As the Christian world prepares to celebrate the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, a nearby Palestinian farm called the Tent of Nations (TON) struggles for survival.
This article is based on a report by the author’s friends Graham and Chris.
The Tent of Nations is in a 57-year land dispute. It is an organic hilltop farm at 900m altitude and one of the few (possibly the only) hilltop farm in Palestine which is still owned by Palestinians. As hilltops are strategically important, most of them are taken up by the illegal Israeli settlements.
The farm, owned by the Christian Nassar family since Ottoman times, is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements. The TON has been involved in a 57-year land dispute and faces violent attacks by their neighbours who have also blocked the entrance to the farm. The family has no access to running water or mains electricity contrasting with the surrounding settlements where swimming pools are clearly visible.
The principles of the Tent of Nations
The family runs the farm according to the following principles:
- Refuse to give up.
- Refuse to hate.
- Undertake proactive, non-violent resistance based on the Christian faith.
- Strive for justice.
Study tours include the Tent of Nations
For many years, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and other organisations from a variety of countries have run guided study tours to Israel and the West Bank. They have helped to galvanise a new generation of activists by giving people a chance to see first hand what apartheid looks like in practice.
Volunteers at TON as farm workers and witnesses
Volunteers have different itineraries for different interest groups and include special itineraries for health workers. They also include the TON as one of the visits on their tours. Several people from Graham’s circle have visited TON as participants on these tours and they have all recommended that TON is a great volunteering opportunity.
Graham and his wife Chris, retirees from London and my brother’s childhood friends, volunteered at the farm this summer at a time of high tension in the region. They followed an emergency call for international volunteers by the Nassau family. The incursions by violent settlers from the five surrounding settlements were increasing. Graham and Chris worked on the farm and acted as part of an international protective presence witnessing and documenting any settler incursions.
Airlines have been cancelling their flights to Israel due to the security situation. When Graham and Chris visited in August it was only Whizz Air and El-Al that were still flying there and the TON is now struggling to get volunteers for this reason. ICAHD was reluctantly forced to cancel its autumn tour to Israel and the West Bank. The next tour is now scheduled for the spring.
Can volunteers achieve anything?
As to what the volunteers can achieve now – particularly after the US elections and the appointment of really hard-line pro-settler activists in the new US administration – the first role of the volunteers is to bear witness. This is to try to discourage incursions, threats and general lawlessness by the illegal settlers who surround the farm. Volunteers are told not to approach or engage with intruders but to take photos where possible.
Some brave Italian volunteers saw intruders on the farm at the bottom of a valley. They got fairly close to them and took photos which provoked an outraged response from the settlers. Until now, the West was moving towards sanctions against violent illegal settlers and hence they did not like being photographed but this may change with the new US administration.
Church connections attract international volunteers
Chris and Graham were there with other volunteers from the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Spain. The TON is very well-known in the Netherlands through church connections; the Dutch Ambassador even visited while Graham and Chris were there. This visit was partly in response to much interest from the Dutch parliament about the TON.
Graham reports that the Italian volunteers were great fun. There were three trainee priests and a trainee nun. They were due to be part of a much larger religious group but the other group members were unable to get to TON due to cancelled flights (at the time of tension with Iran). They were young, fit, committed and with quite a boisterous, Italian sense of humour.
There was also an elderly Dutch couple who had visited TON several times. They both started as committed Christian Zionists but some years ago undertook a self-organised study tour in Israel and Palestine, crucially involving both Israeli and Palestinian guides. As a result of their experience, they developed a strong commitment to equality and justice for the Palestinians.
Friends of Tent of Nations UK
In the UK there is a group called Friends of Tent of Nations UK with a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fotonuk
There will be an update meeting in December for supporters who are members of their mailing list.
TON has close connections with church groups. In the UK that is particularly the Amos Trust:
https://www.amostrust.org/palestine-justice
You can find out more about the history of the farm and the Nassar family’s land dispute on their website.
There are also lots of pictures of this summer on https://www.boterati.comh/ton/.
