The only Christian in the village

With her short brown hair, jeans, jumper and trainers Afaf Shattara looks like any modern European woman of a certain age. A single teacher and community leader, she certainly stands out from her peers who wear the Islamic scarf and long clothes. 

Afaf, 62, is one of a rare breed which is, sadly, getting rarer – a Palestinian Christian living in Palestine. Her home is in Azzun, a small place in the northern West Bank, and she has no intention of leaving despite the privations of living under Israeli military occupation.

Her elder brother, US citizen Khalil, is staying when I drop in for a breakfast of oregano pie, hummus, foule, bread, eggs with herbs and olive oil and tea flavoured with marjoram. We eat sitting under a lemon tree in a beautiful garden which also boasts a vine growing along a pergola, numerous other fruits, vegetables and Afaf's favourite flowers.

After elementary school in Azzun, Afaf finished high school in the nearby West Bank city of Nablus and took a BA in English in Cairo where she lived with a group of Palestinian girls.

"Until now we are all friends and all in touch," she said, adding that they are scattered as far afield as Egypt, Jordan and the United States.

"I didn't have any Christian friends, they are all Muslims."

She even fasted with her friends during Ramadan.

"Because nobody was cooking!" interjected Khalil.

The two agree that their religious background was never a problem. Khalil harks back to Ottoman times before the British Mandate of Palestine began in the 1920s.

"The Turks were ruling the country," he said. "I didn't hear my father or my grandfather ever saying we were hated or treated differently. I never felt that I was different from them.

"I had an uncle who was a leader in this village even though he was a Christian."

Afaf has followed in the uncle's footsteps. By the time she returned to Azzun there was a 500-pupil girls' secondary school where she taught English before being appointed principal over male colleagues as well as women.

"All the teachers and all the pupils were Muslim," she said.

"They chose me – I didn't meet any problem."

The girls for miles around have all passed through her hands.

"Every woman salutes her," said Khalil.

Her political career followed a similar path. When the Palestinian Authority was formed following the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat told every municipality they had to have at least one woman on board.

"It was me – I was appointed at first and then I was elected," she said. "I was a member of the council for ten years." And when she stood for the equivalent of mayor in 2004 she came second.

The Intifadas (two Palestinian uprisings against military occupation) have affected both work and family. The priest who used to visit the house to celebrate Mass once a month stopped coming in the late 80s and the closures meant educating her students became problematic.

"Many days the school was closed," she said.

"We have curfews so many days. We have many difficulties, especially the teachers.

"Most of them live in Qalqilya (a large town half an hour away almost completely surrounded by the Israeli Separation Barrier). If there was a closure they couldn't come."

Afaf organised volunteer teachers from among the graduates of Azzun to keep things going.

Now she's enjoying her retirement but it grieves her when Palestinians leave the country to try to find some kind of future abroad.

"Christians in Palestine go to the US, to Canada and Australia," she said.

"They should stay because it is their land. Christianity was born here.

"People here should not emigrate, whether they are Christians or Muslims. People should hang on to their land."