Israeli forces released Palestinian Christian activist Alice Kisiya following her arrest while protesting the theft of Palestinian land by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Alice and her mother Michelle were arrested on Sunday after conducting a sit-in on land they own in the Makhrour area of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, Palestinian news agency reported.
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The police freed Michelle and banned her from returning to Makhrour for 15 days before Alice was released on Monday, the agency added.
Israeli settlers initially attacked the family on 31 July with the protection of the Israeli military as they attempted to seize the family’s home by force, according to the international organisation Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
Alice called the police to stop settlers from destroying their personal property, but officers instead detained her brother who attempted to prevent the raid.
Who is Alice Kisiya?
Alice Kisiya, an activist from the occupied West Bank, at her family land in Al-Makhrour that was illegally seized by armed settlers for the construction of illegal settlements.
The Kisiya family is among the last remaining Christian families in the area. They have been threatened by illegal construction of settlements for years, and their home and restaurant were demolished in 2019.
Her family, which has owned the land for at least 40 years, has fought a protracted battle to reclaim their property, according to media reports.
“We have been in this struggle for more than 20 years. We are financially, psychologically, and physically exhausted. But we are not giving up. My goal is to take it all back,” Kisiya was quoted as saying by the Art Newspaper in 2023 after a lengthy court battle that cost them $135,000.
Importantly, Al-Makhrour was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014. In recent years, the expansion of settlements has put the heritage site at great risk.
