Parish priest: Israeli settlers’ push to drive Christians from Taybeh continues
Father Bashar Fawadleh reports intensified settler attacks in Taybeh, with daily incursions, property damage and road closures. Settlers broke into a Christian family's home, cut fences, and brought sheep onto the property, causing fear and psychological distress. New settler outposts around the village increase pressure, threatening the future of the Christian community. The priest urges Christians worldwide to pray, speak the truth, visit and stand with Taybeh’s Christians to help protect them.
about 2 months ago
Parish priest Father Bashar Fawadleh says that Israeli settler intimidation against the West Bank’s last wholly‑Christian village, Taybeh, has sharply escalated, with daily incursions, property damage and new outposts threatening the community’s future. He urges Christians worldwide to pray, speak out and visit the village to help protect its residents. 1
Taybeh, identified with the biblical town of Ephraim, is the only remaining entirely Christian village in the West Bank and is also known internationally for its locally brewed beer. 1
Father Fawadleh reports that settlers have been breaking into homes, cutting fences and even driving sheep into houses on a near‑daily basis. A recent incident involved a family’s newly prepared house being entered repeatedly, though the family was not present at the time. 1
New settler outposts have been established around Taybeh, further restricting movement through road closures, military barriers and checkpoints, and causing widespread fear among villagers. 1
The priest describes the psychological suffering of residents forced to confront repeated intimidation and the loss of agricultural land. He warns that the pattern of attacks aims to compel Palestinian Christian families to abandon their homes and land. 1
Father Fawadleh asks Christians worldwide not to forget Taybeh, urging prayer, public advocacy, visits and solidarity to help safeguard the village’s Christian presence in the Holy Land. 1
Assess Catholic Church’s response to Christian displacement in Taybeh
The Catholic Church’s response to the displacement of Christians from Taybeh, the last predominantly Christian village in the West Bank, can be assessed as pastorally compassionate, materially supportive, diplomatically engaged, and consistent in defending the continued Christian presence in the Holy Land. Its principal weakness is not the absence of a Catholic framework, but the difficulty of translating that framework into effective protection against the political, economic, and security pressures that drive displacement.
The sources available do not provide a detailed incident report on Taybeh itself. They therefore cannot establish the precise causes, scale, or chronology of the displacement. They do, however, offer a substantial basis for evaluating the Church’s general response to the threatened disappearance of Palestinian Christian communities.
The Holy See has consistently treated the presence of Christians in the Holy Land as more than a question of preserving buildings or archaeological sites. It is concerned with a living ecclesial community—families, parishes, schools, businesses, religious institutions, and public witness.
Pope John Paul II described the Church’s commitment to the “continuity of its millenary presence” in the Holy Land and linked that presence to the Church’s contribution to “justice and reconciliation among all” who live there. The Holy See later identified two especially important interests in the region: the Holy Places and, “above all,” the uninterrupted Christian community that has existed there for two thousand years.
This perspective is directly relevant to Taybeh. A response limited to emergency aid after families leave would be insufficient. Catholic teaching and practice point toward a broader objective: making it possible for Christians to remain, prosper, and participate in the social and political life of their homeland.
Pope Benedict XVI expressed this explicitly in 2009, praising efforts to help Christians “remain and prosper” in the land of their ancestors. He connected that goal with education, professional preparation, and social and economic initiatives. The Church’s response is therefore properly judged not only by statements of solidarity but also by whether it helps create conditions in which Christian families can build a viable future.
One of the clearest strengths of the Catholic response is its insistence that displaced and threatened Christians are not forgotten by the universal Church.
The coordination of Catholic bishops’ conferences supporting the Church in the Holy Land described its first task as offering a “prayerful presence and encouragement” to a suffering local Church, listening to Catholics’ experiences and hopes. Pope John Paul II likewise assured the bishops of the Holy Land that “the whole Church is with you,” sharing their concern, sustaining their daily efforts, and remaining close to suffering believers through prayer.
This pastoral dimension matters in Taybeh because displacement is not merely a demographic process. It can produce fear, discouragement, loss of communal identity, and the feeling that emigration is inevitable. The Church’s presence—through bishops, priests, religious communities, pastoral visits, schools, and international Catholic solidarity—helps oppose that isolation.
The Church also rightly avoids presenting Christian suffering as the only suffering that matters. The USCCB states that concern for Christian communities “does not exclude a concern for all the peoples of the region who suffer violence and persecution.” This is an important Catholic principle. Defending Taybeh’s Christians should not become hostility toward Muslims or Jews, nor should it obscure the rights and suffering of Palestinians generally. Christian advocacy is strongest when it defends the dignity of every person while recognizing the particular vulnerability of a shrinking Christian minority.
The Catholic response also includes practical aid. The Church’s agencies support humanitarian relief, education, health care, housing, professional formation, and economic development across the Middle East. The USCCB identifies Aid to the Church in Need, CNEWA, CRS, and the Knights of Columbus as organizations involved in pastoral, humanitarian, and development work for persecuted, displaced, and impoverished Christians and other vulnerable populations.
The Pontifical Mission for Palestine has likewise been recognized for coordinating Catholic humanitarian assistance to refugees, while Catholic institutions have supported schools and families affected by conflict and restrictions on movement.
For a community such as Taybeh, this kind of assistance is particularly important in several areas:
The 2024 appeal of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches captures the Church’s concern that Christians should have “housing, work, schooling and professional training” so that they can remain in the East rather than disappear into exile. This is an appropriate standard for assessing the response to Taybeh: aid should not merely alleviate immediate suffering; it should help restore the social foundations of permanence.
The Church’s public diplomacy has consistently called for justice, security, freedom, and respect for international law. Pope John Paul II urged the relaunch of negotiations, placing human dignity and the right of every person to live peacefully and securely in his or her own territory at the center of the discussion. He also rejected violence and appealed for dialogue and a just, durable peace.
The USCCB’s 2016 summit document made the political implications more concrete. It called for an end to the continuing occupation of Palestinian lands beyond the 1967 borders, criticized settlement expansion as damaging the prospects for peace, and insisted on equality, inclusion, mutual respect, and freedom of worship. It specifically called on churches and church-related organizations to work proactively to protect the presence of Palestinian Christians, whom it described as the Holy Land’s “living stones.”
This framework gives the Church a strong basis for addressing the forces that can displace Taybeh’s Christians:
The Church’s approach is therefore broader than treating displacement as a private choice by individual families. It recognizes that emigration may be the result of political structures and social conditions that deprive people of security, livelihood, and hope. The USCCB has stated that the economic and political situation connected with the occupation of Palestinian lands leads Christians to emigrate.
A significant pastoral tension must be acknowledged. Church leaders have strongly encouraged Christians to remain in the Holy Land. John Paul II urged them not to be afraid to preserve their Christian presence and heritage and warned against accepting departure as inevitable. The 2024 appeal similarly expressed concern that Christians might leave Jerusalem and Palestine, causing the region to lose part of its “soul.”
This appeal is understandable: Christian emigration weakens ancient communities, reduces religious diversity, and deprives the Holy Land of a historic witness to the Gospel. Yet it must not become moral pressure placed on families whose safety or livelihood is seriously threatened. A Christian is not required to endanger his or her family in order to satisfy a demographic or ecclesial objective.
The best reading of the Church’s position is therefore not: “Christians must remain regardless of the cost.” It is rather: “The Church must stand with Christians so that remaining becomes a genuinely free and viable choice.” The Church’s own emphasis on education, work, housing, security, and dignity supports this interpretation.
Those who leave should continue to receive pastoral care and solidarity. At the same time, the Church should work to prevent forced or structurally imposed displacement.
Another strength is the Church’s commitment to dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Pope John Paul II called for “brotherhood, dialogue, perseverance and peace” and urged Christians and all people of goodwill to pursue coexistence founded on justice and security. Pope Francis similarly asked the bishops of the Arab regions to be signs of hope through respectful dialogue, reconciliation, peace, brotherhood, and respect.
Dialogue, however, should not be confused with neutrality concerning injustice. The Church’s sources combine dialogue with clear demands: an end to violence, respect for human rights, protection of religious freedom, compliance with international law, and a political settlement that recognizes the legitimate rights of both Israelis and Palestinians.
For Taybeh, this means that dialogue should serve concrete ends:
A response that speaks only of reconciliation without demanding protection and accountability would be pastorally inadequate. Conversely, advocacy that abandons the possibility of reconciliation would also fall short of the Church’s mission.
The Catholic Church’s response is theologically coherent and pastorally substantial. It has several notable achievements:
Its limitations are principally practical and strategic. The available sources do not demonstrate that Catholic diplomacy or aid has been sufficient to halt the structural causes of Christian emigration. Nor do they provide enough specific information to evaluate whether Taybeh has received adequate protection, compensation, legal assistance, or emergency relief in the present circumstances.
The strongest Catholic response would therefore integrate local pastoral presence, direct humanitarian assistance, economic investment, legal and diplomatic advocacy, interreligious cooperation, and sustained international attention. Its purpose should be neither the preservation of a Christian enclave nor the privileging of one community at the expense of others, but the defense of a just society in which Palestinian Christians can remain as equal citizens and continue their ancient witness to Christ in the Holy Land.
In summary, the Church has articulated the right principles and established meaningful forms of solidarity; the unresolved question is whether those principles can be converted into sufficient security, justice, and economic viability to prevent Taybeh’s Christian displacement from becoming permanent.