Holy Land Trust

Holy Land Trust is an organization in Bethlehem that seeks to strengthen the Palestinian community focusing on non-violent methods. I had the opportunity to visit Holy Land Trust two weeks ago and talk with Sami Awad, the organizations founder and director. Sami Awad started Holy Land Trust (HLT) in 1998 shortly after he returned from the United States, where he studied for his Master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at American University in Washington, DC. When Sami Awad returned from the US, he saw that the situation was getting worse for Palestinians. He asked himself many questions: What can be done to strengthen the Palestinian for the future? How can we provide hope in a situation that is becoming more hopeless? What can be done to move out of the mindset of victimization that seems to be growing in Palestinian society? From these questions, Sami came up with the idea to create Holy Land Trust.

Holy Land Trust currently runs four main programs which aim to address the political situation for Palestinians and strengthening the Palestinian community and leaders for the future. Each program was created to address a specific issue facing Bethlehem and the Palestinian community.

1. The first issue is the Occupation, in which Palestinians live under Israeli military rule. In asking, how do we resist an occupation that is unjust in a non-violent way and also, how do we prepare for the future when the occupation is over, Holy Land Trust came up with the Non-violence Programs. These programs include trainings and seminars in non-violent methods and demonstrations which offer Palestinians to make their voice heard in a non-violent manner. HLT has created a curriculum for a four day training in non-violence, which focuses not on political issues, but non-violence in everyday communal relationships. This curriculum attempts to explain the true meaning of non-violence, which is not passively accepting one's situation, or focusing only on negotiations, but calls for resistance to injustice which a person or community may face. This curriculum is given out to schools throughout Bethlehem who use it to teach and empower their children.

2. Another issue facing Palestinians is the lack of a strong leadership that is committed to looking toward a better future. The Making the Impossible Possible Campaign, seeks to offer training to leaders in the Palestinian community. They focus on enabling leaders to think in a non-linear way, thus liberating them from excuses and empowering them to create a better future. Often Palestinian (as well as Israeli) leadership is focused on the past. Both sides linger on the pain of the past instead of looking for ways to create a better future that deals with the political reality today. HLT is trying to build a leadership that will focus on building a better future, than dwelling on the past. This program trains not only people who desire to become leaders, but works with those who are already in leadership positions in the Palestinian community. They are currently working with 80 leaders and will have 120 leaders in the program starting next October.

3. Thirdly, the Palestinian community is affected by a western based media, which often provides a biased view within the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The creation of the Palestine News Network (PNN) address this issue by providing local and international news. PNN offers news to an international audience which gives voice to the Palestinian community and emphasizes the non-violent movements taking place in Palestine. The goal is to offer a balanced view of the political situation and give a more accurate picture of Palestinians to an international audience that often receives a biased view. PNN also provides local news, because many Palestinians focus on the main headlines of news about their Political situation and not about the small things that are happening in their community. Offering local news helps people be more proud of the achievements of their community and brings the community together. PNN gives Palestinians of Bethlehem a place to express their joys and frustrations.

4. Lastly, Holy Land Trust began to look for ways to create awareness among internationals of the political situation for Palestinians. The Travel and Encounter Program encourages people from around the world to come and visit Palestine for themselves. This is the best way internationals can get an accurate view of what is really going on in Israel/Palestine. Through these programs HLT organizes tours for any groups that would like to come and visit the Holy Land, including pilgrimage sites, as well as events to learn about the political situation. The Summer Encounter program is offered to college age students to come live in Palestine for 1 -3 months in the summer. During this program, they live with a Palestinian family, study Arabic, visit various places in Palestine, and hear speakers talking about the political situation. As a part of this program, HLT organizes to rebuild one house per year that has been demolished by the Israeli authorities. They bring in internationals to come and build the house themselves.


Holy Land Trust does not align itself with a particular political solution (Two-State, Binational, etc.). They do not believe that it is a particular political scenario that will create change in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, but how people view the other side. They believe that both sides need to recognize the others' right to live here. They need to recognize the pain of the other and take responsibility for alleviating this pain. A peaceful political situation will only come when the real issues of the conflict are dealt with and healed. HLT's commitment to non-violence is a method to eliminate the Israeli leadership's excuse of security against Palestinian violence. Non-violence is the only way to create equality, respect, and trust and move forward, instead of focusing on the past.

Sami Awad spoke at Bethlehem Bible College's International Conference. He addressed a Palestinian approach to the Holocaust. Similar to many Palestinians I have met, before a few years ago, Sami did not talk much about the Holocaust. He looked at it as a justification for what is now happening to the Palestinians and wondered why the Jewish people were now doing the same to us. Through his years in non-violence work, he began to think this was not the healthiest attitude, but did not have a language in which to deal with the issue of the Holocaust.

A few years ago, however, he went on a "bearing witness" retreat to Auschwitz and his attitude changed. He learned that most Israeli children learn about the Holocaust and go on pilgrimages to former concentration camps. However little or much each Israeli was affected personally, they all learn about the devastation that occurred to the Jewish community and grow up with a fear of this ever happening again. The whole world has yet to offer actual healing for what happened during the Holocaust. Apologies are given over and over, but real forgiveness has not happened. Guilt over the Holocaust has caused countries involved to simply give billions of dollars to the State of Israel, instead of facing the difficult task of creating healing. Sami offers a revolutionary view that asks Palestinians to move beyond the idea that they are now the victims of the aftermath of the Holocaust and says that Palestinians must become responsible for it. They must honor and recognize what happened to the Jewish people, and offer them the assurance that this will not happen again. In this way, they can alleviate the fear that is causing the State of Israel to justify their actions against Palestinians under the auspice of security. The only way to overcome this fear and assure Israelis that a Holocaust will not happen again is through non-violent methods. He often says: "Fear is the greatest manipulator of human behavior." Palestinians and Israelis can reverse this idea by realizing the equality of the other and work towards building a better future based on the common respect of each other's equality and value as human beings.


For more information on Holy Land Trust please visit: www.holylandtrust.org.
To read Sami Awad's speech from Bethlehem Bible College's Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, please click HERE.