AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — A group of Israeli Jews said Sabbath prayers on a late October Friday as the sun set in Al-Makhrour, a valley outside of Beit Jala in the West Bank. Nearby, Palestinian Muslims faced Mecca and said their own magrib prayers.
After the prayers the two groups sat together on a woven plastic mat along with a few Christians and others, to share a meal, roast marshmallows and get to know one another in a peaceful vigil, joined by another 40 people online. They had all come to support Alice Kisiya, 30, whose family had been forcibly evicted from their 1.25-acre plot in July by Jewish settlers, backed by the Israel Defense Forces.
Walking through an olive grove, her face illuminated by her phone’s light in the darkness, Kisiya told the online attendees that IDF soldiers had come by earlier, but, apparently taken aback by the sight of Jews, Muslims and Christians picnicking in the middle of a war, they drove away. Evil, she said, fears unity.
“An interfaith community is what this society needs to be united and to be strong to achi …