Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank are used to aggression from Israeli settlers. Since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, they have seen an increase in efforts by extremist settlers to take their land – and their sheep.
Since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has multiplied, particularly against Palestinian Bedouin communities, who make their living by herding and farming. The Observers editorial team was able to contact a herder in the Jericho region who denounces a campaign of harassment aimed at forcing his community to leave their land.
In parallel with the war in Gaza, attacks by extremist settlers on Bedouin communities in the West Bank have multiplied in recent months.
The occupied West Bank is divided into three zones. Bedouin communities live mainly in the largest of these, Area C. This includes a large number of grazing and agricultural lands.
The communities in the Al-Auja zone, some ten kilometres north of Jericho, say they are under increasing pressure.
Souleimane, a local herder, recounts how a settler vehicle rammed into his flock, killing twelve sheep, in early February, and how other sheep were stolen.
According to Souleimane, these settlers come from the surrounding outposts, small settlements considered illegal under Israeli law. They are often armed, and travel under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
NGOs defending Bedouin rights say the settlers use other forms of harassment such as requisitioning Bedouin livestock and demanding extortionate fines.
Hasan M'lihet is president of the Baydar NGO for the defense of Bedouin rights.
Through the Settlement Council, the settlers also impose heavy fines on Bedouin communities if their sheep enter land classified by the settlers as belonging to the Settlement Council in the West Bank.
In mid-January, the Settlement Council fined one Bedouin $40,000 on the grounds that his flock had entered land belonging to the Settlement Council.
In 2023, 28 Bedouin communities were forced to leave, 24 of which left after October 7.
In early February, the USA, UK and France announced sanctions against several radical settlers accused of violence against Palestinian Bedouins, as well as Israeli activists.
In 2023, 25 new settler outposts had been established in the West Bank, 10 of them after October 7, according to the Israeli NGO Peace Now.
