Daoud Nassar from Tent of Nations urges Christians to 'come and see'

Daoud Nassar, from the long-established Christian Palestinian farming family at the Tent of Nations, near Bethlehem, urged the Church to stand up for Palestinians when he spoke at St John's Anglican Church, in Waterloo, London, last Thursday.

He said this was 'very important' in the Palestinians' imperilled situation in which it was easy to feel lonely and forgotten. The presence and solidarity of international partners provided a 'protective presence' which led to fewer attacks by Israeli settler-colonialists. Furthermore, these partners provided a crucial window on the world which could ensure the Palestinians' story was told and heard.

Such solidarity should be understood in the context of the Arabic word sumud which means a collective resilience and steadfast perseverance in the face of manifest injustice, he added.

In a video that was shown as part of the evening, according to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation, Israel is trying to eliminate Palestinians in the West Bank through violence, through economic violence, through the division and isolation of communities, through the destruction of socio-political infrastructure and through restrictions of movement, all five together amounting to what has been described as a 'silent genocide' (see The Elimination Report published by B'Tselem in September, 2026).

As for Palestinian Christians, they currently make up less than 1% of all Palestinians left in the Holy Land. It is feared that by 2030 all Christians will have disappeared from Gaza and by 2050 all Palestinians will have disappeared entirely from Palestine.

Daoud Nassar described movingly the terrible daily privations and humiliations to which the Palestinians are subjected by the Israeli state.

He said that over 65% of the West Bank is under total Israeli control, the Palestinians have no control of their resources, and over the last 3 years, life has become more difficult with new settler-colonialist outposts.

The Nassar family's farm, which they have owned since 1916, is now surrounded by settlers. The farm is situated on a hilltop and for the last 35 years his family have been defending their ownership of the farm which the Israeli authorities have sought to seize. This judicial struggle has reached the Israeli Supreme Court and is a big financial burden.

'This is an unjust system and we need justice,' said Daoud. He described his family's existence as that of being in a 'dark tunnel'.

The settler-colonialists have threatened the family with guns. They have destroyed 250 olive trees with diggers. But Daoud mentioned a sign of hope where a group called the European Jews for Just Peace in Palestine have sponsored the planting of new trees. 'We are not alone in our struggle for justice,' he said.

'We are the stewards of the land and what we inherited, we cannot sell,' Daoud added. He expressed his fear of fundamentalist settler-colonialists who misused religion with their tribal God, 'Who claim this is the land that God gave to us.'

He denounced Israel's use of separation walls, roadblocks and Israeli-only roads. In February 2024, the settlers built just such a road near his farm, establishing an outpost there with watchtowers and caravans.

He said that the unjust persecution of Palestinians forced them to react in three ways: negatively with violence, passively with resignation, or quite simply leaving.

"None of these are good for us," Daoud said. "Christianity is dying in its homeland which will become like a museum. And yet we are the salt of the earth and the light of the World. We refuse to be victims, we refuse to hate. We act based on our Christian values. We believe in justice. And so he identified a fourth way of reacting to the persecution: that of non-violent resistance. 'We are facing evil with good, darkness with light, and hatred with love."

According to the Jerusalem Patriarchate, prior to the recent violence and genocide in Gaza, about 2.5 million Christians came to the Holy Land each year and yet Daoud said, few of these met the local Palestinian people or understood their lives. He decried this ignorance, saying, "They don't understand we are Christians and ask, When did you convert? We reply 2000 years ago. We were the first followers of Christ."

And the remaining Palestinian Christians' faith, of whatever denomination, is strong, full of vibrant liturgy, contemplative prayer and scholarship. Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac of 'Christ in the rubble' fame has said Palestinian Christians can contribute to a just peace in the Holy Land.

Quoting Christ's invitation to Nathaniel, Daoud said, "Come and see'" extending an invitation to all of goodwill to come and stand in solidarity alongside the Nassar family in their Tent of Nations bridge-building farm community, and to help them be creative in their resistance. He said, "We need to prove to ourselves and to others that alternative ways are possible."

"By standing up and acting, you empower yourself and you empower other people," he added. "For example, international volunteers come and work in the summer camps alongside traumatised children from the West Bank and they can see what is really happening." Daoud met the late Pope Francis and Sarah Mullaly, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has visited his farm where she planted an olive tree.

":We need the Church to stand up," urged Daoud. "Martin Luther King said the Church should not be the rear lights, but the headlights for justice. We need the fruits of love and hope to continue our nonviolent resistance towards this goal."

He did not deny how hard this struggle was. Just a few metres away from the Nassar organic farm, the settler-colonialists have 24 hour access to water, including swimming pools, and electricity. The farm is prohibited these. At times, the Nassars have not even been allowed to collect rainwater, so they have to buy water in big tanks. Now they are researching how to recycle grey water in order for it to be used again.

There are many such unconscionable privations and the army is on hand to back the settler-colonialists. Daoud said that there are road closures during harvest time, and Palestinian farmers are not able to take their grapes to the local markets. He spoke of young Palestinians building the houses of Israeli settler-colonialists on their own confiscated land.

Daoud said his therapy was to walk the land and to speak with his olive trees before adding, "I encourage people to go and be change-makers in their own country."

Responding to this, David Thomson of the ecumenical Time to Act campaign, said that on average, there were five settler-colonialist attacks on Palestinians every day. "Our government needs to uphold international law,' he said. He urged the need to work together in the ecumenical Just Peace Coalition and urged all people of goodwill to familiarise themselves with the Kairos II document launched by Palestinian Christian leaders in 2025.

David Thomson welcomed Ed Miliband the Foreign Secretary's recent announcement concerning Palestine but said more was needed. "The government needs to suspend the UK-Israeli trade agreement. It needs to suspend all arm exports to Israel and it needs to support the prosecution of war crimes in Gaza in the international courts," he said. He added that there needed to be a greater theological education around issues in the Holy Land.

LINKS

Tent of Nation: www.tentofnations.com
Just Peace: www.justpeacecoalition.com
Protect Ancient Churches: www.protectancientchristians.com
Kairos Palestine: https://kairospalestine.ps/images/Final_Kairos_document_II_English.pdf