foton:uk

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your phone calls, your E-mails and your concerns about the situation of the Tent of Nations. It is wonderful to see people like you who are committed to support the Tent of Nation’s struggle for justice.

Our latest news was about the legal actions we took in order to stop the demolishing orders for our renovations and structures. We brought this case to the Israeli Supreme Court and our appeal to freeze the demolishing orders was accepted. This freeze was also because of the pressure that came from all over the world. Your E-mails and responses made a big difference; thank you so much for your solidarity. The Supreme Court gave the Israeli authorities a time limit of 60 days, through the 3rd of August, to comment on our protest. The 60 days limit passed over, and we didn’t hear yet anything from the Israeli Authorities.

The demolishing orders are now frozen. According to the law, the Israeli Authorities are not allowed to take actions and demolish our structures before the Supreme Court makes a decision about that. In order for the Supreme Court to decide, the Israeli Military Authority has to respond to our appeal against the demolishing orders. At the time the Military Authority responds to the Supreme Court, our Lawyer will receive a time limit to appeal against whatever the Israeli Military Authority is giving for reasons why to demolish our renovations and structures.

This process is going to take between one and two years before the Israeli Supreme Court will come to a decision. The whole process is going to cost us more than $15,000 for legal fees. We are going on and defending our rights legally, even if it is hard, long and costly. We hope and pray that, at the end, justice will prevail.

We would like to ask you to stay in touch with us and inform others about our case. I will let you know if and when actions may need to be taken from your side.

Please keep us in your daily prayers. Thank you so much for all your support and solidarity.

Blessings and Salaam,

Daoud

Daoud Nassar
Director
Tent of Nations

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Great news from the Tent of Nations!

Dear Friends of Tent of Nations all over the world,

Our Lawyer appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop the demolishing of our renovations which is planned to take place this coming Sunday or Monday. I believe, because of all the pressure and the reactions from all of you through writing letters to your governments and to the Israeli officers, the Supreme Court of Israel granted an injunction to stop the military from taking any demolishing actions until the Supreme Court takes a decision. The military authority was given 60 days time to send their objection to the Supreme Court. This means that we will have to go for a trial in the Supreme Court.

We, and with all your prayers and support and with the help of your advocacy letters, managed to freeze the demolishing orders and to bring this case to the Supreme Court. It is a victory for justice even if it is a small one for now but it is a victory.

I want to thank you for all your prayers, for the many E-mails we received from you and for the solidarity visits. I will keep you updated about the development of this case in front of the Supreme court.

Our efforts together made a difference.

Thank you for your friendship.

Blessings and Salaam,
Daoud

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June 1st Update – The appeal has been refused by the Israeli Military Authority and the demolitions are due to go ahead. Please contact your local MP, foreign office and Israeli embassy.

Dear Friends of Tent of Nations all over the world,

Two hours ago, I received a phone call from our Lawyers Mr. Sani Khoury and Mr. Jonathan Kuttab. they received a Fax from the Israeli Military Authority says that our Appeal against the demolishing orders of our renovations has been refused . They wanted to come today to demolish the renovations, but they gave us ” because of their generosity” another five days time, before coming to demolish those renovations. What can we do with five days time?!

At this moment, we have two options: the first one is to accept the situation as it is and just wait for the Israeli Military to come and destroy the place OR to continue the legal battle by bringing this case in front of the Supreme Court in Israel which might rule to freeze the demolishing orders until it takes a decision. Usually court cases like this will take a year or two, if the Supreme Court decides to freeze the demolishing orders. Bringing this case to the Supreme Court will cost us a lot of money and this will increase our financial burden.
We are defending our land from being confiscated for more than twenty years, we paid a lot for legal expenses, BUT without getting tired.

We are people who believe in Justice, we will continue our just struggle and will bring this case in front of the Israeli Supreme Court challenging the injustice we are facing. In the meanwhile we ask you to keep us in your prayers, to keep writing advocacy letters and to inform as many people as you can about our story. I am sure that our efforts together will make a difference. Thank you so much for this support and solidarity.

“But those who wait on the LORD, shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31).

Please find below the letter I received today from our Lawyer Mr. Sani Khoury.

Blessings and Salaam,
Daoud

–
Dear Mr. Nassar,

I would like to inform you that we received today a formal response from the Military Authorities denies our appeal against the demolition orders against the renovations that took place on your land. According to the Military Authorities they have decided to reject your appeal in light of the fact that your previous appeals against the demolition orders were rejected. As you are aware all of your previous requests to obtain a license were rejected using the excuse that “there is no current zoning plan in your area”. Zoning plans are submitted by the authorities themselves. In your case the authorities did not conclude any zoning plans for your area – indeed they stopped all zoning plans when it became clear that the Supreme Court would not confirm the confiscation of your land. When your land was being confiscated and given to the Newe Daniel settlement plans to build hundreds of building units were being set in place by the authorities themselves. When the confiscation was suspended and it became clear the land would not be given to the settlement, the zoning plans suddenly changed. In light of this fact you cannot under any circumstances obtain any license for any structure, building or renovation.

You have been given a “grace period” of five days before the demolition takes place.

The only action that can stop this is an injunction by the Supreme Court of Israel, which may or may not grant such an injunction under the circumstances.

Yours,
Sani

Please sign the petition here: www.ipetitions.com/petition/dahers_vineyard_demolitions

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Dear Friends of the Tent of Nations all over the world,

At 2.00 pm this afternoon, two officers from the Israeli Civil Administration guarded by Israeli soldiers came to our farm and gave us NINE demolition orders for nine structures we’ve built in the last few years without a building permit from the Israeli Military Authority. The demolition orders are for: tents, animals shelters, the metal roof in front of both old houses, the restrooms (shelters) , a water cistern, a metal container and 2 underground renovated cave structures. One officer was writing the demolition orders whilst the other was taking pictures with two cameras. Israeli soldiers were following them everywhere and pointing their guns on us.

The demolition orders were written in  Hebrew and I refused to sign them.  We have only 3 days to react against those demolition orders. The timing for delivering the demolition orders were plant properly and purposefully on Thursday, in order to make it difficult for us to try and stop the orders through the Israeli court within 3 days, because of the Jewish weekend (Friday and Saturday). The idea is to make it impossible for us to act quickly.  I have contacted our Lawyer and he will write an objection and send it to the military court on Sunday morning. We hope to get a paper from the court through our Lawyer on Sunday morning to stop the demolition orders.

We would like to ask you to be prepared and alert for actions, if anything might happen. We will keep you updated and will guide you for actions but please forward this email to your friends.

PLEASE be prepared for actions… Thank you for all your solidarity and support.

They are trying to destroy our spirit, but we are determined to resist and overcome the Evil with GOOD. Justice will prevail.

Blessings and Salaam,
Daoud

Sign the petition here: www.ipetitions.com/petition/dahers_vineyard_demolitions

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Palestinian Christian family counters harassment with openness

By Emma Halgren (*)

“A land is nothing without people, and people are nothing without a land.” That’s the maxim followed by Palestinian farmer Daoud Nassar. And when he speaks of the intimate connection between people and their land, he is talking from hard-won experience.

Read the full article at http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/palestinian-christian-fam.html

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TREE PLANTING CAMPAIGN
A tree for Tent of Nations to keep hope alive

Join us in planting 3000 Olive and other trees – let us together make Daher’s Vineyard more green.

Why do we plant trees?

• Planting trees is a sign of hope for peace and justice in our region.
• Planting trees is a symbol of solidarity with the people
• Planting trees is a symbol of life to the Tent of Nations project, which seeks to bring people of various cultures together to build bridges of understanding, reconciliation and peace.
• Planting trees is a way to keep Daher’s vineyard “the Nassar Land” green and prevent it from the danger of confiscation.

When do we plant trees? Beginning of January until the end of March every year.

What kind of trees are we planting? Beside olive trees – symbol of Peace, Prosperity and Wisdom – we are planting grapes, almonds, figs and others.

We invite you to participate in this tree planting campaign by sponsoring a tree at a cost of  £10 each.  You can donate online by going to www.foton.org.uk/donate Even better, we invite you to visit the Tent of Nations, and plant a tree yourself. We look forward to your support in keeping hope in Palestine alive.

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Greetings from Bethlehem.

It is something special to celebrate Christmas on the spot where the word became flesh and it is wonderful to be on the place where the Angels were singing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace”.

Before more than two thousand years, at the time when Jesus was born, the situation was not too much different than it is today, the small town of Bethlehem was under the Roman Occupation; the people were having a hard time, all corners, paths and roads of Bethlehem were full of Soldiers, who oppressed the life of the people and made it unbearable. During that difficult time and hopeless situation, the King of peace was born in Bethlehem and brought the message of Peace to all nations. In Luke chapter 2 we read, the Angel said to them: “Do not be afraid; for see –I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people”. King Herod tried to kill that message, he thought by killing all the children of Bethlehem, he would achieve that, but he couldn’t.  The message of Love and forgiveness is still living until today.

Today, Palestine is still under occupation not the Roman but the Israeli. Land has been destroyed; hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been uprooted from the soil for settlements expansion, for roads and for the Apartheid wall. Bethlehem is now surrounded by a wall and in order to come into the city to celebrate Christmas one has to cross through gates and check points that are guarded by military.  The Palestinian cities are totally disconnected from each other. People are frustrated and are disappointed from the peace process; the unemployment rate is about 55% or even more. People and especially youth are loosing their hope for peace, stability and for a better future.

People are frustrated and are living day by day and waiting for super power to solve our problems, some are even giving up their hope.

Our farm is still threatened to be confiscated for the expansion of the Israeli settlements. We are in the Israeli courts defending the land since 1991. We went and we are still going through many difficulties, dangerous situations and aggressions from the Israeli settlers who came many times uprooting olive trees and damaging our infrastructure. But we are people who believe in justice and we believe that the sun of justice will rise again.

We don’t want to react in a violent way, we are against violence. We don’t want to accept the injustice and we don’t want to resign and give up. On the opposite, we want our voices to be heard all over the world and we want people to listen to our message “We refuse to be enemies’. With this message we started the Tent of Nations on our farm as a way to resist the injustice in a non violent way. We want our frustration to be invested in a constructive way and acting instead of reacting. We wanted the farm to be a place for encounter and gatherings, for people from different Nations, cultures and religions to come together, to build bridges of understanding, of reconciliation and peace. This is the Tent of Nations that is building bridges not only between people and people, but also between people and land, since there will be no future for any nation without its land and also the land will never have a future without its nation.

The message of the King of Peace was much stronger than Herod and his soldiers; we believe that this message is still very strong today and will overcome all barriers; checkpoints and walls and will reach to comfort us, wherever we are.

We pray to God to bless you all and keep you in HIS loving care. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Please pray with us for peace, justice and reconciliation in the Holy Land.

We are looking forward to see all of you again.

Salaam and Blessings from

Daoud Nassar & family
Christmas 2008

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There are now some greetings cards available featuring images from Tent of Nations.

The cards come in 2 different designs and are blank inside so can be used as Christmas cards or for any other occasion.

Donations of £4 for a pack of 10 (supplied with envelopes). Email info@foton.org.uk to order.

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