Some amazing people I have had the privilege of meeting

Despite the risk of sounding patronizing or fake, I would like to say that every time I travel to Palestine, I find amazing people, people who inspire me by their courage and resilience and moral fortitude. There are many such people I have met in Susya and elsewhere in the West Bank, these are only two of them.

 The man in the photo above is Nasser Al Nawaja. The co-ordinator of Susya's resistance to the demolition, he has a very powerful, yet tragic, story.

Nasser was born in Susya, and has experienced the Israeli Army's cruel policy of home demolitions many times. After the first demolition in 1986, some one hundred families from the original Susya left to Yatta. Nasser's family remained. 

In 2001, when Nasser was a youth, one evening an Israeli settler from Susya was murdered by some Palestinians who came in from Yatta. Although Nasser and the people of his village had nothing to do with the murder, their homes were destroyed. Nasser and other men in the village, including an elderly man, were arrested at six the following morning, and handcuffed and beaten by soldiers and police. Then the settlers came, and were allowed to beat them also.

It didn't help that prior to the murder of the settler in 2001, two villagers from Susya were murdered by Israeli settlers, one in 1991 and the other in 1993. One of the men who was murdered was Nasser's uncle. While the killers of the settlers were tracked down and killed by the Israeli Army, the man who murdered Nasser's uncle got six months in prison.

After receiving his beating and watching the homes of his people destroyed yet again, Nasser says he began to hate Jewish people. He said at this point in his life, he could have easily joined an armed group. 

However, soon afterwards he met Jewish activists from Rabbis for Human Rights, and other Israelis who began coming to his village and opposing the demolitions and other crimes of the settlers and Army. 

His feelings changed, and he realized that the monsters who persecuted him and his people do not represent most or all Jews or Israelis. Nasser told me that now, he has as many Jewish as he has Palestinian friends. He is also committed to peaceful struggle for the rights of his people, and has rejected using violence, despite what has been done to him and the village. 

The stress Nasser faces is enormous.

His people are facing the wholesale destruction of their homes. If this plan succeeds, they will be driven off whatever remains of their land. 

The Army, realizing how successfully he has managed to raise awareness to what is happening to his people, are now trying to make him a new deal- they are offering him and the villagers a plot of land that would be 1/6 of the territory of Susya. The newly offered territory would be actually on land that is already owned by other Palestinians. How this would affect them or the people of Susya, was of course not considered by the military planners who are making this offer. While making such "generous" offers, the soldiers also tell Nasser that as soon as the internationals leave, they can easily destroy his village. 

The fate of some 350-400 people rests largely in Nasser's hands.

Despite the challenges he faces in his courageous work, he will not abandon his people.

I first heard about Rabbi Arik Ascherman  in 2007, when I read an article about an American rabbi who was beaten, along with other Jewish people, by men armed with sticks and pipes. The attackers weren't North American or European neo-nazis, but other Jewish people- or at least, people claiming to follow Judaism. They were Israeli settlers, who ambushed him and two other friends as they were escorting Palestinians who were about to plow their fields in the village of Bnei Na'im.

Arik immigrated to Israel in 1994, and in 1998 became executive director of a group called Rabbis for Human Rights. For him, to follow Judaism means to be working for justice. He has been standing in solidarity alongside Palestinians being persecuted by the settlers and Israeli Army ever since. 

RHR often sends out their Jewish volunteers to stay with and accompany Palestinian villagers who face home demolitions, and settler and army violence. Like ISMers and CPTers, some of the volunteers have paid a high price. A few have been severely beaten by settlers. Arik has not escaped this fate.

The rabbi is hated by many Israeli settlers, some of whom he told me would be very happy if he was dead. In their eyes, he is a traitor and a figure of derision and contempt. In the eyes of people who believe that working for justice is a good thing, he is a hero.

I have to admit that since I first heard about this guy, I was hoping to one day meet him in person. I thank God this came to be. It was a pleasure and privilege to hang out with him, although it was only for a few minutes- he was on his way to speak to more people, both Israelis and non-Israelis, to raise awareness to what is happening in the village.

This is a guy who loves God and loves other people. He is not a Christian, but in some ways he follows Jesus more closely than many people who claim to be followers of Christ today.