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On Sunday mornings, the bells call believers to worship in the village’s three churches located on top of this hill, where the gospels describe Jesus visiting. It’s totally last now Christian One of the occupied West Bank.
to be proud palestinianThe Christians of Taybeh – Catholics of the Roman and Greek Melkite rites, and Greek Orthodox – have longed for the freedom and peace of this part of the Holy Land.
But that hope seems slim as they grapple with threats of violence from Jewish settlers and restrictions on movement imposed by Israel. Many also say they fear Islamic radicalism will increase in the region as conflict escalates across the region.
And even an agreement to stop the fighting was announced on Thursday Gaza Did not address those urgent concerns.
The Rev. Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church, told The Associated Press, “In my opinion, the situation in the West Bank requires another compromise – removal and expulsion of the settlers from our land.” “We are so tired of this life.”
On a recent Sunday, families gathered for Mass at the church, where a Vatican and a Palestinian flag stood next to the altar, and a tall mosaic depicted the arrival of Jesus in the village then called Ephraim.
More families gathered at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church. Filled with signs written in Arabic and Greek, it’s just down the road, overlooking a hilltop villa set among olive groves.
“We are struggling so much. We don’t see the light,” said its priest, the Rev. David Khoury. “We feel like we are in a big prison.”
The decades-old conflict is escalating
The West Bank is the area between Israel and Jordan which Israel captured in the 1967 war. Palestinians Want a future state combining East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Israel seized them from Jordan and Egypt in that war.
The Israel-Hamas war has ravaged Gaza since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, affecting the strip’s small Christian community. The Catholic church was hit by Israeli shelling in July, although it is functioning again.
Violence has also increased in the West Bank. Israeli military operations have escalated to respond to what the military calls a growing militant threat, most visible in frequent attacks on checkpoints.
Palestinians say civilians not involved in the raids have been trapped and accuse the army of not protecting them from near-daily violence by settlers.
After leading the music ministry at a recent Sunday Catholic Mass, as he has done for six decades, Suhail Nazzal walked to the edge of the village to survey its terraces of olive trees.
He said residents no longer allow him and other villagers to harvest crops. He also blamed settlers for starting a fire on the opposite hilltop this summer, which burned dangerously close to the cemetery where his parents were buried and the ruins of Taybeh’s oldest church, the 5th-century St. George’s.
Christian families leaving the Holy Land
Nazzal plans to stay in Taybeh, but his family lives in the United States. The pastor said at least a dozen families have left Taybeh, population 1,200, and more families are considering leaving because of the violence, declining economic opportunities and the way checkpoints restrict daily life.
Victor Barakat, a Catholic, and his wife Nadine Khouri, who is Greek Orthodox, moved with their three children from Massachusetts to Tayyebeh, where Khouri grew up.
“We love Palestine,” he said after attending a service in St. George’s. “We wanted to raise children here, teach them the culture, the language, family traditions.”
Still hopeful they can stay in Tayyeb, they say the security situation seems even more precarious than during the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s, when hundreds of Israelis were killed, including in suicide bombings, and thousands of Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations.
“Everyone is unsafe. You never know who will stop you,” Barakat said, adding that he no longer takes children to after-school activities because of the lack of safety on the streets.
And while he was pleased with the agreement to stop fighting in Gaza, he was skeptical that it would impact settler attacks closer to home.
“The West Bank’s agenda is more complex still,” Barakat said.
Tayyebeh’s Christian churches run schools from kindergarten to high school as well as sports and music programs. The impact of the current cycle of mistrust and violence on young people is worrying for teachers.
“When we go from here to Ramallah or any (village) in Palestine, we don’t feel safe. We are always afraid of being killed, of something terrible happening,” said Marina Maarouf, vice principal of a Catholic school.
He said students had to shelter in the school for hours waiting for the opening of “flying checkpoints” – street gates that Israeli authorities usually close in response to attacks in the area.
Trying to maintain presence and confidence
From villages like Tayyebeh to once-popular and now struggling tourist destinations like Bethlehem, between 1%-2% of the West Bank’s approximately 3 million residents are Christian, the majority of whom are Muslim. In the wider Middle East, the Christian population has declined steadily as people have fled conflict and attacks.
But for many, maintaining a presence in the birthplace of Christianity is essential to identity and faith.
Fawadleh said, “I love my country because I love my Jesus Christ.” “My Messiah is Ibn al-Balad,” he said, using an Arabic word meaning “son of the land.”
Israel, whose founding declaration includes protecting freedom of religion and all holy sites, sees itself as an island of religious tolerance in a volatile region. But some church officials and watchdog groups have recently lamented a rise in anti-Christian sentiment and persecution, particularly in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Hana Bendkowski said that, while there are a small minority of Jewish extremists targeting Christians, attacks such as spitting on a priest are enough to create a sense of impunity and thus overall fear. She leads the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue.
The Catholic Church’s Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, also highlighted growing problems in the West Bank, ranging from settler attacks to a lack of jobs and permits to move around freely, which he said could lead more Christians to decide to leave.
For the Franciscan priest, who is the new Custodian of the Holy Land and oversees more than 300 monks serving various holy sites in the region, “our first great duty is to be here.”
“We cannot stop the bleeding, but we remain here and will be with everyone,” said the Rev. Francesco Ilpo, who was confirmed by Pope Leo XIV three months ago to head the Holy Land mission founded more than 800 years ago by St. Francis.
Struggling to provide hope amidst despair
Ilpo said the biggest challenge for Christians is to offer a different approach to the social fractures deepened by the war in Gaza.
“Even where before there were opportunities for relationships, opportunities to meet or just to co-exist, doubts now arise. ‘Can I trust the other? Am I really safe?'” he said.
Michael worships at the Greek Orthodox Church of Hajjal Tayybeh, and is torn between his love for the village, the constant fear he feels, and concern for his son’s future.
“What kind of future can I create for my son when we’re in business and in this financial situation?” He said. “Even 16 or 17-year-olds are saying, ‘I wish I were dead.'”
In addition to offering hope – from youth programs to employment workshops and practical help – the pastors of Taybeh’s churches are working together to combat such despair.
“As Palestinians we are still waiting for the third day,” Fawadleh said. “The third day means new life, freedom, independence and new liberation for our people.”
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Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.