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Church Leaders Condemn Settler Attack on Christian Village
· Confirmed
In Short: Church leaders from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the attack on Taybeh, describing it as a “heinous attack” and warned that it forms part of a wider pattern of settler violence against Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
The European Union on Sunday condemned an attack by Israeli settlers on a convoy carrying European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, calling for action to stop the violence.
According to Al Jazeera, the 27-member bloc issued its statement on Sunday, the day after masked settlers attacked a visiting delegation near the Palestinian village of Taybeh.
The United Nations humanitarian office said last week that nearly 200 settler attacks linked to this year’s harvest had caused casualties or property damage, already exceeding the 185 incidents recorded throughout last year’s season.
On Sunday, Israeli settlers cut down 120 olive trees on Palestinian-owned land in the village of Kisan, southeast of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The EU welcomed statements by Israeli officials condemning the attacks but expected “full accountability” and measures to prevent further violence against Palestinians and journalists.
Masked settlers assaulted Palestinians harvesting olives and severely injured US photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was covering the farmers for The Washington Post.
Diplomats from France, Belgium, and Poland, along with representatives of the Catholic Church, were visiting the predominantly Christian village east of Ramallah to show support for Palestinian olive growers when masked men attacked them.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Israel to crack down on settler pogroms and warned that President Donald Trump did not want another crisis in the West Bank.
Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate reported that Israeli settlers deliberately set fire near the town’s cemetery and the historic Church of Saint George (Al-Khadr), dating back to the 5th century, in Taybeh.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales reported that Israeli settlers stormed Taybeh, the last entirely Palestinian Christian village in the West Bank, and established a new illegal outpost.
The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemned the attack on Taybeh, calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Cara Anna, Associated Press, reported that masked settlers wielding metal bars attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank.
What this adds
The surge in settler violence during the olive harvest season has drawn international condemnation and raised concerns about the safety of both Palestinians and foreign diplomats in the region.
What's confirmed
- Israeli settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said.
- In a statement released Oct. 20 by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the patriarchs and heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said the "wild attack" in Taybeh, one of the last remaining Christian villages in the West Bank, was "not an isolated incident."
- According to The Times of Israel, police are looking into a complaint against Rabbi Dov Lior, a hardline religious Zionist who issued an Oct. 16 religious ruling that allowed Jews to harvest olive trees on Palestinian property "in order to show to the public our ownership of the land, and in so doing one fulfills the (religious) commandment of conquering the land."
- Cara Anna, Associated Press Cara Anna, Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Masked settlers wielding metal bars attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, one of those assaulted said, on a second straight day of violence against Palestinians and foreigners during the sensitive olive harvest.
- "I've been covering this region for over 40 years, and I have never seen this country in such a state as it is today," Levine said, adding that she was "shocked and insulted" that Netanyahu referred to the attack on her and others as an alleged one.
What's still developing
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the violence on Saturday, describing the perpetrators as rioters and said that police had opened an investigation.
- “I was thrown to the ground,” Baudoux told the Reuters news agency on Saturday.
- Israeli police said they arrested 10 people on Monday in connection with the wave of settler violence.
- “In the past weeks, the Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to a wide-scale terror by settlers, which is reaching a peak during this time of the olive harvest, when families go to their lands to collect what they need to live and renew their generations-long bond with their lands,” the statement read.
- “Three vehicles arrived. Several masked individuals, armed with metal bars, got out and came toward us with extreme aggressiveness,” he wrote.
- Masked settlers made aggressive statements toward the diplomats before kicking Bernard Baudoux, 78, the leftist mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, according to witnesses and diplomats who confirmed his identity.