Inside the Co-ordinated Campaign by Israeli Settlers to Reshape the West Bank

Roads between villages in the West Bank increasingly feel like front lines. Across the occupied territory, Palestinians say tensions are at their highest in decades, as fears for their homes, and lives, increase. At the heart of the trouble is growing violence by extremist Israeli settlers, with attacks on Palestinian communities aimed at changing the geography of the land and undermining the prospect of a two-state solution.

What were once seen by some as separate attacks are now clearly part of a co-ordinated campaign. In recent weeks, much of this violence has centred on the villages of Jalud and Qusra in the northern West Bank. The National visited the area to gather first-hand testimonies from residents and examine what they see as an increasingly organised movement.

This weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the latest violence by settlers in the two villages, calling those responsible a “handful of rioters” after dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian homes.

A'adah Ahmed says she has been in severe pain in her limbs since settlers seized two houses in Jalud that she and her husband of 36 years built together for two of their seven children to marry and settle down in. “It's like I am in a nightmare that I want to wake up from,” she told The National at her home.

For years, she and her husband worked tirelessly on the land, pruned the trees, harvested and sold olives and fruit, and nurtured a family that lived relatively well. “I built those two houses with my husband stone by stone and fed our seven children from the land that we no longer have,” she said, as she sat next to her husband, Mahmoud Tobasi, 70, in their living room.

While travelling through the West Bank, scores of small settler outposts can now be seen on hilltops overlooking Palestinian villages, often marked by white or orange prefab structures that serve as temporary accommodation.

Accounts given by Palestinian residents of how the land grabs and attacks are carried out by settlers are nearly identical. They tend to arrive in small numbers, perhaps as few as 10, but with at least one armed with an automatic rifle, bringing a power generator and a small herd of sheep or goats. They stage night-time raids, torching cars, chopping down trees, and stealing livestock before eventually digging in to build the nucleus of a new settlement.

After losing two homes to settlers, Mahmoud Tobasi spends most of his day watching a live feed from the security camera he installed on the roof of his family's home in Jalud, monitoring the properties now occupied by young settlers.

Haaretz reported this month that the government, settlers, and the military have been introducing changes on the ground in the northern West Bank to pave the way for de facto annexation. Meanwhile, the UN has stated that the situation in the West Bank must be treated as an emergency, while several European countries have imposed sanctions and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the settlers as “terrorists.”

Elements of the Israeli government continue to support settlements, with the security cabinet approving 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) for 34 new settlements in July, and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordering the military to hand over responsibility for civilian law enforcement to the police in the West Bank.

A short distance from Jalud is the village of Qusra, where recent events offer a clear example of a potential land grab. Settlers have been laying siege to three houses on a mountain called Ras Al Ein, cutting off water and power supplies and preventing food and construction crews from reaching the 13 people trapped inside.

Qusra's former local council chief, Hany Auda, noted that the village's predicament goes far beyond the siege of the three homes, threatening natural expansion for the population of 7,000. Suffering continued on Saturday when dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked homes surrounding the village.