Recurring settler attacks on a ciment factory in Taybeh

On the morning of March 19, 2026, more than 30 Israeli settlers entered a privately owned stone quarry and cement factory on the outskirts of Taybeh — a small Palestinian town of roughly 1,200 to 1,500 people nestled in the West Bank hills north of Jerusalem. They performed religious rituals on the grounds, pitched tents, posted guards to prevent workers from accessing the site, and hoisted an Israeli flag atop one of the plant’s storage tanks,and warned the Christian community that anyone returning would be killed.

The factory’s owner, Roland Bassir, attempted to enter his own property. He was physically attacked and turned away. Two decades of hard work, his family’s livelihood, seized in a single morning.

Since this day, the settler attacks occures on a daily base, preventing the factory to stay open.

Roland Bassir’s family built that quarry over 20 years through honest work. They employed local workers. They contributed to a community that had already absorbed more than its share of hardship. His business was not collateral damage. It was the target. This man cannot enter his own business without being physically attacked. He is too scared to approach the area any closer since settlers chased and attacked him when he tried to get to his factory earlier. “Last week they brought a backhoe and opened up a dirt road and went into the quarry and are not allowing us in. They put guards around the quarry.”

The settlers have pitched a large tent just outside the quarry, and any time he has tried to get close, they come out to threaten the owner and prevent him from coming to the quarry.

“I am depressed, I can’t sleep at night,” said Bassir. “I can’t understand how people can just come and take over my 20 years of work. It is unjust. It is indescribable. I feel miserable. I tell my children that God is with us and we want peace, we are peaceful people, but I am afraid for the future, that it will get worse.”

On April 15, Israeli settlers attacked stormed the village quarry with rifles and threatening to kill the workers if they stayed. The workers were forced to flee.

This comes following a series of settler attacks on the Christian village of Taybeh, met with total impunity by Israeli police, the army, and the government.

The Christian community of Taybeh is appealing to churches, Christian leaders, and the world to take action and stop what they describe as an ethnic cleansing campaign against them by Israeli settlers and the Israeli government.

Broader context:

Now the town is encircled. According to reports confirmed by the Latin Patriarchate, six settler outposts have been established around Taybeh since 2025 — three to the west, three to the east. A yellow gate controls access on the main road. Soldiers determine who enters. The Khoury family’s famous Taybeh Brewery — a point of pride and economic lifeline — has lost outside visitors, with merchandise shipments to Jerusalem and Bethlehem routinely blocked.

Since October 2023, 16 families and 10 individuals have emigrated from Taybeh. In a town of 1,200 people, that is not a statistic — it is a hemorrhage.

Father Bashar Fawadleh, the Catholic parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Church, has been remarkably candid: he cannot guarantee his parishioners’ physical safety. His answer has been to preach what he calls “resistance in faith” — a dignified refusal to surrender hope in the face of intimidation. But faith, however strong, does not unlock a factory gate seized by a settler mob.