American Catholic apostolate funds Bible camp for West Bank children as settler violence erupts nearby

A U.S.-based Catholic organization is helping fund a two-week summer Bible camp for Christian children in Taybeh, the last entirely Christian town in the West Bank, even as a major settler attack unfolds in a neighboring village.

The camp, described by Stella Maris Media as “a wonderful initiative,” is serving children in Taybeh by providing teachers, games, food, treats, sports, music, refreshments, and faith-based activities. The Vulnerable People Project (VPP), an American apostolate, is supporting the camp. VPP has repeatedly warned that Taybeh’s Christian community is under increasing pressure from nearby settler activity.

The camp initiative is meant to give local children a period of rest, formation, and fellowship amid the pressures facing Christian families in the West Bank. Taybeh has been the focus of repeated expressions of concern from Church leaders, journalists, and human rights advocates as radical Israeli settler activity has expanded around the town.

As Zeale News previously reported, settlers attacked Taybeh on June 10, setting fire to agricultural land and throwing Molotov cocktails at homes, according to residents and journalists on the ground. VPP said at the time that settlers ignited farmland on Taybeh’s eastern hillside, hurled firebombs at homes, and attempted to set the village’s gas station on fire.

The Bible camp comes as VPP issued an urgent July 9 press release warning that more than 100 Israeli settlers were storming the nearby Palestinian village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah and directly adjacent to Taybeh.

According to VPP, the attack began after a settler attacked a Palestinian vehicle and those inside it. The Palestinian driver then struck the settler with his vehicle while trying to flee, VPP said. Israeli forces later sealed the entrance gate of Deir Jarir, trapping residents inside as confrontations erupted among Palestinians, settlers, and soldiers, the group reported.

“Right now, residents report that settlers are flooding the streets of Deir Jarir in overwhelming numbers, invading a Palestinian home and destroying a vehicle before their eyes — smashing windows, wrecking personal belongings, and tearing through property as the assault continues,” VPP said in the release.

The organization also said settlers were still pouring into the area and that residents had issued desperate appeals to neighboring villages for help.

The location of the attack heightened VPP’s concern. Deir Jarir sits beside Taybeh, and both are part of the same eastern Ramallah corridor where Christian and other Palestinian communities have faced months of settler violence and displacement pressure.

“An attack of this scale on Taybeh’s doorstep — carried out under military protection and with settlers reportedly bent on revenge — raises the immediate danger that the violence will spill directly into Taybeh and the other Palestinian communities that ring it,” VPP said.

Jason Jones, founder of VPP, said the attack confirmed warnings the group had been issuing for weeks.

“Right now, as I speak, families in Deir Jarir are trapped behind a gate the army has locked while settlers flood the village and set a home on fire — and this is happening one hill over from Taybeh,” Jones said. “We have warned for weeks that the noose was tightening around Taybeh and its neighbors. This is that warning coming true in real time.”

“A house is burning with people sealed inside the village, and every minute of delay is measured in lives,” he added. “The world cannot afford to learn what happened tomorrow. It has to act tonight — observers, diplomats, phone calls to the highest levels — before this attack claims lives and reaches the last Christian town in the West Bank.”

VPP called on diplomats, consuls, ambassadors, the United Nations, and international organizations to intervene immediately, demanding that Israeli forces open the gate of Deir Jarir, halt the settler assault, guarantee residents’ safety, and protect Taybeh and surrounding communities.

The organization said it is tracking the situation through field monitoring and will provide updates as information becomes available.

VPP’s warning follows a series of Zeale News reports on conditions facing Christians in and around Taybeh. In March, Zeale News reported that Israeli settlers attacked Taybeh, imposed a gate at the village entrance, threw stones at homes, blocked roads, and targeted Christian property.

In May, Zeale News reported that settlers established a new outpost on privately owned land near Taybeh, with VPP warning that the development formed part of a broader effort of forced displacement and Christian “erasure” in the Holy Land.

Later that month, Zeale News reported that Israeli military forces interrupted preparations for a Catholic Marian Festival in Taybeh, ordering organizers to stop setup work and deploying a stun grenade.

The Bible camp is one of VPP’s efforts to support the Christian presence in the area despite those pressures. More information about the group’s campaign is available at SaveWestBankChristians.com.