TAYBEH, OCCUPIED WEST BANK — A growing international coalition of church leaders and diplomats has forcefully condemned a sharp escalation in Israeli settler violence across the occupied West Bank, accusing the Israeli regime and its military forces of enabling and protecting the perpetrators. In a high-profile visit on Monday to the Christian-majority Palestinian town of Taybeh, senior clerics joined envoys from more than 20 nations to demand accountability and immediate international intervention.
The delegation included representatives from Russia, China, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union. During their visit, they observed scorched farmlands and desecrated church property, evidence of recent settler raids. The Church of St. George, a centuries-old symbol of religious coexistence in Taybeh, stands next to land reportedly torched by Israeli settlers earlier this month.
Speaking at the site, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III declared that “Israeli settlers have been pushing Palestinian communities off their lands, out of their homes, with the silent complicity of the Israeli army.” He was joined by Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who described the attacks as “terroristic” and warned that the West Bank is descending into what he called “a land ruled not by law, but by brute power.”
These remarks were confirmed in a detailed report by Tasnim News, which quoted the patriarchs calling for “an immediate, independent investigation into these crimes” and demanding that Israeli forces be held accountable for failing to stop the violence.
Attacks on Christian holy sites and farmland
The surge in violence has alarmed not only church leaders but also human‑rights organizations. According to a statement from senior clerics in Taybeh, settlers carried out coordinated raids while Israeli soldiers either stood by or failed to respond. These actions included setting fire to farmland, grazing cattle in olive groves to destroy crops, and displaying racist signs, one chilling sign reportedly warned, “There is no future for you here,” according to Associated Press.
Both patriarchs emphasized that the Israeli military refused to intervene despite repeated calls for help. Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa stated at the site, “the only law operating in the West Bank now is the law of violence. Those who have weapons enforce their will.”
Settler expansion linked to US and Western support
The violence in Taybeh is not an isolated case. On the same day, Israeli settlers rampaged through al-Maniya village in Bethlehem, uprooting over 1,500 olive saplings, according to local officials. Zayed Kawazba, head of the village council, According to Wafa News that settlers had pitched tents in Palestinian farmland and razed it with heavy machinery. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces demolished a four-story residential building nearby, rendering dozens of Palestinians homeless.
These events follow a wider pattern of aggressive expansion by Israeli settlers, who number over 500,000 in the West Bank alone. Despite repeated condemnations from the international community, these settlements continue to expand, bolstered by financial support and political backing from Washington and Western European capitals.
Legal experts point out that these settlements violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied territory. Yet the Israeli regime has systematically expanded them with impunity, while armed settlers act as de facto enforcers of displacement, especially in regions like Nablus, Hebron, and now Taybeh.
According to BTselem, an Israeli human rights organization, settler violence is not a spontaneous expression of hatred but a state-backed mechanism to seize land and displace indigenous Palestinians under military occupation.
Religious leaders demand protection of Christian heritage
During their visit to Taybeh, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III condemned the settler attacks as part of an “intentional threat to our local community and to the religious heritage of this land,” holding Israel directly responsible for enabling the violence. He warned that “Christian identity and Palestinian existence are being erased with impunity.”
Standing beside him, Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa declared, “The only law in the West Bank is the law of violence. Those who have weapons enforce their will.” Both leaders accused Israeli forces of systematically ignoring emergency calls during settler assaults, describing the attacks as state-backed terror.
As reported by the Associated Press, the patriarchs led prayers at the scorched Church of St. George and urged the global Christian community to break its silence on the crimes unfolding in Palestine. Reuters noted that Israeli forces “stood by” as settlers torched fields and threatened residents.
The leaders emphasized that these acts are inseparable from Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, warning that “what’s happening across the State of Palestine is not random, it is systematic, and it is being shielded by the political cover and weapons of the United States.”
International outcry grows but Western silence persists
While the EU delegation issued a restrained condemnation, calling the violence “deeply troubling,” Western responses have largely remained tepid. The United States has issued no substantive criticism of Israel’s settler policy, and continues to supply Tel Aviv with billions in annual military aid. Critics argue that this silence amounts to complicity.
A call for global accountability
The visit by senior Christian leaders and international diplomats to Taybeh was more than symbolic, it was a pointed indictment of a growing crisis that Western governments have long enabled. The occupied West Bank is no longer a zone of contested claims but a landscape of systematic violence, where armed Israeli settlers operate with impunity under the protection of military forces funded largely by the United States. Human rights monitors, including B’Tselem and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), have documented a sharp increase in settler violence since October 2023, including arson, property destruction, and forced expulsions of Palestinian families.
Despite this mounting body of evidence, Western powers continue to shield Israel from international accountability. The Israeli regime receives over $3.8 billion annually in US military aid, which experts argue facilitates the expansion of illegal settlements and the suppression of Palestinian civil life. As noted by Human Rights Watch, this ongoing support undermines international law and emboldens Tel Aviv’s most extreme policies.
Without concrete measures, such as arms embargoes, targeted sanctions, and legal proceedings under international law, Israel’s far-right government will persist in dismantling the social fabric of Palestinian communities. The residents of Taybeh, like those in Gaza, are no longer pleading for words. They are demanding that the global community stop enabling occupation and start enforcing justice.
