Violence Spreads In The West Bank Against The Palestinian Authority

Photos circulated on social media on Sunday’s protests in Jenin.
Photos circulated on social media on Sunday’s protests in Jenin.
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Violence Spreads In The West Bank Against The Palestinian Authority

Photos circulated on social media on Sunday’s protests in Jenin.
Photos circulated on social media on Sunday’s protests in Jenin.

Angry Palestinians closed several main roads outside and inside Jenin Governorate, north of the West Bank, on Sunday, and attacked Palestinian security vehicles in protest against the killing of a university student by his colleagues at the Arab American University in the city.

The incident, which provoked anger and concern about the high rate of violence in the Palestinian territories, was blamed by a Palestinian security official on the failure to take decisive judicial measures.

Mahran Khalilieh, 21, was killed on Saturday in a violent fight that broke out in the vicinity of the university among a number of students. He was stabbed to death, while three others were injured in the quarrel that began on Thursday and resumed two days later.

The security forces announced that they had detained all those involved in the dispute, while Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh pledged that the PA would take the necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such acts.

Reactions continued until late Sunday, and gunmen opened fire on private property at the southern entrance to Jenin, and in the village of Masliya, the birthplace of one of the suspects in the incident.

Marwan Khalilieh, a relative of the victim, said during a telephone interview with a local television program: “Killing has become a normal thing. Everyone dares to kill because there is no real punishment or deterrent… We believe that we must take steps to stop the crime in the governorates of the homeland.”

Palestinian police spokesman, Colonel Louay Erzeigat, acknowledged the weakness of the rule of law, but said in a radio statement: “The reasons for the spread of violence in our society are due to culture and education at home.”

He added that the failure to take decisive judicial measures against anyone who commits crime in Palestinian society, and the “leniency in ending problems with a cup of coffee,” contributed to the increase of violence.



Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.