West Bank’s last-standing Christian town Taybeh gripped by fear and settler attacks

For years, residents of Taybeh, the last Christian Palestinian town in the West Bank, believed their community had remained largely untouched by the region’s upheavals.

However, increasing settler attacks and encroachment have changed that, with residents now facing restrictions on farmland, water sources and movement.

According to Al Jazeera, roughly seven settler outposts now surround the town, with several reportedly built on Taybeh’s municipal land.

Residents say settlers have repeatedly grazed livestock on private fields, damaged property and set fires near farmland and the town’s historic churches.

The Ein Samiya spring, which supplies water to Taybeh Brewery and nearby Palestinian communities, has also come under settler control, Al Jazeera reports.

Madees Khoury, who runs her family’s Taybeh Brewery, said the situation was once unimaginable. “Taybeh was always safe, untouched. Never, never, never did I imagine it would come to this,” she was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

The news outlet reported that even Israeli authorities’ measures have offered little reassurance.

After recent attacks, the army declared Taybeh and neighbouring Rammun a closed military zone, but residents say the order has done little to stop settlers.

Instead, they fear it will further isolate the town by restricting visitors and activists.

The pressure is also deepening an existing exodus of Palestinian Christians. Fifteen families have left Taybeh over the past two years, according to the town’s priest, Father Bashar Fawadleh.

Yet residents say leaving is not an option.

“This land is ours,” Father Bashar said, stressing their determination to remain rooted in Taybeh. Mayor Suleiman Khourieh similarly said, “We are Palestinian Christians. We have been in this town since the Lord Christ walked in it. This is our town. We will not leave it.”