Update from Daoud Nassar
Dear Friends:
Greetings from the hills of Bethlehem, where the Tent of Nations continues to live out its mission under occupation—surrounded by settlements, locked gates, flying checkpoints, and daily restrictions that try to suffocate hope. It feels at times like we are in an open-air prison. And yet, like the Apostle Paul who wrote letters of strength and encouragement from his prison cell, we too lift our voices to empower others even from this place of hardship.
We believe that even when we are physically confined, our spirit cannot be imprisoned. The Tent of Nations continues to inspire and empower people through our steadfast commitment to nonviolence, creativity, and faith. Our farm is a living testimony; we continue to cultivate the soil, plant seeds of hope in dry and difficult ground and prepare the long path for justice.
This struggle is not just our story; it is a message of resilience for anyone feeling overwhelmed by injustice. Your active solidarity gives us strength, and together, we are part of a movement that proclaims hope in the face of despair.
Let us continue to walk together, sowing love where there is hatred, faith where there is doubt, and hope where there is despair. Thank you for accompanying us on this very long journey for justice, with faith, love and hope.
With gratitude and determination,
Daoud Nassar
Director, Tent of Nations
-People Building Bridges-
https://tentofnations.com/
www.fotonna.org
https://www.facebook.com/
A Message from the FOTONNA Board of Directors
A group of seven of us from Northwest Washington returned last month from a solidarity trip to Bethlehem and Ramallah in the West Bank to meet with a dozen Palestinian leaders. We spent the last ten days helping as volunteers at the Tent of Nations, hoeing around olive and almond trees, watering several hundred newly planted olive trees and grape vines, and placing a grass barrier around the base of the trees to help keep in some moisture.
Having grown up working on my family’s multigenerational farm in the eastern part of Washington State, I had a natural draw to and interest in the Tent of Nations, on my first visit to the Nassar family farm, ten years ago. Picking olives on the farm in October of 2022 rekindled childhood memories of picking apples, cherries, and pears on my family farm.
Unlike on my family farm located in the desert of WA, where water flowed from a local mountain reservoir through a canal and pipes to the trees, Palestinian farmers in the West Bank are denied access to running water and are not allowed to tap into the water aquifer beneath their land. Rainwater is collected in cisterns and each tree is watered by hand. We used a very small amount of water each day to ensure the trees would survive and that the water would last through the long, dry summer season.
Our group from Washington worked with three other friends from the U.S., three from Holland, and one from Colombia. Despite the fact that one of our group members was named Katt and another named Muis (pronounced “mouse”), we worked well together. We had all journeyed to the farm to work in solidarity with the Nassar family. Daoud’s brother Daher, said to me on the last day we were on the farm, “You bring us power and strength to keep going.” That is certainly one of the reasons we were there. We were, however, drawn there by the power and strength the Nassars and other Palestinians give us. I know thousands of people of faith all around the world and none inspire me as profoundly as the Palestinian friends I’ve met. It is their persistence, their resistance, their witness to sumud in which I see Jesus and justice – calling us to keep hope alive. The Nassars’ faith and tenacity encourage me, strengthen my faith, and compel me to work for justice and peace.
I want to express my deep thanks to all who have volunteered at the Tent of Nations. When the time is right and you feel any nudges in that direction, consider both the encouragement you would give and the inspiration you would receive by joining hearts and hands (and hoes) with the Nassar’s. It’s one way to hold up a light in the darkness and say, “You will never erase hope from this world; you will never extinguish good.”
Finding Strength in Solidarity,
Charlie Lewis
Chair of the FOTONNA Board of Directors
Volunteering at Tent of Nations, 2025
Palestinians on our Minds
A Report by Judy and Dana Wright
In May of this year we travelled to Palestine for the third time, mostly to be with friends. We wanted them to know we are both with them and for them in these trying days. More specifically we wanted our friends—the Nassar family—to know that we love them and support them in the midst of the growing precariousness of their efforts to keep their land. Daoud told us that his family is the only Christian presence left in their region to bear witness to the Gospel. Though we heard increasing sadness and resignation in the Nassar family’s description of their circumstances, we also heard Daoud express “faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction concerning things not seen” (Heb. 11:1) in his affirmation, “WE ARE STILL HERE.”
Working with the family on the farm for about ten days gave us a feel for what it is like for faithful Palestinian Christians to live in the present, without losing their humanity. We felt firsthand some of their hardships: the limited availability of water, the increasingly difficult access to the farm, including more checkpoints, breaches in the perimeter fences, the presence of illegal settlements surrounding the farm, settlements that enjoy all modern conveniences essentially denied Palestinians, military helicopters flying overhead presumably for the purpose of killing in Gaza, the indifference of the world to their plight and in particular the collaboration of the United States. The enduring motto of the farm stands out as a declaration of the Pax Christi—WE REFUSE TO BE ENEMIES.
Working with the family on the farm for about ten days gave us a feel for what it is like for faithful Palestinian Christians to live in the present, without losing their humanity. We felt firsthand some of their hardships: the limited availability of water, the increasingly difficult access to the farm, including more checkpoints, breaches in the perimeter fences, the presence of illegal settlements surrounding the farm, settlements that enjoy all modern conveniences essentially denied Palestinians, military helicopters flying overhead presumably for the purpose of killing in Gaza, the indifference of the world to their plight and in particular the collaboration of the United States. The enduring motto of the farm stands out as a declaration of the Pax Christi—WE REFUSE TO BE ENEMIES.
We were deeply moved that our presence on the farm meant so much to the Nassar family and to other friends in Bethlehem that we have acquired over the years. We were repeatedly told that our presence with them encouraged them and strengthened them to continue fighting for their dignity and their place. “God is using you to give us life” summarizes their message to us. And of course, God is using our Palestinian brothers and sisters to help us know and experience what living faith, hope, and love really look like. Our lives have become so much more meaningful and full through our association with these beloved people. We are not just concerned for Palestine in an abstract sense. We are concerned for specific Palestinians who love others amid their own suffering. We define love, that is agape, to be “the power that takes non-possessive delight in the particularity of the other”—the way God loves us. This power is wholly absent from and systemically undermined by Israel’s Apartheid policies. But agape remains central to the Gospel’s politics. And it is this power perfected in weakness that we experienced on the Tent of Nations farm. Would that the church of Jesus Christ in the West could learn to live out this Gospel–revealed love in her witness to the nations, in order to make and keep human life human in every corner of the world. Tent of Nations is a living parable of this reality.
In the photo above, this tree at Tent of Nations symbolizes for us the cruciform people who refuse to be enemies (Photo by Dana and Judy Wright)
For Gaza: A Re-Imagining of Psalm 46
by Rabbi Brant Rosen
This poetic version of Psalm 46 comes from my blog “Jewish Prayers for Gaza,” which includes refashioned liturgies and Psalms to provide a prayerful response to Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
This new version takes its cue from the theme of God as a “refuge and a stronghold” during a time of trouble, God’s power even greater than the mightiest “nation” and “kingdom,” and a source of justice that will “put a stop to wars throughout the earth.” These words, needless to say, have a deep and powerful resonance in the current moment. Although I wrote it specifically for Gaza, I believe it could easily be applied to the spread of militarization and authoritarianism in any number of places throughout the world.
For the people of Gaza,
for the refugees,
for the dispossessed and displaced,
a song:
We will not look away
we see you everywhere
even as the bombs rain down
even as the earth gives way beneath you,
even as they drive you from your homes.
There is a river whose streams
will one day bring rejoicing back
to your land,
morning will dawn and light
will come streaming in to every home.
This nation that rages so mercilessly against you
soon will break under the weight of its own
overwhelming might
and you will find
shelter and protection
at long last.
For there is a Power far mightier
than even the mightiest military,
bombs and tanks and drones
will be shattered into dust,
governments held to account
for their crimes against you.
I will bring you into the stillness
of my embrace
and you will know that I am with you
I will lift you up among the nations
I will return you in dignity and in love.
The One who abides with you
through this endless night
will accompany you through all harm
and bring you safely home.
June 17, 2025
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Tzedek Chicago
FOTONNA Advisory Council Member
Thanks for your Generosity!
Thank you for your generous support, spiritually and financially, for the Nassar family. Financial gifts can be made securely online by credit card: open the “Make a Contribution” page on Fotonna’s website, then click on the “Click to Contribute” button. If you prefer to give by a check, download the donation form here and mail to 3436 East Ave S, La Crosse, WI 54601.
Gifts for Trees: gifts are especially welcomed to support the purchase and care of new trees for the Tent of Nations Farm. Each $30 gift supplies a new tree that will be lovingly watered, fertilized, and tended by the Nassars and guests on the farm over the following two years, until it has grown enough to thrive on its own.
Note that donations given directly to FOTONNA for Tent of Nations are not tax deductible under US tax law. However, tax deductible donations of $250 or more can be made through our fiscal sponsor, Tree of Life Educational Fund: click here. For more information about donating, please visit our FOTONNA website Donations page.
Questions? Contact: Beth Moore, FOTONNA’s Finance Co-Director, ebmoore1@live.com.
We are Grateful to be on the FOTONNA road with you!
Thank you for all the ways that you are leaning into the wind, walking with the Nassars on their “journey for justice with faith, love, and hope in action.” Your prayers, advocacy work, financial gifts, and presence on the farm as visitors and volunteers are deeply appreciated by Daoud and his family.
Heidi Saikaly and Joan Deming
FOTONNA Steering Committee Communications Team