The Quiet Hands That Build Walls
Exposing the ties that bind settler expansion and extremist faith
Inside the Web of Settler Support: Barrett Ens, Word of Life Tabernacle, Daniella Weiss, and the Fight to Free Palestine
In the ongoing struggle over land, justice, and human rights, one truth remains clear: Palestinian people have endured decades of displacement, occupation, and systemic injustice at the hands of expanding Israeli settlements. Yet behind the headlines and political debates, foreign groups like the cult I was born and raised in - Sherwood Park Alberta’s Word of Life Tabernacle, led by Terry Sproule, play a hidden but powerful role in fuelling this occupation.
A 2018 article titled “ Three Christian Zionists That Are Building Israel’s Biblical Heartland – 1 Dollar, 1 Product, 1 Vine at a Time” revealed how Barrett Ens, the cult and cult leader actively support illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank - known internationally as occupied Palestinian territory. They have funded infrastructure projects in outposts like Esh Kodesh and Yair Farm.
These settlements aren’t just “communities” as some describe, they are illegal under international law and are a direct cause of Palestinian dispossession, violence, and oppression. Supporting these settlements means supporting the ongoing genocide of Palestine.
“What looks like local church charity is a global political act that perpetuates occupation.”
Ens and the cult community publicly praise settlers as “the real deal,” people “raising their families in Israel’s Biblical heartland.” This rhetoric frames the brutal reality of colonization as divine destiny. Alongside his Pastor Terry Sproule and illegal squatter Daniella Weiss, known for extremist settler activism, I believe this ideology fuels an aggressive expansion that crushes Palestinian rights.
Daniella Weiss: Leading Settler Extremism and Cult Ties
Daniella Weiss remains a central and active figure in the settler movement’s most aggressive campaigns. Most recently, on July 30, 2025, Weiss led a march from Sderot to the Gaza border demanding the resettlement of Gaza by Israeli settlers. She declared that a thousand families were ready to move into Gaza immediately, pending government approval, pushing a vision of Gaza as part of the “Land of Israel.” This march is a stark reminder of the ongoing settler agenda to expand into Palestinian territories, escalating tensions and undermining any prospects for peace.
But Weiss’s influence is not limited to the frontlines of settlement expansion. She also maintains a close relationship with Sherwood Park Alberta’s Word of Life Tabernacle, my former cult community deeply involved in supporting settler infrastructure and ideology.
The cult don’t just admire Weiss, they host her and her husband during their visits to Canada, going to great lengths to prepare for her presence. The cult removes Christian symbols such as crucifixes from their homes and meeting spaces, eliminate Jesus from their worship songs and even purchases new dishes to ensure kosher compliance, demonstrating extreme ritual conformity to Weiss’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish standards.
These actions reveal how cult members’ beliefs and daily lives are shaped by Weiss’s influence, reinforcing an ideology that supports violent settlement expansion and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians. This connection exposes the broader network of extremist religious actors sustaining illegal settlements beyond Israel’s borders.
Raising Funds for Occupation: Donation Plates for Illegal Settlements
Perhaps most disturbingly, the cult actively raises funds to support these illegal settlements through donation plates collected during their services. Congregants are encouraged to give generously, with no tax receipts available. I was too poor to ever give a dollar.
These donations directly finance infrastructure upgrades in settlements - such as electrical improvements, playgrounds for settler children, road expansions, and security enhancements - all built on occupied Palestinian land.
This grassroots fundraising is a critical part of how the cult sustains settler expansion abroad. It transforms what might seem like local church charity into a global political act that perpetuates occupation, dispossession and genocide.
Word of Life Tabernacle’s “Humanitarian” Claims: A False Cover for Settler Support
When I spoke about their financial and ideological backing of illegal settlements on
Scott Carney’s podcast, Word of Life Tabernacle tried to paint their aid as “humanitarian” in the Cease and Desist letter they had served to me.
This narrative, however, obscures the truth. The infrastructure projects they fund serve only to strengthen illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. These efforts are strategic investments in colonization, not impartial humanitarian relief.
This misrepresentation is a common tactic to deflect criticism and hide the real impact of settler funding. I believe genuine humanitarian aid should protect vulnerable populations, not entrench occupation and prolong genocide.
The Urgency of Freeing Palestine
Freeing Palestine requires dismantling the ideological and financial networks that enable occupation. It means standing with Palestinians resisting and demanding their rights to their homeland. I believe it means exposing and confronting the role of foreign religious groups and leaders, like my former cult leader Terry Sproule, Elder Barrett Ens, their Word of Life Tabernacle community, and Daniella Weiss, who bankroll and glorify illegal settlements.
Palestine is more than a geopolitical conflict, it is a human rights crisis. War crimes are being committed. Israel is starving Palestine, and thousands upon thousands are being murdered.
To free Palestine is to reject narratives of entitlement to land that exclude Palestinians. It is to call for an end to occupation, settlement expansion, genocide and systemic discrimination. It is to affirm Palestinian humanity, history, and rights.
Holding accountable those who finance and promote settler expansion is essential. Only by uprooting these networks can we hope for a just and lasting peace, one where Palestinians live free, with dignity and equality.
The time to free Palestine is now.
Right on!
Stop the genocide now.