Walls and Prayers

Clemence is a 65 year old widow who lives on a hill in the north part of Bethlehem in an apartment in the family compound of her deceased husband.  Three other families also live in the family dwelling.  She taught for years at the Lutheran School in Beit Sahour, just outside of Bethlehem.  Today she is retired and teaches from her home.

When she looks out of her windows to the south, she sees the house of her brother-in-law.  And, she used to look out to the North and the West and see the family olive groves and almond trees and vineyards on what had been family land for generations.  Today she only sees The Wall.  One day at her kitchen table she told me, “Our land was our security, we took care of the land and the land took care of us.  But now we have nothing.  I used to never have to turn the lights on in the day, but now because of The Wall, we have to use the lights.”

Part of the land that was supposed to take care of Clemence and offer security in her old age was confiscated to build the Separation Wall.  The Wall is many kilometers from the Green line, but separates the Gillo Settlement (which is illegal according to International Humanitarian Law) from Bethlehem.  The Wall in this area is also used to annex the area around Rachel’s Tomb into Israel.  The family land that was not used for the building of The Wall is now on the Jerusalem side and Clemence and the family can no longer access the land. And because of this they will lose it.  They can not even go to see what is happening to it.

This story is repeated over and over and over all over the West Bank.  The exact details vary, but the story is the same—access is denied; land is lost.  Then the land is annexed into a Settlement.  The Settlements grow, and grow and the land left to the Palestinians shrinks and shrinks.

And widows like Clemence struggle to keep body and soul together—teaching Arabic lessons to people like me.



Sometimes when I would walk up towards the wall to go to Clemence’s house for my lesson, the soldier at the car checkpoint would start shouting at me to go away and wave his gun at me. I would wave my arms around to indicate where I was going.  And while he shouted at me, I would turn into her gate.

On Friday evenings several of the Sisters from the Caritas Hospital and the Brothers from the Bethlehem University would join Clemence for a prayer vigil at The Wall and many of the Ecumenical Accompaniers in Bethlehem would join them.  On these days sometimes the soldiers were nice and said nothing.  Other times they would shout and threaten, but we would go and walk along The Wall while the rosary was said in Arabic and English.

But, it is going to take more than a few people repeating the rosary to end the injustice being done to Clemence and so many other people on the West Bank.  Please do what you can to stop the Settlement expansions like those just announced for Gillo.  Increasing Settlements is not the Road Map to Peace.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The Green Gate on the right hand side of the street is the gate to Clemence's house.
The big gray gate in the wall was usually open with a soldier standing guard.







The view to the North from Clemence's front door.



The Friday Night Prayer Vigil along The Wall.

The Prayers would end at this painting of the Virgin Mary.

A view of The Wall at Rachels's Tomb.