During a visit to the UK, a parish priest in the last remaining Christian village in the West Bank warned about the “violent attacks” on his community by settlers.
Father Bashar Fawadleh, Latin Patriarch Catholic priest at Christ the Redeemer parish in Taybeh, described to journalists and later UK parliamentarians what the “radical settlers” were doing to drive Christians from their homes.
“16 families have left Taybeh; that means between 70 to 75 persons in the last 3 years … If this place will be empty [of] Christians, you will lose your roots from the land, because we are the roots of the Christians,” he said at at a press conference with journalists late last October.
He went onto to describe a recent attack he was present at.
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“The fire was coming closer to our homes, so we took the initiative,” Fawadleh said.
“I was with the people at that time, and I was so afraid, but I [went] with the people with the tractor to the small tank for water to extinguish the fire … The settlers came back with drones and phones to film,” he explained.
“They stole our phones and broke our cars … When we escaped, they followed us and … they [shot] against us three times … It was something as very dangerous and serious,” he added.
Fawadleh said the Western part of Taybeh was also having problems with Bedouins.
“We are not just facing not just occupation, the attacks by the settlers, but we are facing also the Bedouins who are still stealing our land, stealing our olive groves, and they’re picking the olives without any permission … and the Palestinian government, they do nothing,” he said.
“I’m not afraid to share this with you because this is the reality … This is another issue that we are facing as Palestinians and Christians, because it’s the same scene in the other villages with the Bedouins,” he added.
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Fawadleh also explained what happened recently when a diplomatic delegation was caught up in the violence.
“We were all shocked because this is the first time that we are facing something like that. We thought, has something happened against the diplomatic missions? What would have happened if we had been alone without any diplomatic missions?” he said.
In October, Israeli police said they arrested 10 people in connection with the settler violence that also saw foreign journalists attacked in the West Bank.
However, despite all the pressure the Christians are under, Fawadleh said their presence in the region was vital.
“This is our situation, but still we are the Church. The Church is present. We do not just put our hands up and say we cannot do anything. No, the Church is present. We are raising our voice, we are inviting the people to come to Taybeh,” he said.
“We don’t ask anything, we don’t ask any privilege because we are Christians. No, we ask human rights. We ask basic rights. to live in security and safety. That’s all,” he added.