Taybeh parish priest warns of ‘violent attacks’ on Christians during UK visit

During a visit to the UK, a parish priest in the last remaining Christian village in the West Bank warned about the “violent attacks” on his community by settlers.

Father Bashar Fawadleh, Latin Patriarch Catholic priest at Christ the Redeemer parish in Taybeh, described to journalists and later UK parliamentarians what the “radical settlers” were doing to drive Christians from their homes.

“16 families have left Taybeh; that means between 70 to 75 persons in the last 3 years … If this place will be empty [of] Christians, you will lose your roots from the land, because we are the roots of the Christians,” he said at at a press conference with journalists late last October.

He went onto to describe a recent attack he was present at.

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“The fire was coming closer to our homes, so we took the initiative,” Fawadleh said.

“I was with the people at that time, and I was so afraid, but I [went] with the people with the tractor to the small tank for water to extinguish the fire … The settlers came back with drones and phones to film,”