited. Finally someone from the Israeli case came out and told them there was no more time today and could they please come back tomorrow. It was impossible for all 4o witnesses to come back the next day, as they had already sacrificed a day of work. Luckily, however, enough were able to come back the next day. Now there are still more hoops for the Nassar family to jump through to ensure that their land does not become an Israeli settlement.
The story of this family and of the land is inspirational. While the family could have sold the land for basically whatever they wanted (I heard that Israel bascially presented them with a blank check), they have refused. They are part of their land, as their land is a part of them. As their website states, land is worth nothing with no people and people are worth nothing without a land. Even though they have been through numerous costly court battles, they are still fighting strong. This is their way of nonviolent resistance. They disagree with the settlements the Israeli government is creating and, instead of physically fighting as others before them have done, they have chosen to peacefully voice their disagreement with the injustice. They use their land to host groups of people, and they do projects on their land to show Israel that their land is being used for something productive. They have many groups of young Palestinians out there and Daoud (one of the founding members) said that many young people who go there just stand in awe of the surroundings. They are used to seeing cities, the Wall, and the business and noise of everyday life. While the Tent of Nations is only 20 minutes from the center of Bethlehem, the scenery is absoltely breathtaking. There are mountains in the distance and green fields all around. The only thing that puts a damper on the beauty are the 3 surrounding settelements. As a sidenote, Daoud was telling us that the surrounding settlements take most of the water from the land, and Israel refuses to let water and electricity come to the Palestinians' land. So, the family has found ways to overcome these difficulties. They have built 6 cisterns to collect rainwater, and they use generators for their electricity (there is only enough electricity for 1.5 hours a night, though).
I was completely refreshed and reenergized through my visit to the Tent of Nations. Being in such a beautiful and natural place was rejuvenating. We even got to plant olive trees and sleep in a cave at night! It was also very refreshing to be in a place of so much hope. While it has had, and continues to have, its share of difficulties, the work that the Tent of Nations does brings hope to the Palestinian community. Other Palestinians see the nonviolent resisting that the Nassar family is doing and that gives them hope to continue and to look for ways to seek change. It was so easy to find hope in their story, and that is not always the case here. If you are interested in learning more about this phenomenal place, please visit the website :http://www.tentofnations.org/index.htm