16/08/2026
Can Taybeh Be Protected Without Being Isolated?
From “Come and See” to a military closure order, a struggle to keep a living Palestinian Christian community connected to the world.
By Sanad Sahelia
In Taybeh, we have never asked for protection to become another name for isolation. Our message to the world has been the opposite: “Come and See.”
Come to our town, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Enter its churches, meet its people and see its land and life. Taybeh, traditionally identified with Ephraim in the Gospel, is the last Palestinian town in the West Bank with an entirely Christian community. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have stayed there with his disciples (John 11:54).
Taybeh is not simply a Christian site from the past. It is a living Palestinian community, rooted in its land and heritage, praying, working, farming and contributing to society and country.
That is why the local church launched the “Come and See” campaign. It was not a tourism invitation or a request for the world to save us. It invited presence and witness, to break the distance between Taybeh and the outside world, and to remind its people that hope means believing they have a future in their land.
Then came the closure order.
On July 23, 2026, the “Commander of the IDF Forces in Judea and Samaria,” the official Israeli designation, issued a military declaration closing an area named the “Taybeh and Rammoun Area” in the occupied West Bank. The order prohibits anyone who does not meet its definition of a “resident” from entering or remaining there. It applies to Israelis and foreigners, with exceptions for permit holders, permanent residents of the area and security forces on duty. It remains in effect until July 4, 2027.
The wording leaves a question unclear to us: how does the order apply to Israeli settlers living in or around the area, including those in so-called “hilltop” outposts? Israeli authorities should clarify whether such residents fall within the exceptions and, if so, on what basis.
According to the Israeli military, the order comes in the context of “some violent attacks by Israelis in the area.” For Taybeh’s residents, the need is straightforward: to move freely, reach their land and return home without fear or threat. Protecting residents, property, land and farmers, and holding attackers accountable, is a basic responsibility.
What exactly are we protecting when we say we are protecting Taybeh?
If protection means preventing violence, it is essential. But protecting a community so that it can remain requires more: land, work, schools, churches, movement and connections with the world.
A place can be closed to confront a danger. But can a living community remain alive if isolation becomes part of its reality?
Taybeh told the world, “Come and See.” The order now restricts entry and residence for those who do not qualify as residents. Depending on how it is applied, this may affect journalists, churches, pilgrims, delegations and researchers seeking to reach Taybeh.
We do not need to speculate about the order’s intentions. The question is what it means in practice for a town that relies on openness and witness to resist isolation.
Journalists, diplomats, churches and researchers are not security forces. Yet their presence matters: they see, listen and document.
Access is not only about movement. It is also about visibility, witness and the ability to tell your own story.
Taybeh is part of the wider Palestinian reality of the West Bank. Its Christian identity does not set it apart from Palestine. It gives the community an additional dimension, rooted in the living history of the Holy Land.
That raises a question for churches and Christian institutions in Europe and America that speak of preserving Christian presence in the Holy Land: What does it mean to preserve that presence?
Is it enough for churches to remain standing and sacred sites to remain open to visitors? Or must the communities that pray in those churches, cultivate this land and raise their children here be able to remain as well?
A church can remain standing while the community that rings its bells grows weaker.
The Holy Land is not a museum of Christianity. Christians still live here.
Taybeh does not ask to be treated as a Christian minority waiting to be rescued. It asks to remain able to speak for itself, while the world remains able to reach it and listen.
Witness is not a substitute for security. But it can be part of survival.
Survival means more than remaining physically within the boundaries of a town. It means being able to live, work, worship, farm, raise children, move and remain connected to the world, without surrendering the right to security.
The question is not how to protect Taybeh by closing it, but how to protect Taybeh so that it can remain.
Our message to the world was, and remains, “Come and See.”
Not because Taybeh needs spectators or is waiting to be saved, but because it wants to remain alive, visible and able to tell its own story.
We want Taybeh to be protected, yes. But we do not want protection to become another form of isolation.
Sanad Sahelia is a Palestinian journalist and media professional based in Taybeh. He writes on Palestinian Christian life and the challenges facing Christian communities in the Holy Land.
