Israeli settlers repeat attack on Palestinian Christian village in West Bank
Israeli settlers launched an attack on the Christian village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, at dawn on Monday.
They set fire to two cars owned by Palestinian residents and spray painted racist graffiti on walls in the village.
“You’ll regret it later,” read one message, not clarifying what the villagers had done to earn the settlers’ wrath.
Once the settlers left, the Israeli military raided the village spreading further panic among residents.
The campaign of settler intimidation, with Israeli army backing, coincides with the establishment of a new Israeli settlement near Taybeh in June.
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Monday’s attack is the second on this small Palestinian village in as many weeks.
Just a fortnight earlier on 14 July, settlers set the village’s historic Church of Saint George alight, along with its adjoining graveyard.
That attack was severe enough to prompt rare condemnation of Israeli settlers by the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
“It’s my desire to do everything possible to let the people of this peaceful village know that we will certainly insist that those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh - or anywhere - be found and be prosecuted,” he said.
Living in danger
“When I saw them, I started screaming loudly,” said Taybeh resident Farid Kawneh about the latest settler attack.
He told Middle East Eye that his neighbour called him just after 2am to tell him that his car was on fire.
His initial thought was that the cause was a technical fault with the car but as Kawneh rushed towards it, he found a group of settlers speaking to each other in Hebrew.
"They were surprised by me and ran towards the Khalleh area,” he said.
“At the sound of my shouting, a number of villagers arrived at the scene.”
The earlier attack on the Church of Saint George had drawn international condemnation and visits to the village by senior Christian figures, as well as Huckabee.
Harsh condemnation, even by a normally committed Christian Zionist like Huckabee, was not enough to deter further settler violence.
Taybeh resident Kamal Taye also had his car set alight by the settlers.
He told Middle East Eye that the village's residents felt a sense of abandonment and were living without a sense of safety.
'No one is capable of protecting us in our homeland'
- Kamal Taye, resident of Taybeh
"My family and I were scared because our lives were in danger," he said.
He added: "My elderly mother lives with me in the house, and she was terrified. There are no elements of safety in this country under the current circumstances."
Taye explained that the psychological impact of the attacks far outweighed the immediate material damage to their homes and property, as they had no idea what the settlers would do next.
"No one is capable of protecting us in our homeland. We are forced to protect ourselves," Taye said.
"I demand that state officials assume their responsibility to protect us and make us feel safe in our homes."
Settler intimidation
Taybeh is an ancient village, believed to have its origins during the Canaanite period more than 3,000 years ago.
It has a predominantly Christian population of 1,340, according to the 2017 census conducted by the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics.
The area boasts abundant pastoral land and the village's residents primarily make their living raising sheep.
But that abdundance has drawn the attention of settlers who have encroached on the village's territory with the backing of the Israeli military.
Israel initially appropriated huge tracts of land surrounding the village for the construction of roads and the settlers soon followed.
Small bands of settlers, known as the "Youths of the Hills" have set up outposts in the land surrounding Taybeh.
These outposts include "agricultural barracks", which Palestinians cannot approach, restricting their ability to graze their animals freely.
Through a mixture of intimidation of Palestinian shepherds and protection by the Israeli military, the settlers then use Taybeh's land to graze their own animals.
Palestinian farmers and shepherds are subjected to other forms of routine harassment, including the burning of trees, the theft of tools, the demolition of homes and pastures, the arrest of shepherds, and the imposition of heavy fines by the Israeli authorities.
The Israeli humans rights group B'Tselem and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have documented more than 1,200 incidents of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in 2024 alone, an average of three attacks per day, according to an OCHA report issued in December 2024.
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