Settler and soldier pressure on Beit Sahour community

At the end of 2025, an Israeli settlement was authorised in the heart of Beit Sahour. The 11,000 Christian residents fear they will fall victim to pogroms happening daily across the West Bank.

Time line of the events

On Decemeber 2, 2025, the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, with a majority of Christian resident, was notified that an illegal Israeli settlement will be built on its land. The plan would split the village into two heavily militarized enclaves and surround residents with violent settlers. The announcement was confirmed in a letter from Dr. Elias Iseed, Mayor of Beit Sahour. This threatens to split the town, displace families, militarize a historic Christian area, and force residents into migration.

December 22, 2025:

Just in time for Christmas, Beit Sahour, a majority-Christian Palestinian village outside of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was informed that an illegal Israeli settlement will soon be built on top of their land, turning the village into two heavily militarized enclaves and surrounded by violent Israeli settlers.

The transformation of the Shdema site into an illegal Israeli settler settlement — now known as Yatziv — on the land of the Christian town of Beit Sahour marks a dangerous escalation in the systematic erosion of Christian life in the Holy Land, some observers calls this an "ecclesiacide"

January 20, 2026: Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the new illegal settlement that will be established on Christian land in Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem.

Testimony of Khalil Sayegh, (@KhalilJeries, Founder & Executive Director of @Agoradotorg (ἀγορά). Co-host @notAdialoguepod. Political analyst):

I spoke with many residents in the area, and they all told me that this settlement will cause many Christians to leave the country. Beit Sahour is the town believed to have the Shepherds’ Field, where the angels appeared to the shepherds and told them about the newly born Jesus Christ.

April 6, 2026, Israeli settlers attacked the Christian town of Beit Sahour after attempting to establish an illegal outpost on the town's land, firing stun grenades at residents and terrorizing the entire community. The Israeli army arrived and arrested a boy and his father — instead of arresting the settlers who carried out the attack.

The Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Bishop Imad Haddad, issued a statement demanding the release of Amir Jamal Al-Darawi, a 12th-grade student at the Evangelical Lutheran School in Beit Sahour, and his father, who are being detained by the Israeli military.