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Middle East Eye
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Palestinians left 'without shelter and water' as settlers empty West Bank village
On Thursday evening, Israeli settlers erected a tent just metres away from a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Al-Mu'arrajat area in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley. Al-Mu'arrajat East, which occupies a small patch of land on a rocky hillside, had endured years of escalating attacks from the nearby Israeli Movot Yorihu settlement. Thirty families had already been forced to abandon their homes. The last 20 had clung on until now, but this would be the village's death knell. That night, the settlers moved from home to home forcing families out at gun point. Resident Aliya Mlihat immediately rang the police, who were slow to respond. When border police and three military jeeps arrived on the scene, they did nothing to stop the onslaught, even facilitating the raids on people's homes. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Their numbers kept increasing until there were approximately 50 settlers, ranging in age from 18 to 50, all speaking fluent Arabic," she told Middle East Eye. Mlihat recalled that "the expressions on the soldiers' faces revealed satisfaction - even joy - as if they were endorsing the settlers' actions". In one photo taken by Mlihat, settlers can be seen lounging in chairs and grinning alongside soldiers in fatigues. Mlihat tried to document the raid on her phone, but was verbally abused and threatened by the settlers, which included teenage boys, who she said attempted to beat her. The attack was led by sanctioned Israeli settler Zohar Sabah, who had set up the new outpost. According to Mlihat, Sabah stormed the area armed with an M16 rifle, shouting at residents to "flee to Jordan". 'What is happening cannot be explained as the actions of a few extremist groups - it is part of an official state policy aimed at full control over our land' - Aliya Mlihat, Al-Mu'arrajat East resident About an hour into the attack, the settlers were at Mlihat's door. "They began searching for anything they could take, shouting: 'Leave now!' I responded firmly: 'We will not leave!' But they continued yelling and hurling insults at me, my mother and my siblings," Mlihat recalled. Mlihat and her family left at gun point, along with the remaining families who dismantled their homes and loaded their belongings onto trucks. "We had no option but to grab what was left of our memories, dreams, kitchen tools, schoolbooks and my sister's high school exam papers - and go," Mlihat said. The community are now scattered across different areas including the nearby villages of Al-'Awsaj and Al-Auja. Mlihat and her family ended up on the outskirts of a refugee camp, "without shelter, without water, without even air to breathe", she said. "We are exposed to the scorching sun, in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius," she told MEE. She said her sister, who is still in school, is in a "very poor mental state", forced to study for her exams in the blistering heat with no access to water. "She used to be a top student, but she broke down in tears due to everything she has endured. No officials from the Ministry of Education have reached out to her," Mlihat said. Her father, who was struck in the chest during the attack, is having difficulty breathing, while her mother has not stopped crying since the night of the attack. An impossible choice Mlihat was born and raised in Al-Mu'arrajat East, where her family had lived for four decades. She said that since October 2020, the community had seen a steady rise in settler violence, beginning with the theft of their livestock and restrictions on their use of grazing land. At one point, settlers poisoned their sheep. But since the onset of Israel's war on Gaza, the violence had escalated, with settlers emboldened by a far-right government determined to consolidate its control over the occupied West Bank. In October, settlers including Sabah raided the local school armed with clubs, assaulting teachers and students and tying up the principal, who was subsequently hospitalised. Following the raid, they placed dolls splattered with red paint to resemble blood at the school's entrance. The same dolls were again used in a settler attack on 23 January to adorn mock child graves outside the school. In February, they burned the village mosque to the ground. UK-sanctioned Israeli settler Zohar Sabah relaxes with soldiers hours before the raid on Al-Mu'arrajat East (Aliya Mlihat) Mlihat said that the attacks occurred "in an organised manner", with numbers of settlers swelling significantly. Shaina Low, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Communication Advisor, said the violence may amount to a forcible transfer, prohibited under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime under international law. "They faced an impossible choice, reaching a breaking point. This is not a voluntary departure," she said. The attacks on Mu'arrajat are part of a surge of settler violence across the occupied West Bank intended to clear Palestinians off large swathes of Area C - an area which makes up 60 percent of the West Bank and is under Israeli control. Settlers often act under military protection and are emboldened by the Israeli government, who approved 22 new settlements in May. "What is happening in terms of attacks and systematic displacement cannot be explained as merely the actions of a few extremist groups - it is, in fact, part of an official state policy aimed at full control over our land," Mlihat said. Al-Mu'arrajat's forced displacement follows that of the residents of a nearby Bedouin community, Mughayir ad-Deir, in late May. Israeli rights group Stop the Wall reported that settlers pitched a tent in the middle of the village, hooking it up to running water from a nearby outpost. They then proceeded to expand the outpost, forcing the 125 residents to flee to the industrial zone of Beitunia, where they do not have access to water or electricity. Sabah was also involved in this campaign, along with another sanctioned settler, Ben Pazi. Both participated in the attack after being placed on the UK sanctions list. The nearby community of Ras Ein al-Auja, home to 130 residents, is expected to be next after a new settler outpost was established in the centre of the village in June. "We've seen this pattern, that now the settlers have realised they can duplicate," Low told MEE. "It involves just a couple of people setting up an outpost, herding their own flocks on the community's traditional grazing land, taking over access to water resources, stealing sheep, intimidating the community and preventing them from having access to all the natural resources around them. "And then we'll see this escalation of violent attacks, often at night. This is what we're seeing now, just copy-paste, replicated all across the area east of Ramallah." Low said the impacts on the communities are "devastating", as land and access to water sources is growing scarce in the West Bank, leaving displaced people scant options for relocation and forcing them into debt. "They're running into so much debt that they're selling their flocks, losing their main source of income," Low said. Palestinian Bedouins dismantle a house before fleeing, while settler violence surges, near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 4 July 2025 (REUTERS/Ammar Awad) "What we're seeing is the erasure of Palestinian communities in the West Bank - in this case, in Area C - but we're also seeing communities being displaced in parts of Area B, and even settler violence and attacks happening in Area A as well," Low said. Area A, which covers 21 percent of the West Bank, is under full administrative control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), while Area B constitutes 18 percent and is under partial PA control. "If the Palestinian communities are removed from these areas, it means that Israel will be able to expand their settlement project, and build settlements connecting the settlements among each other," Low explained. "It means that the two-state solution that the international community purports to support will no longer be viable, or is not viable if there's no Palestinian presence in large parts of the West Bank." Low emphasised that despite frequent visits by diplomats to imperilled Palestinian villages in the West Bank, the international community is doing little to prevent their displacement. "They visited these communities. They've spoken out against the displacement, but they aren't doing enough to prevent the displacement from happening in the first place," she said.
Saba Yemen
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
UNRWA warns of escalating violence, risk of forced displacement in Khirbet Umm al-Khair, Masafer Yatta
Al-Quds – Saba: Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank Roland Friedrich warned of the alarming deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Khirbet Umm al-Khair and Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in occupied Palestine, in light of escalating settler attacks, intensified demolition orders, and measures that threaten the imminent forced displacement of hundreds of Palestinian Bedouin families. The official Palestinian News Agency quoted Friedrich as saying that for several years, Palestine refugees in Khirbet Umm al-Khair, located in the hills south of Hebron and adjacent to the Karmiel settlement, have faced harassment and violence by settlers, in addition to home demolitions and administrative measures, all of which undermine the lives of this Bedouin community, which UNRWA provides services to. He added that tensions have escalated in recent days after armed settlers entered the community day and night, vandalized property, and attempted to expand the fence. The settlement is located within the lands of Umm al-Khair. He continued: "This comes at a time when Palestinian communities in Firing Zone 918, adjacent to Masafer Yatta, face the threat of displacement, affecting 200 families, comprising approximately 1,200 people, including 500 children. Under international law, these settlements are illegal. Remote Bedouin and herding communities, such as Umm al-Khair and all Masafer Yatta communities, face imminent forcible displacement. This reflects a broader trend in the occupied West Bank: land seizures in Area C, escalating settler violence, and growing impunity, creating coercive conditions that raise concerns about forced population transfer. Frederick emphasized that Israel, as the "occupying power," bears a responsibility to protect these Palestinian communities from settler violence and to hold perpetrators accountable. Under international law, the demolition of private property must be halted, the escalation of forced displacement must be halted, and the right of Bedouin and pastoral communities, who have lived on these lands for generations, to live in dignity and security must be guaranteed. Whatsapp Telegram Email more of (International)
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Violent Israeli settlers under UK sanctions join illegal West Bank outpost
Two violent Israeli settlers on whom sanctions were imposed by the UK government this week have joined a campaign to drive Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank village of Mughayyir al-Deir. Neria Ben Pazi's organisation, Neria's Farm, had sanctions imposed by London on Tuesday, as the UK suspended negotiations on a new free-trade deal with Israel over its refusal to allow aid into Gaza and cabinet ministers' calls to 'purify Gaza' by expelling Palestinians. The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, attacked the 'impunity' of violent settlers as he announced sanctions designed to hold them and Israeli authorities to account. 'The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,' he said. Ben Pazi himself was put on the UK sanctions list last year, with the government citing his role building illegal outposts and forcing Palestinian Bedouin families from their homes. This week he made repeated long visits to an illegal outpost set up on Sunday less than 100 metres from a Palestinian home on the edge of Mughayyir al-Deir, a community of around 150 bedouins. Another visitor to the outpost, photographed on Wednesday and identified by local activists, was Zohar Sabah. He visited the day after he was added to the UK sanctions list for 'threatening, perpetrating, promoting and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals'. The settlers set up a basic shelter next to a sheep enclosure with a small herd, which formed the base for a campaign of intimidation that began immediately. 'I haven't slept since they came, and the children are terrified,' said Ahmad Sulaiman, a 58-year-old father of eleven whose home was closest to the outpost. Born just a stone's throw away, he had spent his life in Mughayyir al-Deir, but by Thursday he was packing to leave, although the family did not know where they would go. 'The settlers told me: 'This is our home',' said Sulaiman. 'There is nothing I can do. They have guns and other weapons.' The intended deterrent effect of the UK sanctions was not visible at Mughayyir al-Deir, where settlers expanded their campaign of intimidation in the days after the British announcement, and the only public response from Israeli officials was a visit in support of the settlers. Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Knesset and the far-right Religious Zionist party, was filmed by activists as he left the illegal outpost. During a debate on Israel's Channel 12 last week Sukkot said: 'Everyone has got used to the idea that we can kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody in the world cares.' The hills nearby are surrounded by the burned remains of Palestinian villages, whose residents were forced out by campaigns run from similar Israeli outposts. But setting up such a short distance from the Palestinians being targeted is unprecedented. Yonatan Mizrachi, the co-director of Settlement Watch, part of the campaign group Peace Now, said settler outposts had been getting nearer to Palestinian communities since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, 'but I don't remember any others that were established so close'. 'It shows the settlers' lack of fear, and the understanding that they can do what they like; they can just set up in the Palestinian community. And they didn't come to be good neighbours,' Mizrachi added. Sabah was indicted by Israeli authorities in September for his role in an attack on a school in Mu'arrajat East, where settlers targeted teachers, a 13-year-old pupil and the principal, who was hospitalised. Shai Parnes, a spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, said: 'Israeli policy to take as much land as possible hasn't changed. But what has been changing under this current government is the total impunity for soldiers and settlers. 'They used to hide their faces or attack at night, everything is happening much more brutal and violent and it is happening in broad daylight. They are really proud about what they're doing, sometimes even uploading the assaults themselves to social media.' Forced displacement began before the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent ongoing Gaza war, but has intensified since then. Around 1,200 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have been forced to leave 20 communities, according to figures from B'tselem. It is a second displacement for families such as Sulaiman's, who lived near what is now the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva until 1948. They were forced out in the nakba, or catastrophe, in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes in 1948 after the creation of Israel. Israel's military occupation of the West Bank began in 1967. Around 500,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements there, all illegal under international law. Dozens of small makeshift outposts are also illegal under Israeli law – like the one set up in Mughayyir al-Deir – but authorities rarely try to remove them. Ben Pazi set up his own farm in the area east of Ramallah in 2018 and has been involved in attacks and land grabs in the area for many years, according to the British and US governments. Most use a combination of attacks on people, destruction of property and deployment of herds of sheep and goats to graze land where Palestinians have fed their flocks for decades. The US state department said in 2024, when sanctions were imposed on Ben Pazi under the Biden administration: 'Ben Pazi has expelled Palestinian shepherds from hundreds of acres of land. In August 2023, settlers including Ben Pazi attacked Palestinians near the village of Wadi as-Seeq.' Donald Trump lifted those sanctions. Ben Pazi's violence attracted the attention of Israel's military commander for the region, Maj Gen Yehuda Fuchs, who issued an administrative order barring Ben Pazi from entering the West Bank in late 2023. Ben Pazi's role in the campaign to force Palestinians out of Mughayyir al-Deir was unclear. He hung up when the Guardian called to ask for comment, and did not respond to further messages. The Guardian was unable to contact Sabah. Ben Pazi was a regular visitor to the new outpost, spending several hours there on at least three days this week, according to several Israeli activists who recognised him from work in the region. On one visit he was photographed greeting an unidentified man wearing a military-style uniform. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the country's armed forces did not authorise or organise the forced displacement of Mughayyir al-Deir. 'The alleged evacuation was neither conducted by [IDF troops ] nor carried out with their approval,' a spokesperson said. Asked why the military did not remove the illegal outpost, they said any demolition would be a political decision. 'Enforcement against unlawful construction in the area is undertaken in accordance with the priorities set by the political echelon and is carried out under its authorisation,' the spokesperson said. Ben Pazi drove a group of settlers and equipment to the edge of the village, where they started erecting a fence around land where Palestinians had lived and farmed for decades. Parnes, of B'tselem, said: 'The international community have so much more to do in terms of directing steps towards the Israeli government. 'What is happening is not just about a violent threat in this place or that; it's all part of a well-defended and subsidised policy run by the government.'
Nahar Net
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Israeli bulldozers demolish most of West Bank hamlet, displacing dozens of Palestinians
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 May 2025, 13:25 Israeli military bulldozers have demolished most of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, taking out the hamlet's infrastructure and leaving residents wandering amid the rubble of their homes. The bulldozers rolled into Khalet Al-Dab in the morning, taking down most of the village's structures, said Basel Adra, a filmmaker, journalist and activist from the area. Nine homes, five tents and five animal pens were demolished on Monday, said Mohammed Rabia, head of the village council in the area. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for administrative affairs in the occupied West Bank, said it demolished the buildings because they were built illegally in an area designated as a closed firing zone. Palestinians have long said that securing Israeli permission to build in the West Bank is nearly impossible. Ali Dababsa, 87, a shepherd who watched the forces demolish his home, looked aghast. "We want to die under this soil, this land is precious to us and we are the owners of this land," he said, as he and other villagers gathered on a hilltop. The demolitions took place in an area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, where radical Israeli settlers are expanding a network of outposts in the area. Palestinians say the settlers operate with the tacit consent of the Israeli state, which carries out home demolitions and rarely prosecutes settlers for instances of violence against Palestinians. "Since Oct. 7, the Israeli army with the settlers established three illegal outposts around this community and now erasing this village to create more and more Israeli illegal settlements in the area," said Adra, who co-directed the Oscar-award winning film "No Other Land," about Palestinian expulsion and settler violence in the area. The destruction comes as Israeli forces are set to demolish over 100 homes across two northern refugee camps in the West Bank.
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Business Standard
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Israeli bulldozers raze West Bank hamlet, displace dozens of Palestinians
Israeli military bulldozers demolished most of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday, taking out the hamlet's infrastructure and leaving residents wandering amid the rubble of their homes. The bulldozers rolled into Khalet Al-Dab in the morning, taking down most of the village's structures, said Basel Adra, a filmmaker, journalist and activist from the area. Nine homes, five tents and five animal pens were demolished, said Mohammed Rabia, head of the village council in the area. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for administrative affairs in the occupied West Bank, said it demolished the buildings because they were built illegally in an area designated as a closed firing zone. Palestinians have long said that securing Israeli permission to build in the West Bank is nearly impossible. Ali Dababsa, 87, a shepherd who watched the forces demolish his home, looked aghast. "We want to die under this soil, this land is precious to us and we are the owners of this land, he said, as he and other villagers gathered on a hilltop. The demolitions took place in an area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, where radical Israeli settlers are expanding a network of outposts in the area. Palestinians say the settlers operate with the tacit consent of the Israeli state, which carries out home demolitions and rarely prosecutes settlers for instances of violence against Palestinians. Since Oct. 7, the Israeli army with the settlers established three illegal outposts around this community and now erasing this village to create more and more Israeli illegal settlements in the area, said Adra, who co-directed the Oscar-award winning film No Other Land, about Palestinian expulsion and settler violence in the area. The destruction comes as Israeli forces are set to demolish over 100 homes across two northern refugee camps in the West Bank. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
