The Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank has become a focal point of efforts to pressure Israeli officials to put an end to months of violence orchestrated by the members of the illegal Israeli settler community. Over the weekend, masked settlers attacked journalists and European diplomats who had come to the community and nearby villages on a goodwill mission and to act as observers during an early and rushed olive harvest. Attacks on Palestinian villages by settlers have surged in recent weeks.
International outrage followed the attacks, which included a vicious assault on a Washington Post photographer on Oct. 16 captured by other journalists, the beating of a 78-year-old French mayor on Oct. 17 and other acts of violence and intimidation against delegates from Poland, Belgium and France and representatives of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Oct. 17: “We’re very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing.” He said that the Trump administration has asked the Israeli government to “crack down on that stuff.”
West Bank media reported that, on Oct. 18, U.S. diplomats visited Taybeh. Riley Barnes, an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor; Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See; and other diplomats visited a Catholic convent church in Taybeh to meet with members of its Christian community.
Israeli police said they arrested 10 people on Oct. 19 in connection with the weekend’s violence. Israel has come under heavy international criticism for the attacks. Israeli police did not identify the suspects or specify their roles in the incidents, which came during a spike in settler violence during the annual Palestinian olive harvest season.
“Do not forget Taybeh,” Father Bashar Fawadleh, the pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church in Taybeh, urged the world’s Christians in an interview with Vatican Media on Oct. 10. “I invite every Catholic diocese worldwide to speak out about the situation here, to talk about these Christian brothers and sisters who are living in terror.”
“The birthplace of the Christian community must not vanish into silence,” he said.
In a statement released just before the weekend’s violence, Father Fawadleh appealed for solidarity and political support. During this harvest season, he wrote, “many families have faced serious difficulties accessing their land.”
Settlers have stripped Palestinian trees of olives and other olive trees have been damaged or destroyed by settlers and Israeli authorities, “reducing a harvest that is essential for the livelihood of our community.”
“For generations, olive trees have provided not only income, but also a deep connection to our history, our heritage, and the land on which our families have lived for centuries,” he wrote. “The olive harvest is both an economic necessity and an important expression of our identity and perseverance.”
This season’s losses because of acts of vandalism, theft and intimidation “have been particularly painful,” Father Fawadleh wrote. Families “who have spent their lives caring for these trees may now find themselves unable to rely on the fruits of their own land.”
“Every lost harvest,” he wrote, “places additional pressure on people striving to remain on their land and preserve their way of life.”
Before this latest spasm of violence, Donata Maria Krethlow-Benziger, the interim president of the Holy Land Commission of the Grand Magisterium of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, had just concluded an annual mission to the Holy Land. Taybeh had been among the commission’s final stops.
“My message to the Christians in the Holy Land is simple: You are not forgotten, and you are not alone,” Ms. Krethlow-Benziger said on Oct. 16.
“We must return as pilgrims, because our presence is a powerful sign of solidarity and hope,” she added. “Your strength is an inspiration to us all and a reminder that our bond with the Holy Land is not simply one of charity, but a living dialogue of love.”
With about 1,500 residents, Taybeh, ancient Ephraim, is the last entirely Christian village left in the West Bank.
On Oct. 16, Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten by a crowd of young male settlers, leaving her with several broken ribs and vertebrae in the village of Abu Falah. She underwent surgery on a finger that was nearly severed and is recovering from what appeared to be stab wounds to her lower body, which required stitches.
A day later, masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats and others visiting communities around Taybeh. Settler violence has surged in recent years, and human rights groups say that attackers are rarely arrested or punished for attacks on Palestinians. In a report released in September, “The Elimination Project,” B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, charged that the Netanyahu government has essentially been working in complicity with Israeli settler militias to make life unbearable for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.
From her hospital bed on Oct. 18, Ms. Levine said she was “shocked and insulted” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had cast doubt on the attack, which was witnessed by a crowd of people, by calling it “alleged.”
She blamed “Jewish terrorists” for the attack and added: “I’ve been covering this region for over 40 years, and I have never seen this country in such a state as it is today.”
Calling for the arrest and prosecution of those who participated in a “[d]ishonorable act of senseless violence,” U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned the attack on Ms. Levine in a social media post: “Attacking a female photographer is [a] despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.”
“Impunity for violent settlers must end,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot posted on X. “Harvesting olives, reporting the news or carrying out diplomatic duties should never put anyone at risk of attack.”
“This violence cannot be separated from Israel’s illegal settlement policy,” he added. “Belgium condemns settlement expansion and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land. The occupation of the Palestinian territory must end.
The Palestinian Christian population on the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza has been on a consistent decline since the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, when Christians represented about 12.5 percent of the population. The Christian presence in the Palestinian Territories has been reduced to between 1 and 2 percent today—about 50,000 people.
A survey conducted in 2020 found that about one out of three Christian Palestinians—36 percent—living in the occupied territories expressed a desire to emigrate, if possible. Younger Christian Palestinians were especially eager to leave; about half say they would depart if they could.
With reporting from Vatican News and The Associated Press
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