THE Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, visited Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank last week. A local Anglican priest has described his visit as “empowering”.
Bishop Usher is the Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment, and elements of his visit were focused on nature issues, including meeting a rabbi working on environmental projects, and visiting the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, where scientists are working to preserve biodiversity in the region.
The construction of roads across the Occupied West Bank, linking illegal Israeli settlements, was causing damage to the landscape, Bishop Usher said.
He also observed that many hilltops in the West Bank were stripped of vegetation so that settlements could be established, whereas in Israel the hills were “protected for nature”.
Palestinian farmsteads in the West Bank were constantly under threat of seizure, either by legal claims or by violence, Bishop Usher said. He celebrated the eucharist in a cave chapel near Bethlehem, where he met the Nassar family, whose farm is currently under threat.
“Seeing the work of all of those trying to bring peace to this land, was heartening. Seeing the daily trauma and threat that they face was heartbreaking,” he said.
Bishop Usher was in the Holy Land when Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023 (News, 13 October 2023).
The situation in the West Bank had deteriorated since then, he said: “Under cover of the war in Gaza, there has been a huge expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which of course are illegal under international law.”
During his visit, Bishop Usher presided at a service in St Andrew’s, Ramallah. The Rector, the Revd Fadi Diab, said that the Bishop’s “eagerness to listen and learn about the challenges facing the Christian community in Palestine was very much appreciated. We were empowered by his presence and words of encouragement.”
Bishop Usher told the Church Times that there was “palpable sense of deep appreciation for a visit from a community who feel alone”, but that hope was thin on the ground.
“Talking to young Palestinian Christians, I’m afraid I didn’t see many signs of hope,” he said. Many spoke about wanting to leave, and expressed fears of being subject to “administrative detention” by Israeli forces, he said.
In December, Layan Nasir — a young Anglican from Birzeit, near Ramallah — was released after eight months. She was held, reportedly in crowded and unsanitary conditions, without being charged (News, 6 December 2024).
Video challenges Israeli claims. Evidence emerged this week to contradict some of the earlier claims made by the Israeli government after 15 civil and health emergency workers were killed in Gaza (News, 4 April).
Israeli officials had said that the convoy of emergency vehicles had not been clearly marked, and was proceeding without lights. This appears to have been disproven by a video recovered from the phone of one of those killed. It was released by the Red Crescent Society, an organisation in the West Bank.
On Monday, the group’s president, Younis al-Khatib, said that autopsies of the recovered bodies — found in shallow graves near the site of the attack — showed that they had been shot “with the intent to kill”, The Guardian reported.
