The three priests of Taybeh in the West Bank issued an urgent appeal for justice this week after Israeli settlers reportedly escalated their acts of violence and intimidation against Christians in the region’s only remaining all-Christian town.
“We, the priests of the three churches of Taybeh — the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Church, and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church — raise our voices on behalf of the people of our town and our parishioners to strongly condemn the ongoing and grave series of attacks targeting Taybeh,” the three pastors wrote in a letter.
Fathers Daoud Khoury (Orthodox), Jack-Nobel Abed (Melkite Catholic), and Bashar Fawadleh (Latin Rite Catholic) published the powerful letter just after alarming reports of a July 7 arson attack on the town’s most sacred holy site. The settlers “deliberately set fire near the town’s cemetery and the historic Church of Saint George (Al-Khadr), dating back to the 5th century — one of the oldest religious landmarks in Palestine,” the priests wrote.
“As priests, we bear a pastoral and moral responsibility toward our community,” the letter stated. “We cannot remain silent in the face of these relentless attacks that threaten our very existence on this land.”
The letter went on to call on “local and international actors — especially consuls, ambassadors, and church representatives around the world,” to support Taybeh in four ways:
1. Launch an immediate and transparent investigation into the incidents of arson and the ongoing assaults on property, agricultural land, and holy sites.
2. Apply diplomatic pressure on the occupying authorities to halt settler actions and prevent them from entering or grazing in Taybeh’s lands.
3. Dispatch international and church delegations to conduct field visits, document the damages, and bear witness to the deteriorating reality on the ground.
4. Support the people of Taybeh through economic and agricultural initiatives, and strengthen their resilience with effective legal accompaniment.
The priests also explained the great cultural significance the town ought to hold for Christians everywhere. Taybeh is not only the Holy Land’s “last remaining entirely Christian town” but is even mentioned in Scripture, the pastors pointed out. Taybeh is “known in the Gospel as ‘Ephraim,’ the place to which Jesus withdrew before His Passion (John 11:54).”
One resident told CatholicVote last month that his family’s roots in Taybeh go back at least five centuries. Others can trace their lineage much further back.
The town’s “wholly Christian population represents a unique presence in the region,” the priests’ letter asserted, “a living testimony that dates back to the time of Christ” and has been “preserved faithfully by the people of Taybeh across generations….”
That legacy “is now at serious risk of erosion and displacement due to the systematic targeting of land, sacred places, and the local community,” they warned.
Monday’s arson attacks were only the latest dramatic escalation in a series of aggressive actions on the part of Jewish settlers. As CatholicVote reported June 30, locals told CatholicVote that settler attacks have been occurring with increasing regularity, including physical violence against Christian residents and their homes. They also complained that Israeli soldiers often stand by passively, allegedly facilitating settler violence rather than policing it.
“These assaults threaten the security and stability of our town and aim at undermining the dignity of [Taybeh’s] residents and the sanctity of its sacred land,” the three priests stated.
The priests also confirmed what other locals have reported to CatholicVote: that Jewish settlements have encroached further and further into the Christian town, serving as bases from which settlers have worked to damage farmlands and destroy businesses vital to the local economy.
“In a scene that has become provocatively routine, settlers continue to graze their cattle in Taybeh’s agricultural lands, including family-owned fields and areas near residential homes, without deterrence or intervention from the authorities,” the priests pointed out. “These violations go beyond provocation; they cause direct harm to olive trees — a vital source of livelihood for the people of Taybeh — and prevent farmers from accessing and cultivating their land.”
The “illegal settlement outposts” in the eastern part of the town operate “under military protection,” the priests stated. “These outposts serve as a base for further assaults on the land and its people.”
“We believe that the Holy Land cannot remain alive without its indigenous people,” they concluded. “Forcibly removing farmers from their land, threatening their churches, and encircling their towns is a wound to the living heart of this nation. Yet we remain steadfast in our shared faith and hope that truth and justice will ultimately prevail.”
Fr. Fawadleh told CatholicVote over the phone in late June that “more than 140 families” have recently fled the West Bank in the midst of pressure from settler groups and local officials.
“In Taybeh we are also bleeding from emigration,” he said, noting that 10 families have left the town in the last two years.
“We have to stop this bleeding,” he said.
Readers can find the full letter from the priests of Taybeh below.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article referred to an “arson attack on the Church of St. George.” In fact, settlers reportedly started fires near the church, and the flames damaged a cemetery next to it.