By Dalia Qumsieh, Founder and Director, Balasan Initiative for Human Rights – Palestine
Dalia Qumsieh has degrees in law, international law and international administration from universities in Palestine and France. Through legal advocacy, research and policy planning, her organization challenges unjust policies and sheds light on their effects on Palestinian people, especially the historic Christian communities of the Holy Land. Before founding Balasan, she worked as a senior legal advocacy consultant for various Palestinian human rights organizations. Qumsieh was a panelist on a webinar on Palestine that Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada had organized earlier this year. The opinions expressed in this article are her own.
As we approach Easter in the Holy Land that brought Christianity to the world, Palestine remains in unprecedented, unfathomable suffering. Palestinian Christians, the earliest Christian community, cannot celebrate Easter for the second year since the events of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza, as well as the intensified atrocities in the West Bank.
Even before the war in Gaza, celebrating Holy Week in Jerusalem was never easy―if possible, at all―for Palestinian Christians. The surge in atrocities over the last 18 months have exacerbated their suffering and stolen any joy and hope from this holy celebration.
Almost throughout Christian history, Bethlehem and Jerusalem remained spiritual twin cities and the cornerstone of Christian faith. But Israel has physically severed Bethlehem, the site of the Nativity, from Jerusalem, the site of the Resurrection. For over three decades, Israel’s geographical barriers (checkpoints and the annexation wall) and administrative restrictions (discriminatory ID and permit systems) have curtailed Palestinians’ freedom within and access to Jerusalem, with all its spiritual, religious, and historical significance. Yet, the city is easily accessible for all Israelis, even those residing illegally in settlements on occupied Palestinian territory in flagrant breach of international law.
Easter in the Holy Land: no access to Jerusalem
In the best-case scenario, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem wishing to visit Jerusalem during Easter, must apply for a “permit” from the Israeli military that is limited in duration and can be denied or revoked arbitrarily, at any time. As part of the degrading application process, Palestinians must submit personal information and phone data through Al-Munaseq, an Israeli military-developed mobile app. Responses to applications are often automated, without a possibility to appeal.
If a permit is granted, Palestinians must cross a designated checkpoint, enduring humiliation and danger just to reach Jerusalem. There, additional challenges await, including heavy Israeli police restrictions on religious celebrations and frequent assaults on worshippers, documented year after year. This system alienates indigenous Christians from their holy sites, erodes their centuries-old traditions and limits their ability to practice their faith. As a result, many Palestinian Bethlehemites, despite living very close by, have never celebrated Easter in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, pilgrims from across the globe can and do celebrate Easter in Jerusalem.
Easter in the Holy Land: what to celebrate?
The inability to access Jerusalem is not the only thing that mars the joy of Easter in the Holy Land. Israel’s atrocious war in Gaza has killed over 50,000 Palestinians; injured over 111,000; displaced millions; and destroyed the entire Gaza Strip. A deliberate starvation policy has left famine looming over the Strip. Palestinian Christians in Gaza have been killed as they sought refuge in their churches. Their churches, including St. Porphyrius, one of the oldest in the world, have been bombed and destroyed. Moreover, church-affiliated institutions, including a major hospital, were also bombed and destroyed, killing hundreds of patients and refugees.
As the war raging in Gaza seized global attention, Israel pushed its decades-long interest in annexing the West Bank. As such, the West Bank has become a heavily militarized zone, with surging settlement construction, settler violence and severe movement restrictions. Israeli military incursions into Palestinian towns have increased, with frequent night raids, mass arrests and reports of detainees subjected to torture that sometimes even results in death.
Well before October 7, 2023 was a record year of human rights violations in the West Bank in terms of cases of unlawful killings of Palestinians and illegal settlement expansions. Violations have escalated dramatically since. The UN has recorded an unprecedented acceleration of land confiscation and settlement expansion. Some new settlements have even been established as a form of collective punishment or in retaliation against international recognition of Palestinian statehood. For example, parts of the Al-Makhrour Valley, of a UNESCO World Heritage site that is one of the last remaining green spaces in Bethlehem, have been seized for settlement expansion. Since the present conflict in Gaza began, Israeli authorities have confiscated 52,000 dunams (over 12,800 acres) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Movement across the West Bank is now severely restricted, with nearly 900 military checkpoints and barriers hindering every aspect of daily life. Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures have surged compared to previous years, and new measures that facilitate and expedite demolitions have been adopted. Taking advantage of the war in Gaza, Israeli settlers—backed and protected by the military—have escalated efforts to expand settlements and expel Palestinians, launching an average of four attacks per day. These violent attacks involving home demolitions, arson and property seizures and the destruction of the rural economy that they have engendered, have forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians from their communities. Meanwhile, Israel’s minister of national security has openly facilitated the arming of settlers, leading to the formation of at least 800 new armed militias.
Over 10,000 Palestinians arrested since October 7, 2023, are imprisoned in horrific conditions, with testimonies of extreme torture emerging. In cities like Jenin and Tulkarem, Israeli military operations have already led to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, the destruction of 100 homes and critical infrastructure, and the forced displacement of 40,000 people.
Annexation: de facto and de jure
This escalation reflects an accelerated push for annexation, which is strictly prohibited in international law. While Israel’s policies have long been de facto annexationist, recent developments suggest a shift toward making it official. Many bills have been advanced to expedite the process, including one allowing Israelis to directly purchase land in the West Bank, inside what is recognized as occupied territory, which is manifestly illegal. This law would entrench settler control of Palestinian land, making displacement irreversible.
Another Israeli bill proposes to annex 119,000 dunams (nearly 30,000 acres) of land on 29 settlements in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho with 180,000 settlers. Besides robbing Palestinians’ land and resources and destroying their economy, such moves destroy the viability of a Palestinian state. They serve one purpose: finalizing annexation.
Whither international law?
Israel’s policies in the entirety of the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law. Meticulous evidence across the decades, and multiple UN bodies and international NGOs have reached the same conclusion. Currently, Israel is being accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for its prime minister and former defence minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In its July 2024 advisory opinion, the ICJ had also concluded that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, is unlawful and must cease immediately. It also highlighted the responsibility of the international community and the steps they must take to this end, including exerting diplomatic and legal pressure on Israel to comply with international law.
Israel persists in its unprecedented oppression with impunity because of the world’s failure to uphold international law, morality and fundamental human rights. These are not abstract ideals. Their violation not only causes misery in Palestine but also threatens justice and stability everywhere by emboldening those who seek absolute power.
The precarious Christian presence
Like all Palestinians who struggle to remain in their homeland, Christians in the West Bank live under the oppressive Israeli occupation that controls all aspects of their lives and deprives them fundamental rights, safety, dignity and freedom.
The world’s oldest Christian community pays a hefty price for certain misguided ideologies. Basing unconditional support for Israel in Christian belief, for instance, directly enables injustices against all Palestinians, including Christians. This reasoning, often inadvertently deeply racist, harms Palestinian Christians and threatens the centuries-old Christian presence that is indigenous to the Holy Land with erosion.
For Palestinian Christians, this toxic ideology means the continuation of the systems of oppression that forcefully uproot them from their lands. It means being unable to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem; facing attacks on their churches and clergy; and watching their sacred traditions and communities disappear. It has justified the destruction of ancient Christian sites; the displacement of families who have lived there for generations; and the loss of Bethlehem’s last open spaces to expanding settlements.
Easter in the Holy Land: a time for Canadian Christians to make a stand
Faith communities in Canada have a moral responsibility to stand for international legitimacy and to ensure that their churches align with international law.
For Christians worldwide, Easter represents renewal, hope and the triumph of justice over suffering. But, for Palestinian Christians, it has become a time of erasure and exclusion. Faith leaders and religious communities must speak out against this injustice and the ideologies that enable it. Churches, congregations, and Christian organizations must advocate for the respect of humanity and international law.
We Christians of the Holy Land urge you, as people of faith and conscience, to ensure that the representatives you elect in the coming elections uphold Canada’s commitment to human rights and support the international legal and political consensus that opposes illegal settlement and annexation.
Make this Easter a time not only of reflection, but of action. Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unlawful and must be dismantled. The time to stand for justice is now.
