This article was originally published by The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and is republished with permission.

A portion of Israel's seperation barrier near Rachel's Tomb in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (M. Phillips, IMEU)

George and his family live in Bethlehem. Their house is situated next to Rachel's Tomb, which the Israeli government has gradually been surrounding with a wall. This is not "the Wall"—Israel's separation barrier—which is a mile or so up the road, but a different wall, a wall within a wall, which surrounds the tomb, and now shadows the family's home.

George lives with his six children, his mother and brother. They are a Palestinian Christian family. George's property comprises a large hotel and restaurant, and the family used to run a thriving business. The Israeli army arrived in 1996, however, and life has never been the same since.

Soldiers took over the top three floors of the building and blocked it off so the family couldn't access it. They also took over the restaurant. They used the water and electricity, and now George has bills for thousands of shekels which he is obliged to pay. He went to the Palestinian Authority for help, but they told him he has a business, so what's he complaining about. The Israelis, of course, offered him no compensation, and the electricity company refused to cancel the debt.

Israeli soldiers have occupied George's building on and off since 1996, using it as an observation post. It overlooks the Aida refugee camp next door. Sometimes Israeli snipers would shoot at people in the camp. George told us how he has been searched going into his own house, how the soldiers would come and search the house in the middle of the night and scare the children. One time his wife was hit by the butt of a gun as she tried to protect her son. She needed medical treatment, but the soldiers refused to let her out to get to the hospital. Another time, they tied up his mother, Carmen, and locked her in a room.

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George showed us his restaurant on the building's ground floor. A thick layer of dust covers the chairs and tables. Almost everything in the restaurant has been destroyed. Every plate and glass has been smashed. Empty bottles of vodka were left abandoned on a table after the soldiers last left the place. George showed us pictures of two of his cars which the soldiers destroyed, and pictures of army jeeps parked in front of his house.

Even though we were using an Arabic translator, we could see from his eyes how desperate George is. He doesn't know how he will earn a living anymore; his restaurant and hotel have been destroyed and he has no money for repairs. He has no way to pay the mounting bills. Even though the army left two weeks ago, he doesn't know when they might be back. They cut off access to the rest of the building with barbed wire and ordered the family not to go up there. I wonder why George and his family don't do something—at least try to cut the wire—but it becomes clear that they are scared of what the soldiers will do when they come back. "What are we to do?" George asked us. "There's nowhere to go, no one left we can complain to. All of this was designed to force us to leave our house. But this is our home and we will not leave."

We had no answers, of course. All we could do was say we're sorry, promise to keep visiting and tell others his story.

Gemma Abbs works for the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine & Israel (EAPPI), which brings volunteers from around the world to accompany Palestinians in a range of West Bank communities.