Armenian Jerusalem Patriarchate Delegation Visits West Bank Town Targeted by Israeli Settlers
Hetq.am
Bishop Theodoros Zakarian, Chairman of the Assembly of Directors of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and other top Christian church leaders in the Holy Land on July 14 toured the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank that has been recently targeted by radical Israeli settlers.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III said settlers had started a fire near a cemetery and a 5th century church there last week.
Taybeh is said to be the last remaining entirely Christian village in the West Bank.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in a July 14 statement, called on the Israeli government to hold those responsible to account.
“The attacks by the hands of settlers against our community, which is living in peace, must stop, both here in Taybeh and elsewhere throughout the West Bank. This is clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region,” the statement reads.
The Armenian Apostolic Church’s Jerusalem Patriarchate, in a Facebook post, writes that Bishop Zakaryan was accompanied by the chancellor, the Very Reverend Father Aghan Gogchyan
Photo: Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa (L), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III (2nd-R), and Armenian Bishop Theodoros Zakarian (R) stand together during a visit by the top clergy of several Christian denominations to the fifth-century Church of St George in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
