Jerusalem – June 12, 2026 – Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, warned that the West Bank has effectively turned into “a large prison,” as illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers continue to invade Palestinian towns, villages, and communities under full protection of the Israeli occupation army.
Hanna said that the Palestinian Christian town of Taybeh, near Ramallah, has faced a series of racist attacks in recent days, with colonizer groups terrorizing residents in their own homes and streets.
Similar assaults have been reported around the historic Church of Saint Barbara in Aboud, also near Ramallah, and in multiple areas across the occupied West Bank, where colonizers “roam freely through Palestinian villages, camps, and cities to intimidate civilians and push them into fear and uncertainty.”
He added that the rapid expansion of colonies and outposts has become an undeniable reality, particularly in the Bethlehem district, including Ush Ghorab and Beit Sahour, where Palestinian lands are being seized and new colonial structures erected.
Hanna questioned the credibility of those who once promoted the so‑called “two‑state solution,” saying that what is unfolding on the ground leaves Palestinians with “nothing but daily land theft, more walls, more military roadblocks, and more iron gates restricting movement.”
He stressed that since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the occupation has only intensified its system of apartheid, expanding colonies, fortifying the Annexation Wall, and openly declaring its refusal to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Gaza endured genocide and its catastrophic consequences,” Hanna said, “but what is happening today in the West Bank is also a form of genocide, carried out through different methods.”
Entire families have already left Taybeh, he noted, and similar displacement is occurring in Bethlehem and other districts. This forced migration affects all Palestinians—Christians and Muslims alike—who are living under siege, repression, and policies of starvation and humiliation.
Hanna described current conditions as a systematic policy of forced displacement, saying that Palestinians “refuse to be prisoners in the occupation’s jails, and also refuse to be prisoners in their own homeland.”
He emphasized that many Palestinians in the West Bank now consider reaching Jerusalem an unattainable dream. “When access to Jerusalem becomes a wish,” he said, “the world must recognize the magnitude of the injustice inflicted on our oppressed people.”
He stressed that freedom of movement and access to Jerusalem are basic rights, not privileges granted by the occupation, and that Palestinians must not remain trapped in their towns, villages, and refugee camps.
Father Hanna warned of an unprecedented campaign targeting the Christian presence in Palestine, quoting a Bethlehem priest who said that attacks on Palestinian Christians are part of a deliberate plan to empty the land of its indigenous Christian community—an essential component of the Palestinian people. “Those who target Palestinian Christians are targeting all Palestinians,” he said.
He called on churches worldwide to raise their voices against these policies and urged international and human rights institutions to act to end the ongoing injustices.
Hanna reiterated that the Apartheid Wall and the iron gates must be dismantled, and that Palestinians will not accept being imprisoned in their own homeland.
“Peace cannot be built on walls, gates, repression, and humiliation,” he said. “Peace requires justice—and justice today is absent.”
He added that those who attack Christian clergy, spit on Christian symbols, and act with racist hostility toward the Christian presence are the same groups working to steal Palestinian land and eliminate any possibility of an independent Palestinian state.
“May God help our people in the face of this immense injustice,” Father Hanna concluded, “and preserve them so they remain steadfast in their land despite all attempts to uproot them and liquidate the Palestinian cause.”
