News from Tent of Nations near Bethlehem, Palestine

 

[Editor’s Note-  The three following writings are from the founder and director of Tent of Nations, an Ameritus member of the FOTONNA (Friends of Tent of Nations North America) Board of Directors, and a volunteer who served in March at TON (Tent of Nations) in that order.  All of these writings are from the Friends of Tent of Nations Newsletter, March 2026.  Read to learn more about TON]

 

Update from Daoud Nassar, Director

 Dear Friends of Tent of Nations,

 At the Tent of Nations, we continue our journey sustained with faith, perseverance, and deep trust in God’s guidance, even in the midst of uncertainty and ongoing challenges. Each day calls us to patience and steadfastness. We have still received no response regarding the re-registration of our land. The continuous delays seem designed to exhaust us, to make us feel that there is no way forward. We refuse to lose hope but remain strong and believe that justice will come.

 As you know, the Supreme Court has ruled that roads built illegally on TON private property must be removed. We have brought our case before the Supreme Court to enforce this ruling.  We have recently learned that the hearing scheduled for March 18 has been postponed to November. This delay weighs heavily on us; still we continue to place our trust in God and in the power of justice.

The reality at the Tent of Nations is changing rapidly. The outpost next to the farm continues to expand. Every day, heavy machinery works directly beside our fence. New facts are being created, and the pressure on the land and on our presence grows. The new land law they are attempting to implement threatens to make life even more difficult for many people and may displace families from the land that has sustained them for generations.

 There are moments when the burden feels overwhelming. However, our faith reminds us that we are not alone. The assurance that God walks with us in this struggle gives us strength to continue believing that justice and truth will prevail.

  In recent days, the developments in our region have once again reminded us how fragile daily life can be. However, we remain convinced that wars, hatred, and division must not have the final word. Our hope continues to be rooted in the belief that justice, peace and human dignity are stronger than fear and that life is stronger than death.

 We continue to do what we can to keep our hope alive, and to care for the land. Five volunteers are currently at the farm; their presence in this very challenging time brings energy, encouragement, and solidarity.

 We continue to pray and work for the day when our region can live in true justice, peace, and dignity. Until that day comes, we remain committed to doing whatever we can. Our work is rooted in the conviction that the land is a sacred gift entrusted to our care. Though circumstances around us may change, our calling remains the same, to bear witness to resilience, dignity, and compassion.

 We draw strength from prayer, from the solidarity of our friends, and from the deep hope planted within our hearts. This hope allows us to look forward to the future with trust, believing that even in the darkest moments, new life continues to grow.

 Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, and for standing beside us as we continue to plant the seeds of hope. Thank you for walking with us on this very long journey for justice with faith, love, and hope.

 Blessings and Salaam,

 

Daoud Nassar

Director, Tent of Nations

-People Building Bridges-

https://tentofnations.com/

www.fotonna.org

https://www.facebook.com/tentofnations

 

A Message from the FOTONNA Board of Directors

By Bill Plitt

 

"Come and see, go and tell" is a Christian phrase derived from Matthew 28:6-7, where an angel tells women at Jesus' empty tomb to verify the resurrection ("come and see") and then share the news with the disciples ("go and tell"). It highlights a two-part mission of personal experience followed by evangelism. 

 

November 2006 – Interfaith Peace Builder Group Tour to Israel/Palestine

 

 For many of you, like myself, who have had the opportunity to travel to the “Holy Land” and ventured as far as the Tent of Nations/Nassar family farm (TON) just south of Bethlehem, you may have been startled by the contrast, as I was in 2006, between TON and the other “holy sites” we had visited. What I saw in the valley below the 100-acre farm, at nearly 3,000 feet and anchored through three generations, were settlers in small cities. This spoke volumes about the Occupation, which we had just spent ten days viewing. The family farm, registered in the Nassar family name nearly a century earlier, served as a portrait. You could see it all in one painting: guard towers, young Israeli soldiers with M-15’s, settler-only highways, isolated villages, roads blocking access to the markets in cities, huge boulders blocking road access to the farm. The scope of it all was breathtaking.

 

But what we saw, after trekking some distance on the boulder-laden dirt road to the farm, was to prove to be a life-changing experience for me, and perhaps you, too. There were visitors in trees harvesting olives with such obvious joy that the contrast to the past week of traveling in the darkness of the Occupation was disruptive to one’s vision; we could not believe our eyes! Soon, we would join them in the harvest, and later we would hear the Nassar family story around a delicious meal and a blazing fire which warmed our tired bodies from the labor and the cold, north-November winds. Those cold winds were also blowing through the tents where we spent the night, but we were still savoring what we had experienced that day.

 

The family story was not one of victimhood, as we had heard at previous sites, but, instead, it was one of hope. “Loving your neighbors and refusing to be enemies,” a mantra written in stone at the entrance to the farm, set the tone for the two days we were there with other internationals. Some of them had also been smitten and were returning to work on the farm planting trees. This was a special place, indeed.  But beyond this were the Nassar family members, including three wonderful children, their parents and uncle and aunt, who themselves were humble people of the land, faithful in their gift of that land, and dedicated to non-violence in spite of their forced isolation. Of the twenty-some sites we had visited over the two weeks we were in Israel/Palestine, the Nassar story and the farm were the highlights for all of us who had shared this special moment. 

 

 It was so special for me that for the next 12 years or more, around the fall and winter seasons, I ran out of steam by sharing my experience with others. I needed to return to the farm (seven different trips) over those 12 years for renewed doses of hope in order to continue the journey I had been called to take with friends and fellow travelers.

 So, like those who had come to the tomb and found it empty, as promised in the ancient texts, I had “gone and seen” the light in the work of the Palestinian farmers, and I returned home “to tell” about what I had seen. How about you?

 Thankfully,

Bill Plitt

 Emeritus Board Member

 

 Volunteer at Tent of Nations

By Bill Davnie

26 February 2026

 Good morning from Tent of Nations. It’s a very good day for the farm – which is to say it’s raining, bringing always needed water for the fields and cisterns. We spent the last several days getting the newer grape vines weeded and the soil loosened, the better to take up any rain that might come. Daher has been plowing for the same reason. Daoud has been pruning the vines for summer growth, and coping with court cases and legal matters, as well as managing volunteers and contacts with international friends and supporters.

 For the volunteers, I suppose, it’s a little less good! It’s remarkable how chilly a brisk wind and 48 degrees can feel! The animals still need to be fed and watered, but we’re mostly inside, staying out of the rain and finding a little warmth from the wood fire in the family cave. It does mean time to catch up with emails and write messages home. Peter, a Dutch volunteer who arrived yesterday, is already getting a missive off to his circles in The Netherlands. I have not been that responsible!

 

This is day 11 of my stay. On arrival I was the eighth volunteer – seven Dutch, a Canadian, and me. At the moment, we are three Dutch, the Canadian, and me, with at least one more volunteer coming on Saturday.

 We all know we are here at Tent of Nations as protective presence, as well as working volunteers. Yet being at the farm is almost like a retreat. We aren’t entirely cut off from the world – phones and wi-fi function fine – but physical activity keeps our focus on the tasks at hand, and we are safely removed from the violence we read about on local websites and news sources. We pay attention to transit in and out of the farm, and the country. Are the checkpoints open for taxis? Will the buses take people to Jerusalem, or only from there? How was your experience with Israeli immigration? What caused the delay? The Monday I came there was apparently a building demolition that made the 30-minute trip stretch to an hour and a half, for example. Yesterday it was an alleged attack on a checkpoint.

 We do talk of the situation here. In the evenings some read Mark Braverman’s Fatal Embrace, and we exchange insights into Zionism, attitudes among peoples, and bemoan how little most people understand of the region. I’ve been struck by how the Nassar family’s commitment to the land, and more broadly Palestinians' rootedness, reminds me of Native Americans' sense of connection to the land, and how hard it is for modern, urban people to really grasp the depth of this connection. I’m thinking I need to read some Wendell Berry.

 

 Peace,

 Bill Davnie

Minneapolis

 

And now for a P.S. – I’m writing this on March 6. Life at Tent of Nations is “a little louder” than when I wrote before – as in emergency alerts on our phones, occasional sirens in the settlements that surround ToN, more planes overhead, and the occasional explosion of generally unknown source and location. We did see some dramatic aerial events on the first day -- but not near us! The farm remains a safe place, and a calm one, where we continue the needed farmwork and provide the protective presence we came to do.

Unfortunately, life in the West Bank has become tougher for Palestinian villages and people, as the Israeli military has increased road closures, arrests of people, issuing of demolition orders, and more, apparently taking advantage of the Iran war dominating the news. Palestinian news says much of that is in the northern West Bank, but our closest village, Nahhalin, has also had a lot of activity, and we are all concerned about what this may mean for the area.