In the West Bank’s last Christian village, faith, fear and uncertainty

TAYBEH, West Bank — “Come visit Taybeh,” begins the brochure promoting the tourist attractions here, the last village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank populated entirely by Palestinian Christians.

Taybeh’s traditional deputy mayor, Khaldoon Hanna, said “no one comes” these days, although he counts Jesus among his many visitors over the years.

He sighed as he looked at the restaurant he owned on the village’s main street. The kitchen appeared abandoned, with little sign of activity and a layer of dust covering most of the tables. Only one faucet in the bathroom was working, but I didn’t think it was worth fixing the rest.

“There haven’t been more than 20 tourists here in the last two years,” Hanna said.

How can they do this, Hanna said, when they have to overcome ever-growing Israeli roadblocks just to get here? Or will you confront the brave settlers who are increasingly raiding the village to burn cars or destroy property? Hanna and religious leaders visited St. Paul, a 5th-century Byzantine structure on Taybeh Hill, in July. He said that they even tried to set fire to the ruins of St. George’s Church; The Israeli government says it is unclear what started the fire.

“At this point there is a violent attack on us and we as Christians cannot do anything,” Hanna said. “If we do not receive support, whether social, political or economic, we will soon disappear.”

Life as a Palestinian near settlements has long been difficult in this idyllic part of the West Bank, where hilltop olive groves are the scene of regular clashes between Palestinian residents and Jewish settlers. The conflict has become increasingly deadly, with more than 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and armed settlers since a Hamas offensive in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations.

But even as the war in Gaza is winding down, extremist settler groups such as the so-called Hilltop Youth have redoubled their unprecedented – and increasingly effective – campaign of harassment and land grabs affecting all Palestinians, regardless of religion or political affiliation.

This year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that more than 1,000 attacks had been recorded in the West Bank by August, making it on track to become the most violent attack in history.

The scope of the intimidation campaign is also increasing: during the October olive harvest, there were 126 attacks on Palestinians and their property in 70 West Bank towns and villages; This was almost three times the number of attacks and twice the number of communities targeted in the 2023 harvest. OCHA says more than 4,000 olive trees and saplings have been destroyed, the highest number in six years.

Almost half of these attacks took place in Ramallah province, which includes Taybeh and a number of communities struggling with increasing violence in settlements (i.e., camps established by settlers in rural West Bank areas, which are illegal under Israeli law but generally protected by authorities).

Worshipers walk on the grounds of the Latin Church of Christ the Redeemer in Taybeh.

(Maya Alleruzzo / For the Times)

Taybeh, which means “delicious” in Arabic and relies on tourism as well as olives and other harvests, has been particularly affected, if only because of demographics: Christians make up roughly 1% to 2% of the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank; This rate was about 10% when Israel was founded in 1948.

Even within this small minority, Taybeh’s 1,200 residents are extremely proud of their community and see it as unique. Tourists have long been coming here to take a day trip along the hiking trails where prophets once walked or to visit the village’s different churches. In years past, this was the site of an Oktoberfest celebration attended by 16,000 people.

Just as Christians in other parts of the Middle East have fled the country due to war and instability, the persistent lack of security and accompanying economic strangulation has pushed 10 families to flee the village in the last two years. Father Jack-Nobel Abed of Taybeh Greek Melkite Catholic Church said that although this figure may seem like a small figure, it is a loss that the village cannot afford.

Abed, who has an impressive beard and a baritone voice, passionately advocates for Christians to remain in the Holy Land. When U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an ardent supporter of the settler movement, visited Taybeh after the nearby church was set on fire, Abed asked him not to issue U.S. immigrant visas to Christians in the area.

“I told him, ‘We have something to do in this land. This is our land and our roots are deep enough to reach hell,'” Abed said. But he said he also understands when people leave for a while and come back later.

“If the conditions and situation force someone [to leave] Because if they are afraid of their children being killed, imprisoned, or not having a viable future, you can’t hold a stick and stop them from doing what they need to do,” Abed said.

He has little patience for Christian Zionists like Huckabee, who claim to care about Christians in the region while turning a blind eye to the persecution that drives them away.

“Who are you to speak on my behalf as a Christian? If there was no one like me in this land, how would you learn Christianity?” Abed asked.

Khaldoon Hanna, at the restaurant he owns in Taybeh, says that few tourists come to the village anymore because of the violence committed by Israeli settlers and the increased security measures implemented by Israel in the West Bank.

(Maya Alleruzzo / For the Times)

The Israeli military says it is working to prevent settler attacks and that Palestinians should coordinate with Israeli authorities in advance to visit their land if they are near settlements or outposts. But even when Palestinians do this, settlers often show up to block them, and in the past they have seized areas that never required coordination.

When Palestinians fight back, the army tries them according to military law; Settlers, on the other hand, are subject to civil law if a lawsuit is filed against them. A report published last year by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din stated that between 2005 and 2023, more than 93 percent of investigations against settlers were closed without indictment. Only 3 percent resulted in conviction.

A butcher shop sits empty in the central West Bank village of Taybeh, about 20 miles east of Jerusalem.

(Maya Alleruzzo / For the Times)

In any case, Hanna and others say the lines between settlers and the military have blurred since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“They’re all the same,” Hanna said. “The whole purpose is to make me forget about everything called Palestine, to reach a point of despair where I have nothing. I have no future here.”

On this point Hanna and the hard-line settlers agree.

Settler leader Elisha Jared wrote of

Madees Khoury, general manager of Taybeh Brewing Co., at the family-run brewery in Taybeh.

(Maya Alleruzzo / For the Times)

But some Palestinians refuse to give up. Madees Khoury, general manager of Taybeh Brewing Co., is among those who have chosen to stay in the city, but he knows at least one family is preparing to migrate in the coming weeks.

“Khalas, you can’t blame them,” he said, using the Arabic word for “enough.” “It’s sad. These are good people; people you want to stay, build, educate their children, resist.”

These were the values ​​that guided his family as they opened their microbrewery in the optimistic days after the 1993 Oslo Accords, when peace and a Palestinian state seemed just around the corner. Instead of starting a brewery in Boston, Khoury’s father, Nadeem Khoury, and his brother quit their jobs in Brookline, Massachusetts, and moved back to Taybeh with their children.

Khoury started hanging out at the brewery when he was 7, folding cardboard and “generally standing in other people’s way.” He remembers his childhood during the second intifada, or uprising, when he was unable to attend birthday parties because Israeli checkpoints were closed and drove through mountain passes filled with the stench of tear gas.

“It is not normal. But I am a stronger Palestinian because I went through this process. I am not afraid of a settler with an M-16 at the checkpoint; he is more afraid of me,” he said. He added that pressure from the United States was the only way to reduce the wave of violence engulfing his village.

“If Americans want peace, if they really care about Christians in Palestine, they will not allow settlers to stay in Taybeh land and create problems.”

The iconography is from the 5th-century St. It is exhibited in the ruins of St. George’s Church.

(Maya Alleruzzo / For the Times)

Although Israel presents itself as a model of religious freedom, there has been an increase in anti-Christian behavior in recent years. A 2024 report by the Jerusalem-based Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue counted 111 reported cases of attacks on Christians in Israel and the West Bank; of these, 46 were physical assaults, 35 were attacks on church property, and 13 were harassment cases.

Khoury said, “As Christians, we think nothing will happen to us. But this is empty talk. As long as you are Palestinian, they will attack you.”

After earning a college degree in Boston, he returned in 2007 and has been working at the brewery ever since. He admits that the last two years have been the toughest ever, with business down 70 percent and Israeli security procedures turning the 90-minute journey to Haifa port into a three-day journey. Still, the company used the recession to build a new brewery; this was an expression of faith despite almost daily attacks from settlers.

“My brother jokes and says we built this for settlers to buy,” he said as we walked through the new brewery wing.

He paused for a moment, his face turning serious.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re building. We’re growing. We’re investing. And we’re staying,” he said.

“Because this is home.”