For Christian Palestinians, Home Has Become a Hostile Territory
NEED TO KNOW
For Christian Palestinians, Home Has Become a Hostile Territory
WEST BANK
For more than 2,000 years, the ancient Church of Saint George in Taybeh in the West Bank has been a source of solace to its parishioners.
First built as a place of worship under the Byzantines in the fourth century by St. Constantine and St. Helen, it has been restored twice and serves as an anchor for the West Bank’s last fully Christian village, a living link to the land’s earliest Christian communities.
Then in early July, Jewish settlers torched the fields surrounding the church and its cemetery, creating a fire that threatened to destroy both.
It was just the latest attack on buildings, fields, and people by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, but this time the target was the Palestinian Christian community, which makes up less than 1 percent of the 2.9 million Palestinians and 600,000 settlers in the enclave.
It set off outrage at home and around the world.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of these relentless attacks that threaten our very existence on this land,” said Father Daoud Khoury of the Greek Orthodox Church, Father Jacques-Noble Abed of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and Father Bashar Fawadleh of the Latin Church in a statement. “(Our home) has effectively become an open target for illegal settlement outposts that expand quietly under military protection (and) serve as a base for further assaults on the land and its people.”
The Vatican, Arab leaders, Christians around the world, and human rights groups voiced outrage at the attack. Under prior administrations, the US labeled the settlements as illegal and sanctioned some settlers. But it has erased many of those designations under the Trump administration, which has appointed a pro-settlement ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. After the attack, he visited the village and expressed concern, calling the attack on the church “an act of terror.” Other US commentators framed it as Christian persecution.
For decades, Palestinians have lived with settler encroachment and violence along with Israeli military operations, which have displaced thousands, destroyed land and livelihoods, and made daily life difficult if not impossible for residents. Since the attack by Hamas and its allies on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, however, the situation in the West Bank has become dire: The United Nations says almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 30,000 displaced since then.
Most of the international community considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. Israel regards the enclave as disputed territory and says they are legal. Opponents and supporters agree that the settlement will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and ultimately allow Israel full sovereignty over the West Bank, wrote the Wall Street Journal.
However, the settlements and the accompanying barriers and checkpoints are carving up the territory – about 2,180 square miles, roughly the size of Delaware – into ever smaller enclaves, sometimes dividing neighborhoods, families, and institutions and cutting them off from each other.
Since Oct. 7, the settlements are expanding at a breakneck pace with the help of the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by lawmakers, which wants to annex the territory and extend sovereignty over it to achieve a “decisive victory” over its enemies.
Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the E-1 plan, stalled for decades, which will see the construction of 3,401 settler units in Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and 3,515 more in surrounding areas. The plan is designed to split the West Bank into two parts, severing links between its northern cities, such as Ramallah, and southern cities like Bethlehem, and isolating East Jerusalem.
Smotrich said the project would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” calling it “the final nail in the coffin.”
Further south, around Hebron, Palestinian landowners say new settler outposts are creeping deeper into farmland. In the north, near Nablus and Jenin, settler roads and military zones steadily enclose villages already strained by violence from settlers and the Israeli Defense Forces. Palestinians describe a land fractured into ever smaller pieces.
Taybeh sits just to the west of a part of the West Bank that has seen severe settler harassment of local Palestinian populations in recent years. Entire communities of Bedouin sheepherders have fled after being attacked by settlers expanding their illegal outposts in the area.
About 19 communities have been abandoned since Oct. 7 as a result of settler harassment, according to Israel’s B’tselem human rights organization. The 20th, Mu’arrajat, became a ghost hamlet in July.
Until last month, about 1,100 people had made up that community of ramshackle homes, sheep pens, and a school in the rugged desert of the southern Jordan Valley.
Then, in early July, witnesses described to the Israel Times how settlers broke into homes, stole or destroyed possessions and took livestock, threatened residents, and vandalized homes.
“It’s not just that they took our home, they were laughing in our faces, they said, ‘There is nothing for you here, this place is ours’,” one resident, Alia Mleihat, told the newspaper. “Everything that happened was under the cover of the Israel Defense Forces and the police. Instead of protecting the residents, they protected the settlers.”
Another displaced resident said the members of the community had no choice but to go elsewhere: “The settlers are armed… The military protects them. We can’t take it anymore, so we decided to leave.”
That is likely the fate of the Christian villagers in Taybeh, a town of roughly 1,500 that precedes the time of Jesus.
“They have been able to empty the area and to displace, I think, somewhere around 10, 11, 12 Palestinian communities and clusters, and they finished,” Israeli researcher Dror Etkes told NPR. “So they’re moving to the next Palestine destination, which is Taybeh.”
“Unfortunately, the temptation to emigrate is there because of the situation,” Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020, told Reuters. “This time it’s very difficult to see how and when this will finish, and especially for the youth to talk about hope, trust for the future.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Syrian President Claims Progress on Security Deal with Israel
SYRIA
Syria and Israel are in “advanced” talks on a security agreement following decades of hostilities, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced this week, the Times of Israel reported.
On Sunday, al-Sharaa told journalists in Damascus that negotiations were progressing, and a potential pact could be based on the 1974 disengagement lines agreed after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
He said the deal would safeguard Syrian sovereignty and open the door to confidence-building measures. Though he cautioned that conditions were not yet suitable for a peace treaty, he said he would “not hesitate to take any agreement that benefits Syria and the region.”
Reports in Israeli media outlined the terms of the draft. They called for demilitarizing the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, preventing Turkey from rebuilding Syria’s military, and barring strategic weapons such as missiles and air defense systems, according to Al Arabiya News.
The potential agreement would also establish a humanitarian corridor to the southern Druze region of Sweida. The United States and Gulf nations would fund Syria’s reconstruction in exchange for limiting Iranian influence.
The discussions follow several rounds of US-mediated talks, the most recent of which was held in Paris last week between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
Syrian state media has described the talks in the French capital “as part of diplomatic efforts aimed at enhancing security and stability in Syria and preserving the unity and integrity of its territory,” France 24 wrote.
Israel and Syria have been technically in a state of war since 1948, with the Golan Heights remaining a flashpoint since Israel seized the territory in 1967 and annexed it in 1981, a move that was not recognized by the majority of the international community.
Tensions rose after rebels under al-Sharaa overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad last year, prompting Israeli forces to expand their presence in southern Syria and strike infrastructure belonging to the ousted regime.
Last month, Israel launched a series of airstrikes following sectarian clashes in Sweida to support local Druze fighters.
Guinea’s Junta Suspends Opposition Parties Ahead of Constitutional Referendum
GUINEA
Guinea’s military government over the weekend suspended the country’s three main opposition parties, including the party of ousted former President Alpha Condé, ahead of a constitutional referendum that critics warn could help the junta consolidate power, Al Jazeera reported.
The order released Saturday names the Rally of the Guinean People, led by Condé; the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, led by former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo; and the Party of Renewal and Progress. All three are barred from taking part in any political activity for 90 days.
The suspension came as Guinea prepares for mass protests starting Sept. 5 against a constitutional referendum slated for Sept. 21 that opposition parties and civil society groups consider an attempt by junta leader Gen. Mamady Doumbouya to grab further power, according to Africanews.
Parties had been allowed to advertise their proposals for a new version of the constitution since Friday. But in a separate order, the junta announced that the start of the election campaign period would be delayed by a week to Aug. 31.
Critics say the effort to rewrite the constitution could allow Doumbouya to run for president despite a previous ban established in the “transition charter” drafted by the junta after the 2021 coup that ousted Condé.
Such protests have been banned by the military government since 2022, and it has already arrested, prosecuted, or forced into exile a number of opposition leaders. Earlier this year, dozens of other parties were suspended or dissolved for failing to meet new regulations.
According to analysts, this new suspension solidifies the conviction of Guinea’s opposition parties that the transitional government was never working to protect democracy, despite Doumbouya’s promises to give more space to political parties and civil society.
International rights groups have condemned the junta’s harsh actions, warning that Guinea’s fragile democracy is at risk as the country undergoes this critical transition.
Rare Meeting Between Bangladesh and Pakistan to Strengthen Ties
BANGLADESH
Former rivals Bangladesh and Pakistan held a bilateral meeting Sunday in which they agreed to strengthen their long-strained relations and boost trade, Agence France-Presse reported.
The countries signed agreements to promote trade, investment, economic cooperation, and cultural exchanges, as well as scrap visa requirements for diplomatic and official passport holders, Arab News noted.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the most senior Pakistani official to have visited Dhaka in more than a decade, said that the potential to do good for the people of both countries is “tremendous.”
Bangladesh’s foreign affairs adviser, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, however, said that while both sides agreed to bolster ties, pending issues need to be resolved so they do not hinder the relationship.
The key sticking point is that Bangladesh demands an apology from Pakistan for atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence. Hundreds of thousands – or even millions, according to Bangladeshi estimates – were killed during the war.
Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved since the August 2024 mass uprising that ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government, which had suspended ties with Pakistan.
For example, the two nations started sea trade last year and began expanding government-to-government commerce in February.
The Pakistani and Bangladeshi commerce ministries Sunday also signed a memorandum of understanding to create a Joint Working Group on Trade tasked with increasing bilateral trade to $1 billion in the financial year that started in July.
Still, Shahid Kiani, a former Pakistani ambassador who served in Dhaka, said that Hasina’s now-banned Awami League Party still holds considerable influence in Bangladesh and warned Islamabad to proceed cautiously.
Observers noted that the relations between Bangladesh and India turned sour after Hasina’s ouster due to New Delhi’s decision to grant her asylum after she fled there.
Analysts believe that India, which fought a four-day conflict with Pakistan in May, will watch the developing Bangladesh-Pakistan relationship closely.
DISCOVERIES
What a Difference an Enzyme Makes
The difference between Homo sapiens and their extinct cousins might lie in a tiny change to a single enzyme – one that subtly altered brain chemistry and, possibly, behavior.
In a new study, an international research team zeroed in on the gene for adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL), an enzyme that is key for making purines – the molecular building blocks of DNA, RNA, and other vital compounds.
Nearly all humans alive today share a version of ADSL that extinct hominins, Neanderthals, and Denisovans didn’t have.
The only difference is that out of its 484 amino acids, one has been swapped: An alanine in the ancient version was replaced by a valine in ours. That small swap makes the enzyme less stable, a change researchers suspected might influence the brain.
To explore this theory, they used a CRISPR gene-editing technique to insert the modern human ADSL gene into mice.
In an experiment in which mice had to learn to get water, female mice with the human version proved better at snagging a drink when water was limited.
“It’s too early to translate these findings directly to humans, as the neural circuits of mice are vastly different,” said first author Xiang-Chun Ju in a statement. “But the substitution might have given us some evolutionary advantage in particular tasks relative to ancestral humans.”
Rare mutations in ADSL can cause severe neurological problems in modern humans, including autism-like symptoms, seizures, and cognitive impairments. This link intrigued the researchers, as it suggested even mild changes could have behavioral effects.
The study also found other genetic tweaks in modern humans that further reduce ADSL activity, especially in the brain.
“This enzyme underwent two separate rounds of selection that reduced its activity… while keeping it active enough to avoid ADSL deficiency disorder,” added co-author Shin-Yu Lee.
The authors and other researchers noted that while the findings don’t claim this gene alone explains our species’ success, they add a big clue to the mystery of why H. sapiens dominated.
“I am quite convinced that there is some fundamental difference between modern humans and other earlier forms of human,” Svante Pääbo, another of the study’s authors, told the Washington Post. “The fact that Neanderthals and Denisovans never became more than a few hundred thousand people at any one time… (while) modern humans in just a hundred thousand years spread all over the planet, became millions of people and developed technology and culture that changed so rapidly.”