By Pesach Benson
JERUSALEM — US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee tweeted a clarification on July 22 after the Israeli Police said that allegations that Jews had set fire to a Byzantine Period church compound in the Palestinian village of Taybeh were false.
“Investigation reveals no damage to ancient church in Taybeh & investigation of origin of fire continues. I have NOT attributed the cause of fire to any person or group as we don’t know for sure. The press has. I have said that regardless, it was crime & deserves consequences,” Huckabee tweeted.
Huckabee added in a followup tweet, “Taybeh is a beautiful village made up of mostly Arab Christians. Glad @israelpolice continue search for truth w/o regard to assumptions.”
An independent investigation by TPS uncovered inconsistencies in claims that radical Israelis deliberately set fire to a 1,500-year-old church in the Palestinian village of Taybeh. To the contrary, evidence was found of firefighting efforts by local Jewish residents and raised doubts about the fire’s origin — casting a shadow over an allegation made by a prominent Christian leader in the Holy Land.
On July 14, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, joined by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and diplomats from 20 countries, visited the Church of St. George in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.
“Radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town cemetery and the church of St. George,” Theophilis III declared.
“This is not only a violation of property, but a targeted attack on a community that has long been a symbol of coexistence and peace,” Theophilos said.
The patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem urged a transparent investigation into the attacks, calling on Israeli authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable.
They stated that the settlers’ actions near Taybeh were “both facilitated and enabled by state policies.”
The accusations of “settler violence” were based on statements from church leaders and the Taybeh municipality, which released a video purporting to show settlers setting the blaze.
Visiting the scene on July 19, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the incident an “act of terror.”
“To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship, it is an act of terror, and it is a crime,” said Huckabee.
“There should be consequences, and it should be harsh consequences because it is one of the last bastions of our civilization, the places where we worship.”
A closer inspection of the footage, however, reveals something different: several young men from the adjacent Jewish farm can be seen running up the hill with fire extinguishing equipment and reflective vests, attempting to put out the flames — not start them.
Video footage circulating on social media showed the teenager with what appeared to be a compressed air blower often used to help control and extinguish brush fires.
Palestinian social media posts labeled him an arsonist.
TPS-IL spoke to one of the shepherds involved in the incident. Because he is a minor, he is being identified as Y. He said he was in the field grazing the animals when suddenly a fire started a few meters away that scared them. Y. called the farmer to report the fire and tried to smother it with his shirt.
While he was doing that, he says he saw several Palestinians coming out of the cemetery, shouting and throwing things at him.
Separate fires on July 7, 8 and 11 were documented in areas of pastureland dozens of meters away from the church compound. In all cases, a Jewish farmer whose farm is next to the church compound complained to police that someone had torched the area where his animals were grazing.
TPS-IL has obtained time-stamped documentation of these reports.
Although the dates match with the reports filed by the adjacent Jewish farmers, the same incidents are being interpreted in starkly different ways.
A spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate that has representatives in Taybeh, told TPS-IL that the church compound had been deliberately targeted by arson on the exact same dates — July 7, 8 and 11.
The Latin Partiarchate’s spokes-person said that the fire “did not emerge out of nowhere,” linking the incident to broader unrest in the village during that period. According to him, groups of settlers entered Taybeh causing disruptions, frightening residents, detaining individuals locally and generating tension.
“No one filmed the arson itself,” he said, “but this happened as part of a sequence of troubling incidents.”
Israel Police told TPS-IL that the case is being handled by its special investigative team and called on anyone with relevant information to notify them right away.
Amid the international outcry, one expert cautioned that a politically charged agenda may be shaping the narrative.
“Instead of being leaders of truth, these church leaders have become players controlled on the board,” said Amit Barak, an expert on Christian affairs in Israel and former project manager of the Christian Empowerment Council.
Barak has been working for years with the Christian community in Israel, helping its members integrate into the military and national service.
Through this role, he has been exposed to the civil and political activities of the churches in the country.
“These churches in Israel have very close ties with the World Council of Churches, a body that has always tried to play the game and wear masks,” he said. “But in June, it issued a statement that removed all the masks and laid everything out on the table.”
The June 24 statement called on churches and other institutions to sanction Israel, support war crimes investigations and label Israeli actions as apartheid, among other things.
“Church leaders simply don’t check the facts. They’re swept up by false accusations, and the campaign against Israel easily latches onto ‘the settlers,’” he said.
Following the TPS report, Israel Police issued a statement saying that media reports describing the incident as arson were “factually incorrect, lack any evidentiary basis and risk misleading the public.”
