JERUSALEM, October 20, 2026 (WAFA) – Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem Churches condemned on Tuesday the recent attack by Israeli colonists against Palestinian olive harvesters and a visiting European diplomatic delegation in Taybeh village, northeast of Ramallah.
“We, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, condemn the heinous attack carried out on Saturday, 17 October, by masked settlers in Taybeh against local residents during the olive harvest, and against the foreign guests, including diplomats and officials from European countries, who were with them in a visit of solidarity to the areas sustaining continuous attacks by similar groups of settlers,” the statement read.
They stressed that the recent “wild” attack was not “an isolated incident,” but is an integral part of “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 Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem Churches sounded the alarm over the religious ruling recently issued by prominent Israeli Rabbi Dov Lior permitting colonists to steal olives from Palestinian orchards in the occupied West Bank.
“In this regard, we consider the religious ruling recently published, allowing Jews to take the olives of Palestinians, as unfounded, very worrying and dangerous, and absolutely unacceptable. We very much appreciate that several rabbis and Jewish voices have publicly rejected it,” they said.
They called for bringing “those responsible to justice” and urged the international community to “intensify its efforts to ensure the protection of the people of Taybeh and the West Bank, as well as all those who visit these areas to express their solidarity.”
They renewed their “full support to the community of Taybeh and its churches” and pledged to “continue, as in the past, to do everything possible to preserve the Christian presence there.”
K.F.
