Jerusalem is in the midst of Sukkot, the seven-day Festival of Booths (Lev. 23:39–43). It’s one of three festivals for which the Torah says God’s people should come to the Holy City. Sukkot is both a harvest event and a time to remember God’s faithfulness when Israelites were vulnerable in the wilderness. People celebrating Sukkot “shall live in booths for several days,” Moses directed, so they remember what it was like to be utterly reliant on God.

I wander through the Jewish Quarter of Old Jerusalem where thousands of people in fine clothes mill about the narrow streets carrying palm fronds. There is plenty of food and there are countless Sukkot family reunions. A large temporary Sukkot booth dispenses free cold water and soda on a stretch of Roman-era street (in the foreground of the attached photo). Thousands pray, chant scripture, or sing at the Western Wall.

It’s painful to juxtapose this joyous celebration with what is happening not far away in the occupied West Bank. There Jewish settlers have illegally built more than 130 towns on Palestinian land. Some now use flocks of sheep to displace Palestinian herders and move them out of their villages.

Palestinians say Israeli herders often carry guns and try to intimidate them. “Their job was to provoke us,” said Muhammad Mleihat, 59, one of the village leaders, who decamped to a valley five miles away. “They want to empty the area.’” (“Israeli Herders Spread Across West Bank, Displacing Palestinians,” New York Times, October 3, 2023).

Sukkot—a time to remember God’s mercy—should be a prompt to act justly toward Palestinians in the West Bank and elsewhere in the Land of Promise. Be compassionate and generous, Moses said, because once “you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord redeemed you” (Deut. 24:18). North American Christians–who have outsized influence on Israeli policies–please join voices with people in Israel and around the world who want the abuse of Palestinians to end.