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Taybeh intimidation escalates
In early August, Joseph Hazboun visited a newly built home among the fields near Taybeh, which he described as the last Christian village in the West Bank, where the owner said he could not access his property safely due to intimidation by Israeli settlers.
““I witnessed firsthand how this settler terrorizes the local community,” Hazboun said”
Hazboun said a settler approached him driving a tractor at full speed to intimidate and chase him and his group away, and he added that the man carried a gun concealed beneath his shirt.
Two Israeli peace activists stepped in to prevent the confrontation from escalating, and Hazboun later wrote that the “systematic intimidation” of Palestinian families by Israeli settlers left families “stranded away from the very homes they built.”
Hazboun said settler violence has escalated in recent weeks and that Israel’s military declared Taybeh closed to nonresidents in an attempt to prevent attacks.
In Taybeh, Bashar Fawadleh, the Latin parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Church, said “insecurity has become a daily reality,” adding that settlers cut fences, bathed in private water cisterns, and stole a beehive.
Warnings, arrests, and pressure
Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the West Bank could slip out of control due to settler violence, with Yedioth Ahronoth reporting that Kochavi told Netanyahu personally that the West Bank could go out of control because of what it described as ‘national crimes.’
In a separate report, Anadolu Ajansı said Israeli and foreign peace activists organized a protest in front of the European Union headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem urging the EU to intervene to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The Anadolu report said the occupied West Bank has seen a rise in attacks by settlers against Palestinians and their properties, intensifying in recent weeks ahead of general Israeli elections scheduled for October 27.
In the same period, the UN warned of the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire and the rapid deterioration in the occupied West Bank, urging full implementation of the 15-point roadmap and Security Council Resolution 2803.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council, Ramesh Akbarov said: “Addressing the situation in Gaza is crucial while the population continues to suffer and hope wanes.”
What’s at stake next
The stakes in the West Bank, as described by the sources, include the risk of wider escalation and the intensification of military and political actions tied to settler violence.
““A settler could go anywhere in the West Bank and set up a tent,” Hazboun said”
In the Christianity Today account, Hazboun said the confrontation was one episode in a growing struggle over land in the West Bank and described a pattern in which “a settler could go anywhere in the West Bank and set up a tent,” which could later become barracks, containers, homes, and then a settlement.
The Foreign Policy Situation Report said the Israeli government is facing global criticism and that the United Nations warned this year has seen the highest rate of settler violence on record, citing an average of 6.6 settler-related incidents per day in the West Bank since the beginning of the year.
Foreign Policy also said the surge in violence comes ahead of Israel’s highly anticipated elections in October and that Netanyahu’s critics contend his weak response is driven in part by his desire to avoid antagonizing extremist politicians propping up his coalition government.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Democrats in the U.S. Senate urged Netanyahu to rein in the “surge” of violence carried out by settlers and mass arrests of Palestinians, and they urged investigations into the killings of nine American citizens killed by settlers or security forces in the West Bank since 2022.