In This Palestinian Christian Village, the Hypocrisy of Christian Zionism Is Unmistakable
"Shame on you," says Father Jacques Noble-Abed of Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, referring to US evangelicals who support Israel. "Because this is not the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today, we’re publishing this deeply-reported piece from the occupied West Bank by reporter Delaney Nolan, who interviewed Palestinians on the ground and witnessed apartheid in action. Foreign reporting isn’t easy or cheap, especially in active war zones, but we believe these stories must be told – especially the under-reported scandal of Palestinian Christians being persecuted by far-right Israeli settlers. If you want to support this kind of independent reporting and journalism, and support Zeteo as we grow and expand, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. If you’re already a paid subscriber, we appreciate you but… a reminder… we also accept donations! Thank you for your support.
- Mehdi
TAYBEH, occupied West Bank – Father Jacques Noble-Abed stands at the edge of the stone wall surrounding the cemetery of Taybeh. Below his feet, gray ash in the shape of a burned cross lies on the black, charred ground.
“They are violent,” he says gravely, looking down at the damage near the ruins of the old Byzantine church. “They are acting like gangs.”
Taybeh, one of the last majority-Christian villages in the occupied West Bank, was long considered relatively safe. Here, the bell towers of three churches cast shadows on quiet stone streets. But amid a surge in Israeli settler violence across the West Bank, that has changed.
A little over a month ago, villagers say Israeli settlers set fires around the ancient ruins of St. George’s Cathedral and the village’s cemetery. When young men from the town rushed to extinguish the flames, the dozen or so settlers looking on threw stones at them, Noble-Abed says.
According to residents, some of the Israeli settlers attacking Taybeh’s Christians originate from the nearby Kochav HaShachar settlement, which has been supported by the One Israel Fund, a tax-exempt American nonprofit. One Israel Fund appears to enjoy the backing of Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian Zionist and the current US ambassador to Israel, who, less than a year ago, gave a speech at the group’s 30th anniversary gala.
That connection and the lack of concern among many evangelicals in the US over the increasing violence against Palestinians underscore the hypocrisy of Christian Zionists, who remain staunch supporters of Israel and its state-backed settlers even as their escalating violence harms fellow Christians across occupied Palestine.
That hypocrisy is unmistakable in Taybeh, where Noble-Abed tells me the village has received no support from American faith leaders: “Unfortunately, [many] American Christians are also pro-Zionist.”
To them, he says, “Shame on you. Because this is not the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel.”