“Love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience”

photo by AP

11 December 2005

Despite an Israeli checkpoint that prevented journalists from accessing the village, a peaceful march of one thousand people, Christians and Muslims, went forward on Sunday in the West Bank Village Aboud. The march was stopped by Israeli soldiers three hundreds meters from bulldozers digging up Abud’s land to construct the annexation barrier.

Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah led a short worship and then planted an olive tree, symbolically protesting the destruction of hundreds of trees by the construction of the annexation barrier. The route of the wall on Aboud’s land will de facto annex Bet Arye and Ofarin settlements together with 4000 Dunams (around 1000 Acres) of Aboud’s agricultural land to Israel. The march was joined by Israeli and international activists .

Patriarch Michel Sabbah addressed the crowd and the Israeli soldiers guarding the bulldozers:

“With our faith and love, we demand the removal of this Wall. We affirm that it is a mistake and an attack against our lands and our properties, a mistake and an attack against friendly relationship among the two people. (…) In your faith and your love you shall find a guide in your political actions and in resistance against every oppression. You may say that love is an unknown language to politics, but love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience, we shall make it possible!”

After the Patriarch’s departure, one hundred people stood in front of the soldiers singing slogans against the Wall. Israeli activist Jonothan Polack was arrested for trying to plant an olive tree.

photo by AP