In September 2025, armed settlers stormed Roland Basir's family quarry and cement factory in the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the West Bank.
They shot him and other workers and set fire to a cement packaging machine worth 17,000 shekels ($6,000), destroying the equipment.
The factory has since closed, and Basir is out of a job. This is what Jessica Buxbaum writes for "Arab News".
"Our work has been interrupted," Basir said. "We have a lot of videos and documented evidence of settlers coming and attacking and harassing us in the quarry. We are seeking support from the village, from the church here, but we are not receiving the necessary protection, so we cannot continue working in the quarry."
Taybeh is located between the Israeli settlements of Ofra and Kohav HaShahar, but locals claim that the problems with the settlers began shortly before and intensified after the "Hamas" attack on October 7, 2023, when settlers began building outposts around the town.
To date, six outposts — makeshift camps unauthorized by the Israeli state — surround Taybeh.
"Our problem is not with these people who have already been settled on this land since 1967," said Father Bashar Fawadleh, a priest at the "Holy Redeemer" church. in Taipei.
"Our problem is with the fanatical and extremist mentality coming from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — the mentality to eliminate the other from the face of the earth. That is the problem".
Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir — elected to the Israeli government in 2022 as part of the most far-right coalition in the country's history — are known for their anti-Palestinian racism and ideology of Jewish supremacy.
Before entering the government, Ben-Gvir worked as a lawyer for Jewish extremists accused of terrorism and defended settlers who set fire to a home in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank in 2015, killing three people, including a young child.
Smotrich, on the other hand, is known for drafting the "Israel's Decisive Plan" - a document that requires Palestinians to either leave the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea or remain subject to the Israeli state and give up their aspirations for statehood and self-determination.
The first major incident of settler violence in Taibeh occurred during the Palestinian olive harvest season in October 2023, immediately following the "Hamas" attack on October 7 and Israel's genocidal war in Gaza.
"Five of our people were attacked by settlers during the harvest in the eastern part. More than 10 people had their equipment, phones, IDs — everything stolen — by the settlers", explained Fawadleh.
"On the same day of the attack, the settlers also attacked the school bus and broke all the windows, but we were lucky because there was no one on the bus".
By 2025, relations with the settlers were getting even worse, Fawadleh said, adding that their original goal was to drive out the Bedouin communities around Taibe. The settlers later expanded their target, targeting the entire Palestinian presence in and around Taibe.
Israeli settlers established two outposts in 2025 at the western entrance to Taibe and often let their flocks of sheep, goats, and camels graze on Fadi Kaabneh's land.
On May 26, settlers invaded his land and the Israeli police and army were called in.
When Israeli authorities arrived, the army declared the area a closed military zone and erected a temporary checkpoint at the western entrance to Taibe. Residents say that entry is often blocked by a military checkpoint.
"Since May 7, things have gotten worse," Kaabneh explained by phone.
"The settlers came with a lot of cattle, sheep and goats. They cut the wires and the fence around our house because they want to enter our land."
Kaabneh and his family have lived in their home since 1995, and their land is registered in their name in Tabu — Israel's official land registry.
Kaabneh's land is in Area B, under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, while security responsibility is under the control of the Israeli army. According to this system, when a security issue arises, it must be reported to the Israeli authorities.
"The presence of settlers here has been going on for three years and has turned our lives into hell," Kaabneh pointed out.
"My father has difficulty even getting to the police station, where he stands all day waiting for his turn to file a complaint. That's why we hired a lawyer to help us with the case because we feel helpless and the authorities are useless in defending us".
Despite the hostility of the settlers, Kaabne is adamant that he will not leave his land.
"We don't see anywhere else to go," he explained. "The settlers are attacking from all sides and everywhere, spreading from one village to another. They have a plan to seize the land and push the residents out, to drive us out so they can come and take over the places that are left behind us."
However, Basir, whose family has owned the quarry for 20 years and whose roots are from Taibe, thinks differently and says he would take the first plane out of Palestine if he had the chance.
"People who have the means to get a visa or go to another country will not hesitate and will emigrate because there is no support and the future is not bright if they stay in Taibe," he explained.
According to Fawadleh, 15 families consisting of about 100 people have left Taibe since 2023.
With its green valleys and olive groves, Taibe is not only known for its pastoral landscape. The Christian presence in the city dates back to the 9th century, and in the Bible the place is known as Ephraim.
Today it is the last entirely Christian city in the occupied West Bank, where the population of approximately 1,200 belongs to the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox traditions.
Palestine, the birthplace of Christianity, is currently experiencing a sharp increase in Israeli violence against Christians.
In 2025, the Religious Freedom Data Center — an Israeli organization that monitors anti-Christian attacks — recorded over 180 cases of violence against Christians in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel — an almost 60% increase over the previous year.
With the increase in attacks on the Christian settlement of Taybeh, residents fear that this could mean the end of the faith's presence in the Holy Land. In 1948, Palestinian Christians made up 12.5% of the population. Today, that share has fallen to 1.2%.
"We expect more pressure through official channels from church leaders, diplomatic missions and all the people who want the Christian presence in this land to continue, because now it is in danger," warned Fawadleh.
Otherwise, he warns, "this land will soon be empty".