Test of faith for this Palestinian Christian village

In Taybeh, West Bank, residents face fear and an uncertain future amid settler violence, Israeli roadblocks and economic woes.

- NABIH BULOS

CHURCHES, which are a major tourist draw in Taybeh, West Bank, now see fewer visitors. Above, the Christ the Redeemer Latin Church.

“Come visit Taybeh,” begins the brochure touting the tourist attractions here, the last entirely Palestinian Christian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Though it counts Jesus among its many visitors over the years, said Khaldoon Hanna, Taybeh’s avuncular deputy mayor, these days “no one is coming.”

He sighed as he looked around the restaurant he owns on the village’s Main Street. It felt abandoned, with little trace of activity in the kitchen and a layer of dust coating most tables. Only one faucet worked in the bathroom, but it didn’t feel worth it to repair the rest.

“In the last two years, I haven't had more than 20 tourists come in here,' Hanna said.

How could they, Hanna said, when you have to negotiate a growing gantlet of Israeli roadblocks just to get here? Or face off with emboldened settlers who make increasing forays into the village to burn cars or destroy property? In July they even tried to set fire to the ruins of the Church of St. George, a 4th century Byzantine structure on Taybeh’s hilltop, Hanna and religious leaders said; the Israeli government says it’s unclear what started the blaze.

"There's a vicious attack on us at this point, and we as Christians, we can do nothing," Hanna said. "If we don't get support, be it social, political, economic, we'll be extinct soon." Life as a Palestinian near the settlements has long been difficult in this bucolic portion of the West Bank, where the olive groves covering the hills are the sites of regular confrontations between Palestinian residents and Jewish settlers. The confrontations have become increasingly lethal, with more than 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and armed settlers since the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according United Nations.