This Christmas holiday is special for Alice Kisiya, a Palestinian Christian activist from Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank.
Following an Israeli court ruling in June that eventually forced Israeli settlers to leave the land and destroy an illegal outpost, Kisiya was able to set foot on her family’s land in the Christian village of al-Makhrour on Tuesday for the first time since 2019.
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Despite all the tactics they used to pressure me and my family into leaving the land, Kisiya told Al Jazeera, “This victory, which forced the settlers to dismantle their outpost in preparation for leaving for good, confirms that one must never tire of continuing the struggle.”
After four months, they moved on to build an outpost on land owned by our family and left our family’s land. However, I have prevailed once more because it strengthened my resolve to fight my legal battle, she said, “because every time I saw them on my land, I saw them on my land.”
After an Israeli settler group claimed to have purchased the land from “other owners” and provided ownership documents, the Kisiya family’s legal battle became arduous and costly. An Israeli court recently rejected the settlers’ claim and determined that the documents presented were fake after years of legal proceedings. The Kisiya family had the right to reclaim the 5 dunams (0. 005 km2) of land in al-Makhrour, according to the court.
The Israeli court’s decision is significant because it affirms my legal rights and property rights and exposes the illegal erasure of the occupation and settlers’ fictitious obtaining of property documents, according to Kisiya, who was detained in 2024 for alleged settler land grabs.
Kisiya continues to live on her land despite winning the Israeli-occupied West Bank, feared by settler attacks and violence.
According to Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, the court ruling granted my family and I the right to reclaim the land, the home, and the restaurant that the occupation destroyed. However, we are now avoiding permanent presence due to settler violence, supported by the right-wing government and its ministers, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
After years of leading a civil, legal, and popular campaign to confront Israeli occupation policies and illegal settlement expansions, Kisiya’s family home, which Israeli forces destroyed when she was a child, has since grown into a symbol of resistance in her Christian community and among other Palestinians.
encourage illegal settlements
The success of Kisiya gives hope to return. However, the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” plan continues to support Israel’s settlement expansion, which aims to link the Gush Etzion bloc south of the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading Israel’s far-right government, which is urging the creation of more settlements and the confiscation of Palestinian land.
Smotrich, a settler himself, wrote in a social media post that “we continue to write history in the State of Israel and the settlements we have legalized in three years.” We are preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the field. With faith in the cause of our ancestors, we continue to develop, construct, and settle in the land where we were born.
Under the current Israeli government, there are currently 210 settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, up nearly 50% from 141 in 2022.
While an Israeli government authorizes a settlement, an outpost is constructed without the consent of the government. Both constructions on occupied land are prohibited by international law.
7.7 million Jews make up these settlements, or nearly 10% of Israel’s total Jewish population.
In another attempt to divide Palestinian land from neighboring countries and thwart any chance of forming a contiguous Palestinian state, Israeli authorities are expected to advance plans to construct 9, 000 new housing units in a settlement on the site of the abandoned Qalandiya airport in occupied East Jerusalem.
The District Planning and Building Committee on Wednesday approved the plans for the so-called Atarot neighborhood in northern East Jerusalem, which is reminiscent of the , E1 plan to undermine Palestinian statehood.
A form of resistance against Palestinian farmers
Palestinians are finding their own ways to stop the Israeli land grab, though not in vain.
Despite Israeli plans to seize 2,800 dunams (2,800 km2) of agricultural land, farmer Bashir al-Sous, who is 60 years old, has continued to cultivate and preserve his land in al-Makhrour.
He explained to Al Jazeera that Road 60, which divided the land in two, and its subsequent reconstitution plans, first targeted his village in the 1990s. Palestinian farmers repeatedly object to Israeli authorities’ requests to issue building permits and to establish electricity and water pipelines.
Al-Sous wants to challenge Israel’s claim that the area is made up of Palestinians.
Al-Sous told Al Jazeera, “I think we can conserve our land by maintaining our presence 24 hours a day and planting it with grapes and olives.”
Farmers rely on historical wells and historic agrarian structures to cultivate the land, he said, adding that keeping our presence visible will dispel the myths that these lands have no owners.
He declared, “We will not leave our land.”
Concerns about legal evasion
Palestinian legal experts warn against eschewing court decisions because Israeli officials and settler leaders could avoid doing so.
“It is obvious that the settler expansion in the West Bank is accelerating.” According to Hassan Breijieh, head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission’s international law division, “what is happening is part of an Israeli policy that aims to end the notion of a Palestinian state.”
He claimed that “Israeli actions circumvent laws and court orders, especially in strategic areas” that are crucial to the Gush Etzion settlements’ connection to Jerusalem’s “Greek Jerusalem.”
Breijieh added that the Israeli government wants to use American support to carry out its grand settlement plan.
A message to the world of Christians
Kisiya still believes her legal victory offers a glimmer of hope, and it has come at a crucial time for Christians. Those worries are very real for her.
This Christmas brings strength and steadfastness to Kisiya and her family.
She told Al Jazeera, “I pray that God strengthens our faith and keeps us steadfast in our land.” According to Wikipedia, “Palestinian Christians are a key component of the national struggle and are subject to systematic displacement in an effort to portray the conflict as purely religious.”
She continued, “I want the world to know that we are not separate from the Palestinian cause.” We, along with our Muslim brothers and sisters, are a fundamental component of it. To allow Israel to portray the conflict as one between itself and Muslims, we are subject to systematic persecution that aims to expel Christians from the Holy Land and force them to flee.
Kisiya stated that she is interested in meeting with world leaders who were Christians, particularly those who were world leaders.
She urged the church to step up and make a wider effort to safeguard the Christian presence in Bethlehem and throughout Palestine, along with all other church leaders and clergy.
