(LifeSiteNews) — Priests of the churches in Tabyeh, the last fully Christian town left in the West Bank, have implored help from “international actors” amid a destructive siege by Israeli settlers.
“Israeli settlers are torching holy sites, destroying farmland, and terrorizing families. The priests of Taybeh are crying out for help. The world must hear them — and act,” human rights activist Jason Jones urged on Tuesday.
Taybeh—the only fully Christian town left in the West Bank – is under siege.
Israeli settlers are torching holy sites, destroying farmland, and terrorizing families. The priests of Taybeh are crying out for help. The world must hear them—and act. #ChristiansForPalestine… pic.twitter.com/NNjzZr2teW— The Jason Jones Show (@JasonJonesVPP) July 9, 2025
He shared to X a copy of a statement from priests of the Greek Orthodox Church, Latin Church, and Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Tabyeh, which the Gospel of John (11:54) refers to as “Ephraim” – the place Jesus withdrew to before his passion. The priests described the “ongoing and grave series of attacks” against the Christian town.
“On Monday, July 7, 2025, settlers deliberately set fire near the towns’ cemetery and the historic Church of St. George (Al-Khadr), dating back to the 5th century — one of the oldest religious landmarks in Palestine,” the priests shared, adding that it was only because of the swift response of local residents and firefighters that the damage was not “far more catastrophic.”
The priests went on to tell how settlers have been routinely grazing their cattle in Tabyeh’s agricultural lands, “including family-owned fields” and areas near homes, without being stopped by authorities. In doing so, they “cause direct harm to olive trees — a vital source of livelihood for the people of Tabyeh — and prevent farmers from accessing and cultivating their land,” they noted.
Thus, the eastern part of the town “has effectively become an open target for illegal settlement outposts that expand quietly under military protection,” which “serve as a base for further assaults on the land and its people.”
“We cannot remain silent in the face of these relentless attacks that threaten our very existence on this land,” the priests declared. They then called upon “local and international actors — especially consuls, ambassadors, and church representatives,” to come to the aid of the town by:
- Immediately investigating the “ongoing assaults on property, agricultural land, and holy sites,” including arson.
- “Applying diplomatic pressure on the occupying authorities to halt settler actions and prevent them from entering or grazing in Taybeh’s lands.”
- Send “international and church delegations” to observe firsthand the ongoing damages, and document them.
- Support the people of Tabyeh “through economic and agricultural initiatives,” and legal help.
Father Bahar Fawadleh, parish priest of the Church of Christ the Redeemer in Taybeh, located east of Ramallah, recently lamented, “We do not live in peace but in daily fear and siege.”
The aggressions by Israeli settlers against the town’s citizens, which include arson attacks upon crops and theft of equipment, are recognized by the Christian locals “as part of a systematic effort to strangle them economically and push them out,” the priest explained.
Religious Zionist settler violence common in Israeli occupied West Bank
Such violence perpetrated by these terrorist settlers is in no way rare in the West Bank. During the calendar year of 2024, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) logged about 1,420 incidents of Israeli settler violence. “These incidents include settlers reportedly killing five Palestinians, including a child, and injuring 360 other Palestinians, including 35 children, and vandalising more than 26,100 Palestinian-owned trees.”
Amnesty International described these attacks as “part of a decades long state-backed campaign to dispossess, displace and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Israel’s system of apartheid.”
“Israeli forces have a track record of enabling settler violence and it is outrageous that once again Israeli forces stood by and in some cases took part in these brutal attacks,” an April 2024 report states.
Colonial ‘settlers’ espouse ideology of Jewish supremacy, ethnic cleansing, building of third Temple
Jewish “settlers” in the West Bank are most often associated with the influential international heresy of religious Zionism which embraces an ideology of radical Jewish supremacy and thus a justification for the horrendous violent crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people as a means of taking over the Holy Land and building an exclusive Jewish ethno-state.
With the takeover of the land complete they aim to build a third temple for animal sacrifice in Jerusalem and welcome their Moshiach (Messiah) of whom their expectations share a close alignment with what Catholic authorities expect from the Antichrist. And from Jerusalem, these religious Zionists anticipate this figure to subject all other peoples under Noahide Laws, vanquishing Christianity as “idolatry,” and even executing the death penalty against Christians for this supposed crime.
The illegal settler communities also enjoy indirect financial support from billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars which support Israel’s military forces and thus serve to assist settlers and settlements to effectively expand in the West Bank. Private American interests also provide significant funds to further develop illegal settlements, paramilitary groups and IDF units which operate in Gaza and the West Bank as well.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s 58-year military occupation of internationally recognized Palestinian territory was illegal under international law. The United Nations General Assembly followed up on this ruling in September, overwhelmingly passing a resolution demanding Israel end its illegal occupation of these territories, including the evacuation of their settlements on the West Bank, within 12 months.
The unanimous and constant voices of the Catholic and Orthodox bishops in the region have characterized Israel’s illegal occupation of these Palestinian territories as the “root” aggression of the conflict, an ongoing “sin” that must be resisted and remedied should there be any hope of peace in the region.
