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Alors que l’initiative du COE pour la récolte des olives en 2020 touchait à sa fin début décembre, les Nouvelles du COE ont rencontré Nora Karmi, une Palestinienne chrétienne qui a travaillé toute sa vie pour la paix et la justice, pour entendre son point de vue sur la situation en Terre sainte aujourd’hui, et sur le rôle de la foi pour garder l’espoir.

Avec la fin de la saison de la récolte des olives, la vie sous l’occupation revient à la «normale» pour les communautés palestiniennes de Cisjordanie. Cette «normalité», qui se traduit par des déplacements forcés et une peur constante des menaces et des harcèlements, s’accompagne désormais d’une menace d’annexion par Israël de vastes étendues de terres fertiles appartenant aux agriculteurs palestiniens – une mesure qui «saperait la paix et la justice et serait une violation directe du droit international», selon une déclaration commune du COE et d’autres organisations œcuméniques au début de l’année.  

As the WCC olive harvest initiative in 2020 drew to a close in early December, WCC News met with Nora Carmi, a Christian Palestinian who has worked for peace and justice her whole life, to hear her perspective on the situation in the holy land today, and the role of faith in sustaining hope.

With olive harvest season coming to an end, life under occupation returns to “normal” for Palestinian communities on the West Bank. Under that “normal,” which means forced displacements and constant fear of threats and harassments, now also looms a threatening Israeli annexation of large chunks of fertile land owned by Palestinian farmers – a move which would “undermine peace and justice and be in direct violation of international law,” according to a joint ecumenical statement by the WCC and other ecumenical organizations earlier this year.  

It is easy to feel despair of the unjust situation for the Palestinians, who are experiencing daily humiliation, annexation of land, growing settlements, land grabbing and poverty. This year Palestine has been illegally occupied for 53 years. But there are also many people in Palestine cultivating hope, faith and love for transforming the situation.

Illegal occupation of Palestinian lands has been ongoing for 53 years, imposing deep injustices on the daily life of local communities. In Nablus, in the northern West Bank, many Palestinians know what it can be like to live with settlements close by, not least in the villages around the city, where Palestinian landowners regularly face settler abuse. Yet there are many in the area who persist, in working hard on a daily basis to foster peace and justice. Below, Rev. Jamil Khadir reflects on what this means for him as a local pastor in Nablus.

Forty-year-old Shireen Elayan lives on the family farm outside Bethlehem; the family has owned the farm for generations.