The Christian community in the Holy Land is often overlooked, but they are essential to preserving the region’s deep Christian history.
They’re a small community — just 1-2 % of the population, around 50,000 people — but persist with remarkable strength against huge odds.
What is their daily life like right now? How are they coping through the ongoing conflicts? And what makes them stay in the Holy Land through all that they’re facing?
Aleteia reached out to Fr. Firas Khoury, pastor of St. George Greek Catholic Church in Zababdeh, for an on-the-ground look at daily life for West Bank Christians.
Living stones
It can be hard to understand for those not from there, but Palestinian Christians feel a deep sense of responsibility to stay in their native lands, to steward the history and culture of their homeland.
Even though it has become incredibly difficult to do so, Christians must remain in the Holy Land, Fr. Khoury said, or the region will lose the living history that carries the story of Jesus Christ:
I call the Christians living here in this part of the West Bank “living stones.” And I wish for Americans and Christians around the world to come visit and to continue their friendship and solidarity.
We represent your faith in the Holy Land. And if the Christians disappear from the Holy Land, what remains? Archeology and holy places, but these places will never tell you the story of my compatriot, Jesus Christ.
And we have to tell you his story, of his ministry of love, his ministry of peace and justice for the whole world. So I'm inviting you and inviting all to come and to visit, to show your friendship and solidarity in this part of the Holy Land.
Because we need you. We need your friendship to build peace and justice in this land.
Afraid to leave their homes
Fr. Khoury said his family has lived in the region for many generations, but things changed for the worse in recent years:
I am a Palestinian. My grandparents and ancestors, they are Palestinians, and we are living in this land for thousands of years. We have no hate or act of violence against anyone, but during these past 70 years, we were victimized.
He sees it as his ministry to “build bridges of peace” between the local Jewish and Muslim communities.
But he and the other Christians pursue this ministry in the face of intense discrimination every day.
West Bank Christians have been reduced to just 2% of the population amid violence and displacement. Settler violence keeps increasing, and is up 25% with 111 documented attacks on Christian properties.
Part of a report from Aid to the Church in Need:
Bishop Shomali, who will be ACN Ireland’s guest speaker at its National Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine on May 16, made the comments to EWTN News after he observed “multiplying aggressions” against Christians in the West Bank of late.
Bishop Shomali said settlers have prevented Palestinian Christians from accessing their land through various threats, physical aggression, and property damage, including burning their cars.
“This happened mainly in the Christian village of Taybeh, and we communicated this news to all the world, even to the American ambassador in Tel Aviv, who came to visit the place, and he promised to do something, but not many things were done,” Shomali said.
In Birzeit, a Palestinian Christian town about six miles north of Ramallah in the West Bank, Shomali said settlers have been coming “almost every day to threaten people in their own homes or in their work”.
“This has become a real threat to Christian families,” he said, “because they lost their livelihood and their source of income”. The Church must intervene and provide aid for them to survive, the bishop said.
Shomali said Israeli settlers have also recently occupied land belonging to a convent of sisters in a village near Bethlehem called Urtas. The sisters “have a hill where they plant and grow olives and other things,” he said. “Settlers came to occupy this hill and to make it theirs, where they think of building a new settlement.”
He also noted a settlement to be built on the Shepherds’ Field of his own village, Beit Sahour, which he said is a piece of land that belongs to Christian families there.
“I heard just today, that a piece of land, one acre, was also entered by settlers who put an Israeli flag to mean that this land now is Israeli, while there is a deed of ownership to a Christian family that I know from Beit Sahour,” he said. “So slowly, slowly, the land of Palestine that Israelis now call Judea and Samaria, the biblical name, is becoming less and less Palestinian and more and more settlers’ land.”
Destruction of Christian property is persistent, and in 2025 settlers set fire to cars, homes, crops, and St. George Church itself. Fr. Khoury said:
We are suffering from the violence of the settlers. I don’t leave Zababdeh, because if I do, the settlers see my Palestinian car — white plates — and they start to hit my car with stones and with glass bottles. So I am scared and do not leave.
The settlers attack Christian villages and burn our farms and our olive oil trees. Sometimes they come into the cities and burn the cars and even the homes of the Christian Palestinians.
We have no more freedom of speech. We have no more freedom of movement. All we are allowed to do is to pray over in the church.
Losing their work and livelihood
As terrifying as these attacks are, what saps their hope the most has been losing their income and livelihood.
Most Palestinian Christians in Zababdeh used to commute to work in Jerusalem. But since October 2023, the borders have been closed and thousands of people lost their jobs. Fr. Khoury said:
I'm a priest for a community who's living with no hope, after thousands lost their work in Israel two and a half years ago. That's why we are suffering in this place, because we don't have any kind of income. The parents could not pay for the school.
And since then, I started begging. I am a beggar to bring peace and justice to this place in the Holy Land. Money is important, but I'm not begging for money. I'm begging for peace and justice and freedom of speech, freedom of movement, for my community and for the Palestinians who are living here.
Fr. Khoury has helped establish several small businesses among the community — making olive oil soap, wood, and incense — to try and replace their lost jobs.
Somehow the community has managed to keep open the doors of their Catholic school, a large school with 1,200 students, of various religious faiths.
But it’s a far cry from their previous industry and freedom.
How do they hold onto hope?
What makes him stay? How do all of the Christians continue to live here, persisting in the face of such suffering?
Because they have “Elisha faith.”
Fr. Khoury recalled a biblical story about the prophet Elisha:
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
“We have hope, because we have Elisha faith,” Fr. Khoury said. “There are more who are with us than against us. And we are not alone. God is suffering with us.”
Want to help? 3 concrete steps
What can Christians in other parts of the world do to help? Fr. Khoury offered some specific suggestions.
1Build bridges between Israel and Palestine
“We need your friendship and solidarity, especially in wartime,” Fr. Khoury said. He asked especially that Americans look for ways to build bridges of peace between Israel and Palestine:
Americans are friends of Israel, so they can help us to convince Israel that the Palestinians are not their enemies. Americans can convince the Israelis to stop the violence of the war and to build peace with the Palestinians, so that together, Palestinians and Israelis can build this country for the future.
2Pray for Israel and Palestine
“Please pray,” he said. “Pray for the Israelis and for the Palestinians, pray to the God of justice and the God of peace to stop this ugly war.”
3Come visit the region
We need you to come visit. You’ve heard about us, but you don’t know us.
We want you to come visit, to listen to our stories, to our children’s stories, and to come see our Catholic school where the Christian and the Muslim students are studying together and building peace on the desks of the school.
There you will find hope for the Palestinians—in the eyes of the children, you will see hope and the future for the Palestinians.
We are thankful for your friendship and solidarity.
If you’d like to help support Fr. Khoury’s Catholic church and school, visit Pilgrims of Ibillin, a mission that supports his work and all Palestinian Christians.
You can also check out Save West Bank Christians, a new Catholic advocacy and information platform and campaign dedicated to protecting historic Christian communities in the West Bank.
And pray — pray hard — uniting your prayers with all who desire peace in the land where the Prince of Peace was born.
