Author: Khaled Abu Toameh
Publication: The Jerusalem Post
Date: September 5, 2005
URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1125831262546&p=1101615860782
Efforts were under way on Sunday
to calm the situation in this Christian village east of Ramallah after
an attack by hundreds of Muslim men from nearby villages left many houses
and vehicles torched.
The incident began on Saturday night
and lasted until early Sunday, when Palestinian Authority security forces
interfered to disperse the attackers. Residents said several houses were
looted and many families were forced to flee to Ramallah and other Christian
villages, although no one was injured.
The attack on the village of 1,500
was triggered by the murder of a Muslim woman from the nearby village of
Deir Jarir earlier this week. The 30-year-old woman, according to PA security
sources, was apparently murdered by members of her family for having had
a romance with a Christian man from Taiba.
"When her family discovered that
she had been involved in a forbidden relationship with a Christian, they
apparently forced her to drink poison," said one source. "Then they buried
her without reporting her death to the relevant authorities."
When the PA security forces decided
to launch an investigation into the woman's death, her family
protested for fear that the relationship
would be exposed. The family was further infuriated by the decision to
exhume the body for autopsy.
The attack is one of the worst against
Christians in the West Bank in many years. Residents said it took the PA
security forces several hours to reach Taiba. Others complained that the
IDF, which is in charge of overall security in the area, did not answer
their desperate calls for immediate help.
"More than 500 Muslim men, chanting
Allahu akbar [God is great], attacked us at night," said a Taiba resident.
"They poured kerosene on many buildings and set them on fire. Many of the
attackers broke into houses and stole furniture, jewelry and electrical
appliances."
With the exception of large numbers
of PA policemen, the streets of Taiba were completely deserted on Sunday
as the residents remained indoors. Many torched cars littered the streets.
At least 16 houses had been gutted by fire and the assailants also destroyed
a statue of the Virgin Mary.
"It was like a war, they arrived
in groups, and many of them were holding clubs," said another resident.
"Some people saw them carrying weapons.
They first attacked houses belonging to the Khoury family [looking for
the man who had the affair with the women, not realizing he had already
fled the village.] Then they went to their relatives. They entered the
houses and destroyed everything there. Then they tried to enter the local
beer factory, but were repelled by PA security agents. The fire engine
arrived five hours later."
Col. Tayseer Mansour, commander
of the PA police in the Ramallah area, said his men arrived late because
of the need to coordinate their movements with the IDF. "The delay resulted
in the torching of a number of houses and cars in the village," he said.
Taiba, the only West Bank village
that is completely inhabited by Christians, is famous for its Taiba Beer
factory, which was established by the Khoury family in 1994.
The residents are Roman Catholic,
Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic. The village was originally called Ephraim,
and is thought to be the city to which Jesus came with his disciples before
his crucifixion: "Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews;
but went thence unto a country near the wilderness, into a city called
Ephraim" (John 11:54).
According to some accounts, Salah
a-Din, who led the war against the Crusaders, was responsible for the name
change. He is said to have found the villagers there to be nice and kind
- in Arabic, taybeen - and the name stuck, to become Taiba.
