Does the Land Grieve?
Amy Yoder McGloughlin, Conference Minister, Allegheny Mennonite Conference
On October 5, 2023, just two days before the Hamas attacks on Israel, followed by the disproportionate and ongoing retaliation of Gazans by Israel, I met with Hamdan Ballal in the South Hebron Hills community of Susiya. It was an accidental encounter – I was supposed to be meeting with someone else in the village – but our visit deeply affected me.
Hamdan and his mother invited my Community Peacemaker Teams delegation to join them in their modest dwelling. We drank tea and ate sweets, as one would expect in any Palestinian home, and we talked about their lives and experiences in this village that has been under constant threat of demolition for decades.
My colleague, Linda, a UCC pastor who shares my curiosity about the relationship Palestinians have to the land, asked Hamdan a question that broke our conversation open, beyond the typical storytelling I experience on a delegation. She asked, “Does the land grieve?” I watched as Hamdan’s eyes sparked with the joy of being asked a really good question, one he’d never been asked by a group like ours.
We talked about the deep relationship of land to Palestinians, especially those in these communities where land is how they feed their flocks, grow zaatar, and plant vegetables to feed their families. He showed us his community’s olive trees, and told stories about growing up in their shade, learning family stories as they harvested olives together.
Hamdan mentioned that he had finished producing a documentary, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But, as it turned out, he was one of the producers of the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land. I didn’t make the connection with our visit, until I saw the news of Hamdan’s beating by settlers who attacked Susiya, and his subsequent arrest by the Israeli Military on March 24th, just three weeks after he won the Hollywood award for a film about the region.
Hamdan’s film has the distinction of shining light onto the South Hebron Hills and Masafer Yatta. The international outcry against the settler and military project in this region has been heartening to residents, but it has also brought increased violence to their community.
Just a few days after the Oscar nominations were announced, another village, Tuba, was attacked in Masafer Yatta. Ali Awad, Tuba activist and resident, was targeted. His car, the only vehicle that could manage the inhospitable rocky terrain in the region, was set on fire by settlers, as was the food for the sheep. And two days later, the military came to arrest Ali. They zip tied his hands behind his back, threw him in the back of a military transport vehicle, and while his wrists bled, a soldier pressed a boot into his back.
Two weeks ago, another village in Masafer Yatta, Khalet Al Dabaa, was completely destroyed. Its tents and structures bulldozed, its caves decimated. That village is gone.
It is a risk for Hamdan and Ali and all the residents of the South Hebron Hills and Masafer Yatta to tell their story. And yet they continue to speak, to confront and to tell their stories. Because the land remembers, they remember, and the people and land are inextricably linked in a web of mutual care.
I get tired of telling these stories, and perhaps you get tired of reading them. But I take heart from the example of Hamdan and Ali. We have to keep telling the stories, demanding justice, and insisting on the humanity of Palestinians. “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9-10)
Remarkably, No Other Land, a film about the communities of Masafer Yatta that are being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army and settlers, has no United States distribution, despite winning an Oscar for best documentary feature film at the 97th Academy Awards. MennoPIN is making efforts to get it screened at MC USA‘s Convention in Greensboro, NC this summer.
Upcoming Events, Actions, and Resources
Each month, Voices from the Holy Land hosts an “Online Film Salon” with panelist discussion. Prior to the salon, registered attendees are encouraged to watch a curated list of short documentaries by Israeli, Palestinian, American, and European film makers on that month’s topic or theme such as Zionism, BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), and Silencing of Student Voices.
To find out more, watch recordings of previous salons, and/or register for next month’s salon, visit https://www.voicesfromtheholyland.org/
Voices From the Holy Land Film Series is sponsored and supported by a coalition of interfaith (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian) and interdenominational organizations nationwide whose members feel called by their faith to work for justice, human rights, and peace in the land that is holy to all three Abrahamic faiths.
Listen to a conversation about identity, faith and solidarity with Palestinian American Mennonite Michael George on Front Light’s latest episode. Michael serves on both the steering committees of MennoPIN and Mennonite Action.
The Interfaith Action for Palestine is bringing together a coalition of organizations to counter Christians United for Israel’s (CUFI) Annual Summit June 29 – July 1, 2025 in National Harbor, Maryland, and Washington DC. CUFI is the largest “pro-Israel” organization in the United States that promotes hawkish, Christian supremacist, and genocidal policies. Last year, hundreds were mobilized to disrupt CUFI’s supremacist agenda in powerful and creative ways. Challenging white Christian Nationalism is even more urgent this year. project of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), offers analysis, stories, and background information about Gaza.
The project seeks to raise awareness and provide resources for those wishing to organize in solidarity, take part in events and protests, engage elected officials, and work for an end to Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
Mennonite Palestine Israel Network
MennoPIN keeps you informed about Palestine/Israel through our monthly update, special alerts, calls to action, important resources and tour possibilities, all from an Anabaptist perspective. To find out more, please visit our website at www.mennopin.org
Feedback, responses, and suggestions for future updates can be submitted to info@mennopin.org
Steering Committee
Bob Atchison (Manhattan Mennonite Church, Manhattan, KS)
Lydia Brenneman (Lima Mennonite Church, Lima, OH)
Dave Janzen (Fellowship of Hope, Elkhart, IN)
Michael George (Landisville Mennonite Church, PA)
Jonathan Kuttab (Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist, Manheim, PA)
Dorothy Jean Weaver (Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA)
Zachary Murray (Mennonite Central Committee, Washington, DC)
Adam Ramer (Co-coordinator of Mennonite Action, New York, NY)
David Bluford (Rainbow Mennonite Church, Kansas City, KS)
Gretchen Merlot (Philadelphia, PA)
MennoPIN 