Residents of West Bank’s last Christian village ‘living in fear’

This autumn, for the fourth year running, the residents of the West Bank’s last entirely Christian village are not able to harvest their olives.

 “Most of the land is out of reach”, says Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian Christian activist who grew up nearby and is in close contact with residents. “But, at the same time, Israeli settlers are roaming freely.”

In August, following months of settler attacks, the Israeli government declared Taybeh a ‘closed military zone’, a move it said aimed to protect residents after repeated incidents of settler violence.

In practice, Hassan said, these restrictions “just apply to Palestinians, while the settlers continue to go wherever they want”.

As well as cutting off residents from their olive trees, Hassan continued, Taybeh’s ‘closed military zone’ status also means that pilgrims, journalists and other outsiders are not able to enter, depriving the village of a crucial lifeline to the outside world.

These concerns have also been echoed by Bishop James Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.“I was deeply alarmed to hear that Taybeh has been declared a closed military zone”, the bishop said in a statement over the summer. “It is claimed that this is designed to prevent attacks on residents by Israeli settlers, but it is far from clear that this move will achieve that objective … This ban will lead to a vital loss of income from tourism and pilgrimages and, thereby, international scrutiny on the situation.”