OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Occupied Jerusalem have condemned a recent settler attack on the West Bank town of Taybeh, which involved assaults on local residents and diplomats during the olive harvest season.
“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 church leaders said in a joint statement issued on Monday, October 19.
“This wild attack on the Christian village of Taybeh and against its peaceful population is not an isolated incident,” they affirmed.
“In the past weeks, the Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to 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,” they added.
The church leaders also voiced their rejection of a recent religious ruling issued by rabbi Dov Lior, who incited Jews to steal olives from Palestinian groves.
“We consider the religious ruling recently published, allowing Jews to take the olives of Palestinians, as unfounded, very worrying and dangerous, and absolutely unacceptable,” they said.
