Jerusalem – Bishop William Shomali: The Latin Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, warned that Christian communities across the occupied West Bank are experiencing a marked escalation in attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers, alongside a rapid expansion of Israeli colonies built on confiscated Palestinian land.
Shomali noted that the West Bank now includes approximately 200 Israeli colonies, all established on Palestinian property, illegally seized over the years.
“Since the end of last year, attacks on Christians in the West Bank have multiplied,” he said, describing a clear link between the growth of these colonies and the rise in violence.
He explained that the ideology driving the colonizers is rooted in the belief that all of historic Palestine must be exclusively Jewish, and that Palestinians “have only been here for a few hundred years and therefore must leave.”
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He added that although the situation was conveyed to the U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv—who visited the Christian village of Taybeh— “little has been achieved on the ground despite promises of action.”
Shomali stated that daily attacks now target Christian families in villages such as Birzeit near Ramallah, where colonizers assault residents in their homes and workplaces.
These attacks, he said, pose “a real danger to Christian families” and threaten their ability to maintain their livelihoods.
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He also reported that colonizers recently seized land belonging to a convent in the village of Artas near Bethlehem to establish a new colony.
A similar takeover occurred in the Shepherds’ Field area of Beit Sahour, where colonizers appropriated roughly one hectare of land.
“In the very place where the angels announced the birth of the Savior, they raised an Israeli flag to signal that the land is now under their control,” he said, noting that the property carries a valid ownership deed held by a Christian family from Beit Sahour.
Shomali concluded that Palestinian land—which Israeli authorities refer to as ‘Judea and Samaria,’ the biblical names—is becoming “less and less Palestinian, and increasingly dominated by colonizers,” through a combination of territorial expansion and daily violence aimed at reshaping the identity of the region.
Arabic Source: Abouna.org
