[Opinion. I have days when I think Israel has lost the right to be a homeland for Jews. This is one of those days. It certainly looks like all Israelis have drunk the same poison and turned their hearts to stone. These are not “settlers”. They are monsters teaching their children the only human lives worth saving are Jewish.] Taybeh Burning: Israeli Settlers Set Christian Village Alight, Impede Firefighters Caritas Canada: 12 Jun 2026 Taybeh is home to the oldest living Christian community in the world. For centuries, Palestinian Christians have lived, prayed, farmed, and raised families in this village. Today, they are watching their community come under attack as settler violence across the occupied West Bank continues to escalate. Palestinian villages are being subjected to a reality of constant intimidation, where violence is used not only to terrorize people, but to make them abandon the land they have lived on for generations. The goal is not simply to attack Palestinians, it is to make life so unbearable that staying becomes impossible. Across the illegally occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers invade villages, grab land, disrupt livelihoods and assault Palestinians with impunity, usually with state support. Settlers and soldiers have killed more Palestinians over the past three years than over the preceding 17 combined. Just since January 2025, they have conducted over 2,500 attacks; razed more than 2,100 structures, including over 600 homes; and displaced nearly 40,000 people. Earlier this week, they came for Taybeh. It was not the first time they targeted this last remaining all-Christian settlement of Palestine. In July 2025, Israeli settlers had similarly spread terror in the town, prompting the priests of its three churches to release a statement that was republished on our website. Fr. Bashar Fawadleh had also recounted that attack during a webinar that Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada had organized last year. Fr. Bashar’s statement on this latest attack highlights how ineffective Canada’s response to West Bank settler expansionism has been. Content to join peer countries in issuing the occasional mild condemnation or some very limited sanctions, the Government of Canada has not even definitively ceased exporting arms to Israel. For Palestinians living under occupation, these attacks take place within a deeply unequal reality. Settlers can move freely, enter Palestinian communities, attack property and farmland, and often leave without consequence. Meanwhile, Palestinians are left with little protection and few avenues for justice. Again and again, communities face violence alone. The result is a dystopian reality where entire villages are forced to live in anticipation of the next attack. Farmers are afraid to access their land. Families go to sleep wondering whether their homes will still be standing in the morning. We should be outraged by what is happening in Taybeh and the entire occupied West Bank. There is nothing normal about civilians living in fear of armed mobs. There is nothing normal about communities watching their land burn while those responsible continue to act with impunity. There is nothing normal about forcing people from their homes through violence and terror. The people of Taybeh deserve more than sympathy after the fact. They deserve protection, accountability, and the right to live safely and freely on their land.
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