Amid a surge of violence in Palestine, the only Catholic university in the birthplace of Christ is a refuge where the ordinary rituals of life become a powerful form of passive resistance.
On 26 February, one Palestinian man was killed, more than 100 others and dozens of homes and cars set alight in the latest incident near the West Bank city of Nablus, the BBC reported.
It followed the killings of two Israeli brothers from a nearby settlement days prior.
It’s the latest in an uptick in atrocities committed on both sides, with the reported death toll in 2023 already at 60 Palestinians and 14 Israelis.
The New Zealand-born vice chancellor of Bethlehem University, Br Peter Bray FSC, says the university is an oasis of calm where a non-violent response to oppression is promoted.
The first registered university founded in the West Bank is the only Catholic one in the Holy Land.
“I think it’s very easy for Palestinians to drift into violence, hatred and revenge and we as a Catholic university are promoting a non-violent response,” Br Bray told The Catholic Weekly.
“By doing the ordinary things of life like coming to class, that’s a form of resistance to what I think is the ultimate aim of the Zionists, which is to drive all of the Palestinians out of the land.”
Read the article by Marilyn Rodrigues in The Catholic Weekly.