The Latin parish priest who pastors the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank recently urged Christians worldwide to support its inhabitants amid reports of violent attacks by radical Israeli settlers. 

Bashar Fawadleh, who serves the Palestinian village of Taybeh, told EWTN's sister publication ACI Prensa last Saturday that the land seized by Israeli settlers earlier this month "belonged to the people of Taybeh and were, moreover, our private property."

Taybeh is located east of Jerusalem and north of Ramallah and is also known as the biblical town of Ephraim where Jesus withdrew before His crucifixion in John 11:54. Fawadleh maintained that the settlers are engaged in "a violation of international law and of the rights of the local community," and that their actions are offensive from both a religious and historical perspective.

"This story is about the life of a Christian community that has been present in this land for more than 2,000 years," he told the Catholic outlet.

Fawadleh's appeal comes amid reports that dozens of Israeli settler extremists have escalated raids of multiple Palestinian villages in the West Bank, setting homes, vehicles and agricultural fields on fire, according to the BBC.

The violence reportedly sparked in response to 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman being struck and killed by a Palestinian in a car while he was riding a quad bike last Saturday. Israeli settlers carried out more than 20 attacks against Palestinian villages and towns in the West Bank on Saturday night, injuring at least 11 Palestinians, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Taybeh has repeatedly featured as a flashpoint of regional tensions.

In 2005, hundreds of Muslim men torched homes after a 30-year-old Muslim woman from neighboring Deir Jarir was allegedly engaged in a romantic relationship with a Christian man from the village.

In 2013, Israeli settlers took over a monastery in the village and hoisted an Israeli flag over the building, according to the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency.

During a solidarity visit to Taybeh last July, the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of the Holy Land called on Israeli authorities to punish Israeli settlers for their alleged attacks against the village's fields and holy sites, according to OSV News.

"The attacks by the hands of settlers against our community, which is living in peace, must stop, both here in Taybeh and elsewhere throughout the West Bank. This is clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region," the Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders said in a joint statement.

Last summer, the Israeli Defense Forces said they and Israeli police were dispatched to the area after dozens of Israeli civilians torched property amid a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that devolved into "mutual rock-hurling," according to OSV.

The latest alleged Israeli settler violence drew condemnation from Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who wrote, "The coordinated attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank at the hands of Israeli extremists are unacceptable, and the perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted."

"Violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank is a national security threat to Israel and must be treated as such," added Rosen, whose father's family were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria.

Since the outbreak of the war in Iran, Pope Leo XIV has frequently called for an immediate ceasefire, dialogue and humanitarian aid, describing the conflict last Sunday as a "scandal to the whole human family."

"We cannot remain silent in the face of ‌the ⁠suffering of so many people, the defenseless victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts the ​whole of ​humanity," ⁠he said from St. ​Peter's Square in Vatican City.

Since occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has constructed approximately 160 settlements, which are home to about 700,000 Israelis, who live there along with 3.3 million Palestinians.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/priest-of-christian-village-in-west-bank-condemns-settler-attacks.html