When I asked my local guide why the statue was there, he shrugged and gave a one-word answer in Arabic: “Sumud.” St. George is regarded as a hero among Palestinians; one Bethlehem sculptor has described him as “a knight full of peace and grace, riding his horse and always fighting evil.”

On my first trip to Palestine as an adult, I visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where I was drawn to a large, painted wooden sculpture of St. George slaying a dragon. According to the inscription at its base, it was a gift from the town’s prominent Dabdoub family—my maternal family, who have lived in Bethlehem since the Crusades.

On my first trip to Palestine as an adult, I visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where I was drawn to a large, painted wooden sculpture of St. George slaying a dragon. According to the inscription at its base, it was a gift from the town’s prominent Dabdoub family—my maternal family, who have lived in Bethlehem since the Crusades.

When I asked my local guide why the statue was there, he shrugged and gave a one-word answer in Arabic: “Sumud.” St. George is regarded as a hero among Palestinians; one Bethlehem sculptor has described him as “a knight full of peace and grace, riding his horse and always fighting evil.”

“Sumud” often gets translated as “steadfastness” or “perseverance” (or misunderstood by Israelis as “clinging to the land”) but is more properly inflected with notes of audacity, conscience, and dignity.