Standing on charred grass and ash, two days after the grounds by this holy site were set alight by settlers, the priests pointed in different directions, towards the growing number of Israeli settlements which they say are putting the future of Palestinian Christians at risk.
The town of Taybeh is the last entirely Christian town in the occupied West Bank, representing “a unique presence in the region, a living testimony that dates back to the time of Christ”, they say. Jesus is said to have stayed in the town.
On Tuesday, Fr Daoud Khoury, Fr Jack Nobel Abed and Fr Bashar Fawadleh – representing the Greek Orthodox Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church – issued a joint statement saying they wanted to “strongly condemn the ongoing and grave series of attacks targeting Taybeh”.
“These assaults threaten the security and stability of our town and aim at undermining the dignity of its residents and the sanctity of its sacred land.”
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The latest attack happened on Monday.
On Wednesday, the priests took The Irish Times to see the damage, pointing out sections of burnt ground where they said settlers deliberately started a fire beside the town cemetery and what remains of the Church of Saint George (Al Khadr), “one of the oldest religious landmarks in Palestine.”
In their statement, they said illegal settlement outposts were expanding “under military protection”, and the settlers were grazing their cattle, “in a scene that has become provocatively routine”, in private fields and near family homes, preventing Taybeh’s residents from accessing and cultivating their land, and damaging the olive trees.
“As priests, we bear a pastoral and moral responsibility toward our community. We cannot remain quiet in the face of these relentless attacks that threaten our very existence on this land,” they said
Israel has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the number of settlers, considered illegal under international law, has increased from about 250,000 in the early 1990s to about 700,000 today. Israeli settlers, who call the area Judea and Samaria, often say they have a biblical right to be there.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Norwegian Refugee Council, which works in the region, said a “broader strategy of coercion – marked by settler violence, the spread of illegal outposts and state complicity ... is rendering life unviable for Palestinians. The resulting displacements amount to forcible transfer, a grave breach of international humanitarian law”.
On Thursday, after a 20-year-old Israeli man was reportedly killed in the West Bank, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said the settlers are the ones exposed to the most “terror and violence”.
In July last year, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and must withdraw, evacuate the settlements and pay full reparations.
Yet, as the death toll reported by health authorities in Gaza approaches 58,000 since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7th, 2023, killed an estimated 1,200 people, Palestinians across the West Bank also say the situation they are facing is unprecedented even as Israeli government ministers have been calling for complete annexation.
During an interview in his office, Fawadleh (39) invited Irish supporters to come on “solidarity visits” to Taybeh, saying they would particularly appreciate help during the olive harvest this October. “Come and see and please help us to stop all of these aggressive attacks from the settlers,” he said. “See our life and stay with us and live with us, to see the truth and to announce the truth.”
Fawadleh – who also said he hopes Ireland’s proposed Occupied Territories law would pass – said he wanted to thank Irish people for standing with Palestinians, something he heard about from the time he was a small child.
He wanted to emphasise that land grabs, harassment and settlement expansion had been taking place for decades before October 7th, 2023, but called the present situation “very dangerous”, saying it classed as an emergency.
Taybeh is about 45km northeast of Bethlehem and 18km northeast of Ramallah. There are now four main settlements surrounding the town, all on Taybeh’s land, Fawadleh said. A new settlement outpost was created just weeks ago, he said. “We are facing a very new panorama.”
It is necessary to act quickly to protect Taybeh before this escalates more, he said. “We have to stop them from the beginning. We need to live in peace. Our people, they are so afraid. A lot of people are thinking about emigration.”
The population of the town is 1,300 people, all Christian, he said. There were about 46,000 Christians in the West Bank in 2017, he said, but now he thinks there must be fewer than 40,000, with many moving to North America and South America in particular.
“Palestinian Christians, we are the originals of this land. Jesus was from this land. This is the homeland of Jesus. Our number in the Palestinian state is very small, but our influence … is very huge.”
He said Palestinian culture was intrinsically linked to the history of Christianity, something which the churches played a role in preserving and remembering.
“We are preserving the Palestinian story, the Palestinian Christian story. We are here from the beginning.” He said it was essential to understand that “this land wasn’t empty” in the past.
While Christians had no problem “living together” with people of any religion, he said, the difficulty was the “occupation and the fanatic mentality”.
The settlers have stolen olive trees, a water tank and set fire to crops, locals have said. They can come armed “with pistols or different weapons” while Taybeh’s residents, in contrast, “don’t have any weapons because we are Palestinians and we are forbidden to have weapons”, Fawadleh said.
It is common to see armed settlers across the West Bank, with far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – a settler himself – saying last October that more than 120,000 firearms had been distributed to “eligible citizens” over the past year, many of which are believed to have gone to settlers.
A spokesperson from the Israeli government’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) unit referred The Irish Times to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.
The IDF said the main body responsible for handling allegations of legal violations by Israeli citizens is the Israeli police. “When IDF soldiers encounter incidents of lawbreaking by Israelis – especially violent acts or those directed against Palestinians and their property – they are required to intervene to stop the violation and, if necessary, detain or arrest suspects until police arrive on the scene.”
Fawadleh said Taybeh’s residents called the Israeli police before, but no one came.
The Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment.
People are frightened to go to church sometimes because of the presence of settlers or military vehicles, said Fr Abed of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The 67-year-old, born in Jaffa, has been based in Taybeh for 35 years. He said the situation had changed “completely” in that time – “180 degrees” – and the Israeli occupation was the “obstacle of everything”.
From it, “begins all the problems” including those related to “economical life, spiritual life, pastoral life, the social life”.
Yet, Abed said, “many Christian people [are] forgetting that we have a message to give to the world. Remaining in this country, in the Holy Land, is our message that we are the roots of the faith in Palestine. So we have to stay, although all the problems, all the wars, all the occupation, all ... that we are suffering. We have to give testimony for Jesus.”
