Israel Declared a Christian Village a 'Closed Military Zone' to Stop Settlers. Residents Say It's Doing the Opposite.

The Israeli military declared the Palestinian village of Taybeh a closed military zone on Sunday, saying the move was meant to stop settler attacks. Residents say it has done the opposite.

Taybeh, a village of roughly 1,500 people northeast of Jerusalem and Ramallah, is one of the few Christian-majority Palestinian communities left in the West Bank, with churches dating to the fifth century. Over the past several weeks it has been encircled by expanding settler outposts, and residents describe near-daily incursions by settlers grazing livestock, destroying olive trees, and threatening families off their land.

The military order technically bars Israelis and foreigners from entering the area. In practice, residents say, it is being used to eject international solidarity activists while settlers move in and out unimpeded.

"The order says that Israelis and foreigners are prohibited from entering the area. What about the settler roaming around the area? What is he? Is he Israeli or not? Why is he in the area?" said Jack Abed, priest of the Greek Catholic Church in Taybeh, according to Drop Site News. He said the order is "intended to prevent human rights defenders from being present to defend us."

Nayef Kaabneh, head of the Bedouin community living on lands surrounding Taybeh, described a specific episode to Drop Site: a settler entered the area followed by international activists who had come to monitor the situation. When residents called the army, soldiers arrived, cited the closed-zone order, and told the activists to leave. The settler also left, Kaabneh said, but returned once the army was gone. The activists did not come back.

"So the order is really aimed at the activists, not the settlers," Kaabneh told Drop Site.

On Tuesday, the military issued a nearly identical order for the villages of Kufr Qallil and Jalud in the northern Nablus governorate, again citing the need to protect residents from settlers.

A pattern the UN has already documented

The claim that Israeli forces are shielding settlers rather than restraining them is not new, and it is not coming only from villagers. A UN Commission of Inquiry report released in June found that Israeli security forces are directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured, and displaced Palestinians across the West Bank. The commission wrote that "the increasing participation of Israeli security forces in settler attacks amounts to a de facto collapse of the distinction between settlers and soldiers."

The report went further, concluding that settler violence functions as a tool of Israeli state policy, with the government and settler groups "working towards the same strategic objectives, including the maintenance of the unlawful occupation, the entrenchment of illegal Israeli settlements, the annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinians from their land." It said Israeli authorities have enabled the violence through financial and military support, while courts and police have granted settlers impunity for decades.

That pattern has sharpened since October 2023. According to Drop Site's reporting, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the West Bank since then, and the UN warned last month that settler attacks and outpost expansion have hit an all-time high. Violence accelerated further after a settler raid on the village of Tell left four Palestinians and two settlers dead. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission recorded more than 500 attacks in the past week alone.

Land, water, and olive trees

Just over a third of Taybeh falls under Area B, where the Palestinian Authority handles civil affairs but Israel controls security. The rest is Area C, fully under Israeli civil and military control, which is where much of the settler activity is concentrated.

Residents say settlers bring sheep and camels onto village land to graze and drain wells, and that camels have chewed through the tops of centuries-old olive trees. "These are Roman era olive trees. It's truly heartbreaking," resident Fouad Maadi told Drop Site. "Every aspect of life is affected. Commerce is finished, agriculture is finished, livestock is finished."

Kaabneh said the intent behind the pressure is unmistakable. "They want to forcibly displace us," he said, adding that the community intends to stay. Maadi put it more bluntly: "It's a campaign of revenge against us aimed at forcing us out of this land. But we're staying here, no matter what."