The only entirely Christian village of the West Bank is getting ready to celebrate the Lord's coming in an atmosphere halfway between the joy of the festivity and the fear of new attacks by Israeli colonists.

Taybeh village

 

The old Melkite Greek church in Taybeh

 By Jean-Charles Putzolu   

22/12/2025

A few days before Christmas, Israeli authorities announced the creation of 19 new colonies in the West Bank. A measure introduced by the Israeli government to prevent “the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state”.

In a context of growing colonisation following the October 7 Hamas attacks near the Gaza Strip, 69 colonies have been established in the last three years in the West Bank.

It is in this climate of tension that Palestinian Christians are getting ready to celebrate Christmas.

In Taybeh, the only entirely Christian village in the West Bank, settler attacks are common.

Over the past few weeks, five cars have been set on fire, according to Father Bashar Fawadleh, Latin priest of the village.

Last June, a massive fire ravaged farmland, blackening the perimeter walls of the ruins of an ancient Melkite Greek church not far from residential blocks.

Locals spoke out against a sort of impunity for the author of these acts and pointed out the delay in the Israeli army's response, which is responsible for security.

A tried and tested method

With each new settlement establishment, West bankers face the same situation all over again: burnt lands, the arrival of herds of cows or sheep, the first caravans and bungalows, a clearly visible Israeli flag and then the first constructions.

Here’s how, over the space of a few months, new settlements were built, often atop the hills, before spreading into Palestinian territory.

In Taybeh, Christian leaders decided not to respond with violence to acts of intimidation.

“We will resist peacefully”, said Jack Nobel, priest of Taybeh’s Melkite Greek church parish.

So far, none of the villagers have been killed or injured. In the mainly Muslim neighbouring villages, violent actions have caused casualties.

Everybody fears that something tragic might happen in Taybeh as well.

The village’s Catholic and Orthodox officials strive to teach not to use violence in their schools.

Christmas stronger than fear

Despite this backdrop, the joyful expectation of Christmas prevails. During last Sunday’s Mass, the priest of the Latin parish of Taybeh received a small French delegation.

Bishop Hughues de Woillemont, director of The Ouvre d’Orient, Jean Yves Tolot, president of the same organisation and Father Christophe Le Sourt, general secretary of France’s episcopal conference, gave their support to Taybeh Christians and celebrated with them the Nativity of the Lord.

Along with other associations, The Œuvre d’Orient provides funding to projects aiming at the sustainment of local Christian communities.

Due to the lack of work and future prospects, the fear of Christians leaving town is a significant issue.

In the past two years, 15 families left Taybeh in search of a better life abroad, Father Fawadeh clarified. Another Melkite family will leave the village before the end of the year.

Gradually, this Palestinian community of 1400 residents is shrinking.

Last Sunday morning, about a hundred people took part in the Eucharist in the village’s Latin church.

A crib sits at the foot of the altar, on the windows, light garlands invite the faithful to take in the joy of the moment and to forget, at Christmas time, threats to the future of Christians in the lands of Christ.

Last Sunday's Mass in Taybeh

 https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2025-12/christmas-west-bank-gaza-palestine.html

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Christmas joy eases fear for future in West Bank Christian village

Read also

Israel allows 19 new settlements in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces raze Palestinian farmland in West Bank's Jenin area  (ANSA)

Settlement activity has accelerated under Israel’s current right-wing coalition, which includes parties opposed to Palestinian statehood and supportive of expanding Israeli control over the West Bank.

Palestinian officials condemned the move, warning that it undermines prospects for a two-state solution and heightens tensions on the ground.

Western governments have repeatedly urged Israel to halt settlement expansion.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit called the approvals illegitimate and a violation of international law. He said the decision defies global consensus against settlement activity.

For his part, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also criticized Israel’s settlement policy, saying it restricts Palestinian access to land and threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.

Under international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal.

 https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2025-12/israel-west-bank-settlements-palestinian-statehood.html

CHRISTMAS 2024: From DC to the Vatican, baby Jesus is wearing a keffiyeh (RNS) — The pro-Palestinian creche is intended to point out the disconnect between the idealized Bethlehem of most representations and the reality in present-day Gaza and the West Bank.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is one of several churches across the country that have created crèches called “Christ in the Rubble.” The name comes from a book by Palestinian Christian pastor Munther Isaac. Featuring the baby Jesus wrapped in a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, the creche is intended to remind Christians that if Jesus were born today, he would be born under the rubble. (Photo courtesy Lindsey Jones-Renaud)

 By Yonat Shimron  December 9, 2024 

(RNS) — The scene representing the birth of Jesus is a common December sight, artfully arranged on church lawns or entryways across the country.

But in some churches this year, the nativity crèche is looking a bit different.

The manger has been replaced with a pile of rocks, and the baby Jesus is swaddled not with a thin blanket but with a black-and-white keffiyeh, the Middle Eastern-style scarf that has become a symbol of Palestinians’ resistance to Israeli aggression.

This tableau, often called Christ in the Rubble, first appeared last year in the town of Bethlehem outside the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, pastored by the prominent Palestinian minister and activist Munther Issac. All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, quickly copied it and constructed one on its lawn.

This Advent season, leading to Christmas, they are becoming more common. Even Pope Francis was presented a crèche Saturday (Dec. 7) by two Bethlehem-based artists, featuring a baby Jesus nestled in a keffiyeh.

The pontiff declared “Enough wars, enough violence!” while receiving the delegation of Palestinian groups that organized the project.

In Washington, D.C., less than half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, another church assembled a Christ in the Rubble crèche last week.

The nativity scene outside St. Mark’s Episcopal Church features a Black baby Jesus swaddled in a keffiyeh lying in a bed of broken bricks and clumps of concrete and wire.

It is intended to bring awareness to Israel’s ongoing war that has leveled the Gaza Strip and killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as well as to the plight of Palestinians in Bethlehem, located in the occupied West Bank. While most Palestinians are Muslim, there is a thriving Palestinian Christian community in Bethlehem, the site of Jesus’ birth, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

 “At Christmas, we sing about Bethlehem and we put up our manger scenes and talk about this story of Jesus being born in this town of Bethlehem with its themes of peace, love, joy and hope,” said Lindsey Jones-Renaud, a lay member of St. Mark’s who was part of the team that assembled the crèche last week. “But there’s such a disconnect between all that and what is actually happening in Bethlehem right now and in the surrounding lands.”  ... READ MORE  https://religionnews.com/2024/12/09/this-advent-christ-in-the-rubble-creches-feature-a-baby-jesus-in-a-keffiyeh/

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Pope Benedict XVI (L) shakes hands with Coptic Catholic patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, Antonios Naguib, on the last day of the synod of bishops from the Middle East at the Vatican. The Catholic bishops urged the United Nations to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands at the end of a meeting chaired by the pope (AFP/Osservatore Romano)

Vatican body urges UN to end Israeli occupation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101023/wl_mideast_afp/vaticanreligionisraelarab
VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Catholic bishops in the Middle East urged the United Nations Saturday to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands at the end of a meeting chaired by Pope Benedict XVI.

In a final statement of their two-week synod, the bishops and patriarchs of the region's Catholic churches said the citizens of the Middle East "call upon the international community, particularly the United Nations, conscientiously to work to find a peaceful, just and definitive solution in the region, through the application of the Security Council?s resolutions and taking the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories.

"The Palestinian people will thus have an independent and sovereign homeland where they can live with dignity and security. The State of Israel will be able to enjoy peace and security within their internationally recognized borders.

"The Holy City of Jerusalem will be able to acquire its proper status, which respects its particular character, its holiness and the religious patrimony of the three religions: Jewish, Christian and Muslim. We hope that the two-State-solution might become a reality and not a dream only."

The statement referred to Security Council resolutions which called on Israel to quit territories seized during the 1967 Middle East War, including east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The synod was marked by repeated affirmations that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the root of the tension affecting the whole Middle East.

With its resolution, the bishops said, "Iraq will be able to put an end to the consequences of its deadly war and re-establish a secure way of life which will protect all its citizens with all their social structures, both religious and national.

"Lebanon will be able to enjoy sovereignty over its entire territory, strengthen its national unity and carry on in its vocation to be the model of coexistence between Christians and Muslims, of dialogue between different cultures and religions, and of the promotion of basic public freedoms."

The synod also said, "We condemn violence and terrorism from wherever it may proceed as well as all religious extremism. We condemn all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Christianism and Islamophobia and we call upon the religions to assume their responsibility to promote dialogue between cultures and civilisations in our region and in the entire world."

The bishops took aim at claims by hardline Jewish settlers in particular that they had a right to occupy the whole land of Israel promised to God by the Jews according to the Old Testament.

"Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the synod said.

"On the contrary, recourse to religion must lead every person to see the face of God in others and to treat them according to their God-given prerogatives and God?s commandments, namely, according to God's bountiful goodness, mercy, justice and love for us."

Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States, who headed the commission that drew up the final statement, said, "The theme of the promised land cannot be used as a basis to justify the return of the Jews to Israel and the expatriation of the Palestinians."

"For Christians one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people," he told a press conference, because the "promise" was "abolished by the presence of Christ."

In the kingdom of God, which covers the whole world, "there is no longer a favoured people, a chosen people, all men and women of every country have become the chosen people," the Lebanese-born Butros said.