Bethlehem Church of the Nativity priest denied visa to speak at US event

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Bethlehem Church of the Nativity priest denied visa to speak at US event Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Thu, 11/12/2026 - 19:32 A visa was also denied to Christmas Lutheran…

Father Issa Thaljieh, the Palestinian parish priest at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, has been denied a US visa to speak alongside American clergy next week on the gravity of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages.

"Our government denied him a visa for 'security reasons'. A parish priest from Bethlehem, treated as a threat. That should worry all of us, because it means the people living through this are being kept from telling us about it," Laila Mokhiber, a volunteer with Orthodox Christians for Palestine (OCP), told Middle East Eye on Thursday.

Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders are set to gather at the United Methodist Building near the US Capitol on Monday to demand that Congress hold accountable both settlers and the Israeli military, and also curb US weapons transfers to Israel.

"Pressure in Congress is building. In September, 46 Democratic senators and Republican Rand Paul voted for Senator Chris Van Hollen’s measure demanding a State Department report on Israeli abuses in the West Bank, including the killings of nine Americans there since 2022," OCP, which is one of the organisers, said in a press release.

The gathering also comes two weeks after Democrats won a landslide victory in the US midterm elections, taking both chambers of Congress and a slew of state legislatures, vowing to condition aid to Israel and stop taking campaign funds from the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

Honey Thaljieh, Father Issa's sister, is now set to speak on his behalf, given her US visa was approved, MEE was told on Thursday.

“My brother could not enter America to tell you what is happening in Bethlehem. But you cannot deny a visa to a truth. You cannot silence a people by keeping one priest outside the room," Thaljieh said in the press release.

"I will stand in Washington, DC, not only as his sister, but as a daughter of Bethlehem, carrying the voices of families determined to remain on…

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