2 May 2012
Last updated at 23:44 ET
By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem
The barrier Israel has been building in and around the West Bank is set to deprive a Christian community of its land, and appears to have caused an unholy row between some monks and nuns - who could now end up on opposite sides.
In the green Cremisan valley, west of Bethlehem, a goatherd leans against a rock while his flocks graze under the olive and fig trees.
Nearby, a narrow road winds along the hillside to a 19th Century convent and a secluded monastery where monks run the only Palestinian winery.
For the mainly Christian town of Beit Jala, this is the local beauty spot. Residents come here to take a stroll or for a weekend barbecue. Many own small plots of agricultural land.
They also send their children to the convent school and visit the monastery to sell grapes or buy its wine.
That is why an Israeli government plan to build a wall through the valley, cutting off their access to most of it, is causing great alarm.
In an unusual move, priests like Father Ibrahim Shomali are speaking out.
"When people suffer the Church must be near them. This is not politics. This is human rights and this is Christians who must be defended," he says.
"Here, 57 Christian families will lose their land. Losing the land means losing their hope."
Bethlehem wall Part of the wall around Bethlehem
Every week, Father Ibrahim invites members of the community to join an outdoor mass as a form of peaceful protest.
Large parts of Israel's West Bank barrier have already been built.
When it is extended here, the purpose will be to divide Beit Jala from two Jewish settlements - Har Gilo and Gilo - which sit on opposite hilltops.
While both are considered illegal under international law, Israel disputes this.
Map showing proposed routes of barrier
Palestinians see the barrier as a land grab and believe this valley is wanted for settlement expansion.
Israeli officials argue that security is their main concern.
"The route of the security barrier is based on the specific security considerations of the area. In the Beit Jala region, it is there solely to keep terror out of Jerusalem," says Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman, Joshua Hantman.
West Bank barrier
Total length is 708 km (440 miles), more than twice the length of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line) between Israel and West Bank
About 61.8% of the barrier is complete; a further 8.2% is under construction and 30% is planned but not yet constructed
When completed, only about 15% of the barrier will be constructed on the Green Line or in Israel, isolating 9.4% of the West Bank
Source: UN 2011
He adds that 10 years ago, during the second Palestinian uprising or intifada, there were regular attempts to shoot at Gilo from Beit Jala.
Local Palestinians have launched legal action to prevent them from being blocked off from the Cremisan land.
This is one of dozens of cases that have ensured that work on the barrier, begun in 2002, remains only two-thirds complete.
What makes this case different is the presence of the convent and monastery.
Two years ago, the Salesian Sisters of Cremisan joined the challenge to the route in an Israeli court.
"We want to build bridges, not walls," their director, Sister Fides says through lawyers, emphasising the importance to the convent of its primary school for West Bank children.
"We are committed towards education for justice, peaceful living and peace between all people without distinction."
The latest proposals for the barrier would see it looping round the convent, keeping it on the Palestinian side, but splitting it from the neighbouring monastery.
Children would still be allowed to attend the school, though they would have to pass by soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint to do so. Landowners would be given limited access via an agricultural gate, at the time of the olive harvest, for example.
For a long time the monks remained silent about the developments, earning criticism from others in the Christian community.
"It is of vital importance to have all the interested parties together against this wall because together we are strong," says Samia Khalilieh, who is involved in the court case.
"The monastery being with us is an important factor. It is part of our heritage."
In December, the monks published a carefully worded condemnation of the barrier route.
It said they never asked to "pass on the Israeli side" and that "the entire route of the wall was established independently by the Israeli authorities".
The monastery also tried to join the legal appeal but the court would not allow it.
Nuns and residents are due in court again in September.
I have a personal stake in this very same Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem where God told me to take Paxcalibur in 2010 to do a ritual prayer calling for the complete dismantlement of all the Separation Walls and fences and barriers. What do Israelis think? That making Israel into an armed camp is creating a nation?
God says the barrier Walls will come down as no one is going to divide the Holy Land permanently.
Pax and me at the Wall outside Bethlehem. Lulu Awad, the daughter of my good friend Sami Awad who is the director of the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem, blessed Paxcalibur before I did the ritual prayer. The prayer called for the Wall to come down in three years. Next year is the third year. The Keeper of Paxcalibur is the head Melkite Greek Orthodox priest in Nazareth, Israel.
Israel is just a temporary name for the Holy Land until the Palestinians regain possession which will happen inevitably. Palestinians will be the majority population in Palestine and in Israel itself by 2050.
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