When will the madness end? Not until it is too late?

A week ago, I was in a meeting in which one of the participants was a colleague in Bethlehem. He noted that he was anxiously awaiting a call from his mother, who was in Gaza. Without her call, he did not know if she was alive, let alone well.

Then, earlier this week, we contacted him to inquire whether he had heard from his mother and if she was well. He replied that she indeed was alive, but she had fallen due to a lack of nutrition. As a result of her fall, she split her head open. The doctors were able to attend to the wound, but because of the devastation wrought on the medical industry in Gaza, they were unable to do a CT scan to discern if there was any further damage (bleeding on the brain, etc).

The same day, I received an email update from another colleague who works in Bethlehem. His update noted,

“Life in the West Bank is increasingly difficult. The roads between cities in the north are becoming unsafe to travel. One of our Palestinian Christian friends recently tried to visit friends in Ramallah, north of Jerusalem. She and her family were shocked to be stopped on the highway at gunpoint enroute back to Bethlehem. They were permitted to eventually move on and arrive home, but their children were terrified by the encounter. . . . The Palestinian Christian community is deeply concerned because the violence in the West Bank is looking more and more like that in Gaza.  The beautiful Makhrur Valley west of Bethlehem is a route hikers enjoy. . . . This month I would think twice before hiking along its ancient aqueducts.  Plans for a new Israeli settlement in the valley have spiked tensions in the area.” (used with permission).

Then there is our dear friend Daoud Nassar and his family. For the past 33 years, they have been fighting (peacefully) to save their land just outside of Bethlehem from Israeli confiscation. The Israeli government labeled it state land (due to an antiquated Ottoman law) and has attempted to seize it from them dozens of times.

Daoud’s family has lived on and cultivated the land for more than 100 years (hence, it is not state land, which by law is land uncultivated for 2 years).

In addition, Daoud has papers dating back to 1916 showing that his grandfather purchased the land. The Jordanian government verified these papers in 1948 when Jordan gained control of the land from the Ottomans.

Yet, Daoud and his family have faced repeated attempts by the state of Israel and radical settlers to seize his land. Thousands upon thousands of his fruit trees have been burned or uprooted. Israeli bulldozers have plowed through his land to make a new road. Access to his land by the main road has been cut off (see pic I took in 2008). Israel has now built a new Yeshiva near this entrance, and access has been permanently sealed off for Daoud and his family.

All the while, Daoud, with the legal help of our dear friend Jonathan Kuttab and his law offices and with the financial support of many, has taken his case to the highest courts in Israel. Yet, time after time, the courts have delayed, postponed, or requested further information and failed to grant the recognition that the land is lawfully his.

It seems apparent that Israel has no intention of approving the reregistration of his land. As I noted in my previous post, Israel has no reason to do so. From their perspective, it is only a matter of time before the land becomes theirs for good. (see my series on The Status Quo ain’t the Status Quo).

For those of you who believe that the land belongs to Israel, what about all the demands that the Law and the Prophets place on Israel in the land? Such as what the prophet Isaiah says,

“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel

m,./And the men of Judah His delightful plant.

Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;

For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,

Until there is no more room,

So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!” (Isa 5:7-8).

Now, as I have stated before and argue in my upcoming book, the argument that the land belongs to the Jewish people is a misreading of the text and a failure to grasp Jesus and the kingdom of God.

But, even still, my question becomes, “How can this be good for Israel?”

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