Christian leaders in Jerusalem have released a statement strongly condemning an attack by Jewish settlers against the Christian village of Taybeh and visiting European diplomats in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the “terror” that Palestinians are facing from settlers across the territory.
The attack near Taybeh targeted Palestinians, Belgian, French, and Polish diplomats, as well as a French mayor. The statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, which includes Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders, condemned the “heinous attack carried out on Saturday, 17 October, by masked settlers in Taybeh against local residents during the olive harvest, and against the foreign guests, including diplomats and officials from European countries.”
It said that the “wild attack on the Christian village of Taybeh and against its peaceful population is not an isolated incident,” noting that in recent weeks the “Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to a wide-scale terror by settlers, which is reaching a peak during this time of the olive harvest, when families go to their lands to collect what they need to live and renew their generations-long bond with their land.”
The Christian leaders also condemned a religious ruling from Rabbi Dov Lior, a leading figure in the religious Zionism and settler movements, that said Jews had the right to steal olives from Palestinian orchards in the West Bank.
“In this regard, we consider the religious ruling recently published, allowing Jews to take the olives of Palestinians, as unfounded, very worrying and dangerous, and absolutely unacceptable. We very much appreciate that several rabbis and Jewish voices have publicly rejected it,” the Christian leaders said.
The statement noted that Israeli police made arrests following the attack on Taybeh and expressed hope that “this enforcement will continue in a serious and consistent manner and will not remain an isolated measure.”
Taybeh, the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank, has faced relentless pressure and attacks from Israeli settlers, which have continued despite international attention on the village. Following the latest attack, US diplomats visited Taybeh, but US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended a settler conference that same day.
Huckabee has condemned certain settler attacks but has defended the settler movement as a whole and maintains that Jews have a God-given right to Palestinian land. Huckabee is a Christian Zionist, an ideology that the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem previously described as “damaging.”
