Church leaders condemn Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians
Jerusalem’s Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant church leaders condemned masked Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinians, including the assault on the Christian village of Taybeh during the olive harvest. The leaders said settler violence across West Bank villages is escalating and warned that impunity threatens Palestinians and the Christian presence in Taybeh. Israeli police arrested 10 people in connection with the violence and said several security agencies were involved in the investigation. The church leaders urged authorities to bring those responsible to justice and called on the international community to help protect Taybeh and the West Bank.
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Church leaders in Jerusalem condemned the October 17 attack by masked settlers on Palestinian olive harvesters and visiting diplomats in Taybeh, calling it part of wider settler violence across the West Bank. They urged Israeli authorities to hold perpetrators accountable and called for stronger protection of Taybeh’s residents, farms, and Christian community. 1 3 4
The assault took place during the olive harvest in Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian village east of Ramallah. Residents harvesting olives and a visiting group that included French, Belgian, and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives were targeted; reports described injuries, stolen crops, and damage to vehicles and trees. 1 2 4
The EWTN report said the mayor of the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, Bernard Baudoux, was physically assaulted and a Belgian consular vehicle was damaged. The gathering had been organized with Taybeh’s Latin Patriarchate parish as a solidarity visit during the harvest. 4
The Taybeh attack followed violence the previous day in Abu Falah, where masked settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as she covered the olive harvest. Aleteia reported that Levine suffered multiple fractures and required surgery, and that 12 Palestinians were also injured. 2
On October 19, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemned the Taybeh assault and said it was not an isolated incident. They described Palestinian villages as facing “wide-scale terror” during the harvest, when families gather olives for income and to maintain longstanding ties to their land. 1 3
The leaders also denounced a recently published religious ruling that they said permitted Jews to take Palestinians’ olives, calling it “unfounded, very worrying and dangerous, and absolutely unacceptable.” They welcomed the fact that rabbis and other Jewish voices had publicly rejected the ruling. 1 3 4
They thanked Israeli President Isaac Herzog for condemning the attack and acknowledged police action and arrests, while saying violence continued because perpetrators enjoyed impunity. They called on authorities to bring those responsible to justice and urged the international community to help protect people in Taybeh and the wider West Bank, including visitors expressing solidarity. 1 3 4
The church leaders reaffirmed support for Taybeh’s residents and churches and said they would continue efforts to preserve the Christian presence there. They also prayed for safety, justice, and peace for the people of Taybeh and the Holy Land. 1 3
Israeli police said they had opened an investigation, collected evidence and witness statements, and arrested 10 people in connection with the violence. The reports said the suspects were unnamed; the investigation involved police, the Shin Bet, border police, and the military. 1 2
Herzog and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned the attacks. Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, linked the Taybeh assault to Israel’s settlement policy and said he would press for further European Union sanctions; Aleteia also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned reports of the attacks. 1 2
The articles describe the olive harvest as an important source of income for Palestinian families and say attacks on farmers tend to rise during the season. Aleteia cited the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din as recording 269 incidents directly related to the harvest over 20 days. 2 4
EWTN reported that Taybeh had been declared a closed military zone by the Israeli military in August, with access restricted for nonresidents in a stated effort to curb attacks; it said violence nevertheless continued. The report also said a U.S. delegation visited Taybeh after the October assault and heard residents’ accounts, with participants calling for civilian protection, access to farmland, and accountability. 4*
Catholic teaching on human dignity, justice, and protection of vulnerable communities amid violence
Catholic teaching treats violence not merely as a failure of public order but as an assault on the dignity God gives every human person. Therefore, protecting vulnerable people requires more than condemning violent acts: it calls for preventing harm, defending those under threat, confronting injustice and the conditions that foster violence, and pursuing peace through morally responsible means. Peace is not indifference to wrongdoing, and justice must never become an excuse to dehumanize or retaliate against others.
Human dignity belongs to every person, without exception. St. John Paul II describes violence as a failure to respect God’s image in another person and calls it a denial of human dignity. That applies both to those directly attacked and to people who may be treated as expendable because they are poor, marginalized, persecuted, or otherwise vulnerable. The Church’s concern therefore extends beyond immediate victims to the communities and social conditions that expose people to violence.
This principle also sets limits on how society may respond. A person suspected of wrongdoing does not lose human dignity. The bishops, for example, reject torture as incompatible with human dignity, even when governments are responding to terrorism. A response that protects some people by violating the basic dignity of others contradicts the moral purpose of protection.
The Church’s concern for vulnerable people is broad: it includes those endangered by violence, as well as people suffering from racism, trafficking, poverty, war, forced displacement, or discrimination. Catholic social teaching links the dignity of individuals to the families, associations, and communities that help people participate in social life. Justice, then, must consider not only individual safety but also whether social structures enable people and communities to live with dignity.
Catholic teaching does not equate peace with silence, passivity, or the suppression of legitimate complaints. The bishops’ letter on political and ideological violence explicitly says that pursuing peace does not mean ignoring injustice: unjust acts should be stopped. But the pursuit of justice must remain shaped by love, patience, self-control, and respect for the dignity of every person.
That distinction matters in situations of communal or political conflict. Anger at real injustice can be understandable, but treating violence as a tool for settling disputes harms innocent people, undermines the rule of law, and does not secure lasting change. The bishops point instead to nonviolent means—including dialogue, voting, peaceful protest, petitions, lawsuits, and civil disobedience in the face of injustice. Such means are not a substitute for justice; they are ways of seeking it without reproducing the harm one is trying to overcome.
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states the moral judgment strongly:
Violence is never a proper response. With the conviction of her faith in Christ and with the awareness of her mission, the Church proclaims “that violence is evil, that violence is unacceptable as a solution to problems, that violence is unworthy of man. Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity. Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings”.
This warning is directed at violence as a means of resolving problems. It does not mean that the Church denies every right or duty of defense. The bishops recognize that nations may have an obligation to defend human life and the common good against terrorism, aggression, and persecution, and they acknowledge the Catholic tradition’s just-war teaching in defense of the innocent. But they also stress the cost of armed conflict, the need to seek peaceful solutions first, and the moral limits that apply when force is used. The sources here do not set out the full criteria for judging a particular conflict or operation, so those judgments require more specific moral assessment than a general condemnation or endorsement of force.
Defending human dignity requires more than expressing good intentions. St. John Paul II says that teaching the value of life must be accompanied by “concrete and effective acts of solidarity” toward people in difficult situations. He also calls on individuals, families, society, and the media to examine their responsibility for violence and to address conditions that help produce it.
In the context of gun violence, the U.S. bishops have supported measures they describe as reasonable firearm regulation, along with efforts to improve access to mental-health care and addiction treatment. They have also called for reentry programs that help people avoid reoffending. These are particular policy judgments of the bishops, not a complete list of all possible responses; their underlying moral aim is to protect life, reduce opportunities for violence, and support both victims and people at risk of causing harm.
Protection also means standing with groups targeted because of who they are. The bishops name persecution because of religion, including the targeting of Christians, as a threat nations must address. They also identify racism, xenophobia, and religious discrimination as serious concerns. The principle is not that one community’s suffering matters more than another’s, but that violence against a vulnerable community demands a response proportionate to the threat and grounded in the equal dignity of all.
Catholic teaching assigns responsibility across society. Individuals should refuse to incite, excuse, or participate in violence; public dialogue should treat opponents as persons made in God’s likeness, not as enemies who may be insulted or threatened without consequence. The bishops connect this kind of dialogue with humility, openness, and the willingness to seek common ground.
Public authorities have a distinct responsibility to protect life and the common good, respond effectively to threats, and use morally restrained means. They are also called to address factors that fuel violence and to distribute the burdens of responding fairly. After conflict, the work of protection includes reconstruction and reconciliation, not merely the defeat of an immediate threat.
The same moral vision includes victims and those responsible for harm. The bishops’ approach to crime and criminal justice calls for work to end violence, help victims escape patterns of abuse, and pursue restorative justice. Restoration does not erase accountability; it seeks a response that protects others, recognizes harm, and supports safer communities rather than treating punishment alone as a complete solution.
Ultimately, Catholic teaching holds together commitments that can be wrongly separated: the protection of victims, the pursuit of justice, restraint in the use of force, and respect for the dignity of every person. Peace is not achieved by overlooking violence or injustice, but neither is justice served by methods that destroy the life and dignity they claim to defend. The Church therefore calls both for effective protection of vulnerable people and for patient, concrete work toward the social conditions in which violence is less likely to take root.