American Nun: Hamas Is a Resistance Movement Defending Its People and Land
By Mohamed El-Sayed Rashid
American nun Agapia Stephanopoulos has described Israeli policies as making life “extremely difficult” for both Palestinian Christians and Muslims, due to restrictions on movement, land confiscation, and settlement expansion. She stressed that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is a legitimate resistance defending its people and land.
Life Under Occupation
In a widely viewed interview with U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson, Stephanopoulos, who has lived in Bethany in the occupied West Bank since 1996, shared her personal experience over more than two decades, highlighting the daily struggles of Palestinians under occupation.
She emphasized that Palestinian Christians face the same discrimination as Muslims, not because of religion, but because of their Palestinian identity. She also pointed out the dramatic decline in the Christian population since the Nakba of 1948, blaming displacement and systematic restrictions.
Targeting of Churches and Blind Support for Israel
The nun criticized what she called the “blind support” of some Christian Zionists in the United States for Israel, accusing them of ignoring the suffering of Palestinian Christians while justifying settlement expansion and land confiscation.
She also noted that churches and Christian institutions in the West Bank and Gaza have been bombed and damaged, describing it as part of a deliberate policy targeting Palestinians as a whole.
Muslim-Christian Cohesion
Stephanopoulos highlighted the natural cohesion between Muslims and Christians in Palestinian society, citing examples of Christian schools in Bethlehem and Jerusalem where most students are Muslim, reflecting a spirit of coexistence.
Global Attention
The interview, titled “This Is How Christians Live in the Holy Land”, has been viewed more than 12 million times, sparking global debate. It shed rare light on the shared suffering of Palestinians—Christians and Muslims alike—under Israeli occupation and settler violence.
