18-07-2025
In the birthplace of Christianity, churches and communities are coming under attack from Jewish settlers
Girgis Awad, a chicken farmer in Taybeh, said Monday that heavily armed settlers recently attempted to carjack him as he returned home from work at night.
'We are often constantly exposed to situations that make difficult our movement and our daily life,' Awad said. He added that settlers were stopping him and others from traveling to their farms to transfer chicks or food.
Christianity is a constant presence in Taybeh, which is home to Greek Orthodox, Latin and Melkite Greek Catholic churches. Small shrines and steeples loom over its streets, which straddle a hilltop overlooking a pastoral expanse of olive orchards. It's also home to the Taybeh Brewing Company, one of very few beer companies in the Muslim-majority West Bank.
The Christian minority here is more endangered than perhaps any other Palestinian community. Since Israel's founding in 1948, the number of Christian Palestinians in what was once Mandatory Palestine has shrunk from around 10% of the population to less than 1%, with many emigrating to the West.
But the settlers aren't targeting Taybeh for its religious identity, priests here say. They want to cleanse the West Bank of its non-Jewish population, regardless of their faith.
'They don't differ between Muslims or Christians,' said the Rev. David Khoury, the leader of Taybeh's Greek Orthodox Church, who said he was born and raised in the town. 'The settlers, they are dealing with us the same.
