‘No future here’: Bedouin hamlets are erased as residents flee settler harassment

Over the past two years, more than 1,000 Bedouins living in Area C of the West Bank have fled or been forced from their homes, driven out by what residents describe as escalating settler violence and systemic inaction, or complicity by Israeli authorities.

Area C is under complete Israeli jurisdiction, both civil and security-wise. In areas A and B of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority maintains a degree of control.

Several serious incidents involving land confiscation and theft targeting Bedouins have reached the police and the courts, but are progressing slowly. At the same time, the State of Israel has continued to fund the very outposts that, by the Bedouins’ accounts, are the source of the violence, and plans to transfer even more land in the area to settlers.

Bedouin communities have lived in the West Bank for decades. Some families initially fled or were expelled from the Negev during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 before resettling in the West Bank. Other communities claim a longer history in the area, tracing their presence to pre-1948 migratory patterns.

These communities, typically organized around extended family networks, are dispersed throughout the West Bank — from the southern Hebron Hills to Tubas in the north and the Jordan Valley in the east. Some reside on privately owned Palestinian land under lease agreements, while others claim ownership of the land they inhabit.

One of the most visibly affected regions is a swath of around 100,000 dunams (25,000 acres) between Ramallah and Jericho. Until 2022, seven Bedouin communities lived there, comprising around 1,000 people, according to residents and aerial imagery. Today, only one community — Ma’arajat — remains, with some 40 families. A single family remains in a nearby area.

When The Times of Israel visited last week, dozens of homes, tents, and livestock pens could be seen abandoned.

‘Leave. Don’t take anything with you’

One community of 250 residents fled in a single day following a large settler attack. On October 12, 2023, just days after Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack and the outbreak of war in Gaza, settlers were documented entering the Bedouin community of Wadi a-Siq, apparently armed, and ordering the residents to leave.

Witnesses say the settlers fired shots into the air in the presence of Israel Defense Forces vehicles that were seen at the site. During the incident, settlers and soldiers allegedly detained three residents, beating and stripping them before photographing them in their underwear.

Five soldiers from the IDF’s Desert Frontier Unit — which includes former hilltop youth — were dismissed in the wake of the incident.

Ali Ahmad Arara, a former resident of the hamlet, told The Times of Israel that settlers had already been harassing the community before the war. “They didn’t let us go out with our herds to graze. After October 7, they did whatever they wanted. One day, they beat us, and 25 to 35 families fled that same day.”

Recalling the day of the attack, Arara said, “The situation was terrifying. The children were afraid. Fifty or 60 settlers came and said, ‘Leave. Don’t take anything with you.’ What was I supposed to do? I have five children. Now they’re too scared to return. My father, who is 70, said they fled just like this from the Negev in 1948.”

Eight days later, the community returned to the area in coordination with the Civil Administration (the Defense Ministry body that governs the areas of the West Bank under Israeli control) to retrieve their belongings. “It was all gone,” Arara said. “We went back and found nothing — it was all broken, burned.”

Today, Arara lives a few kilometers away, near the Palestinian village of Ramon, but he says the Civil Administration has told him he cannot remain there. “I don’t know where we’ll go next,” he said. “I can see the place where I used to live, but I can’t go there. If I do, I’ll die, because of the settlers.”

The Civil Administration denied to The Times of Israel that it had ordered the Bedouins to leave the area.

Individuals in military uniforms were also documented at the scene of other recent violent incidents in the areas, though it remains unclear if they were active-duty soldiers. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.

Livelihoods shattered

Mohammad Ka’abneh, another former resident of Wadi a-Siq, now lives in a tent near the Palestinian village of Taybeh, nestled among olive trees. His livestock is penned due to a lack of grazing land, and he says his economic situation is dire.

“We used to spend about NIS 10,000 ($2,700) per month on feed. Now it’s NIS 30,000–40,000,” he said. “I had 100 sheep; now I have 30. I had to sell most of them, and some died of hunger. All of this happened in the past year, since we were expelled.”

Ka’abneh says he rents the land and has no idea where he’ll go once the lease is up. Like many in his community, he used to make a living through sheep and goat herding, selling the animals for meat. Now, he is in debt and struggling to survive.

Many displaced Bedouins say they’ve been forced to abandon their traditional way of life — which revolves around raising and selling livestock for meat — altogether. Unable to access grazing land, some have sold their flocks and moved to urban areas under the Palestinian Authority’s civil control, upending decades of pastoral existence in Area C.

A recent decision by the Civil Administration could further erode Bedouin grazing lands. In February, the Commissioner of Government Property and Abandoned Lands approved temporary grazing permits on state land to unspecified private entities — the first time such a move has been made in the West Bank. All six designated areas are near Bedouin communities and settlements, including Ras Ein al-Uja, home to some 1,500 Bedouins.

The policy was authorized by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in his secondary role as a minister within the Defense Ministry. It has sparked concern among the Bedouins, who fear the land will be allocated to settlers and they will lose their access to it. The Civil Administration did not comment on how the land will be used.

‘We just want to live’

Hasan Malihat, from Ma’arajat, left in April 2024 after living there for decades. He was one of 60 families to depart in a short span of time. “People have lived here since the 1970s,” he said. “The settlers, from two nearby outposts, seized our herds and beat us. We couldn’t take the herds out to graze anymore. We went to the police, but nothing came of it.”

Malihat now lives and works in Ramallah. “Many of us sold our flocks. We couldn’t support them,” he said. “The Bedouins don’t want trouble — since 1967 [when Israel captured the West Bank in the Six Day War] we haven’t caused any problems. We just want to live. We have no problem with Israel. That’s the difference [between them and other Palestinians].”

Encircled by settlement outposts

The shift in conditions for Bedouins coincides with a sharp rise in unauthorized settlement activity. Between 2019 and 2024, 11 outposts — many of them livestock farms — were established around Bedouin communities in Malihat’s area. Some were initiated by settler leaders and later funded by state or state-backed institutions, including the World Zionist Organization and government ministries.

Zeev Hever, who heads the Amana settlement construction movement, announced in 2021 his intention to establish 10 new outpost farms annually in the West Bank, describing them as more effective at holding on to land than traditional settlements, due to the larger areas they can cover.

According to a recent report by the settlement watchdogs Peace Now and Kerem Navot, 70 new outpost farms were established in the past two years, bringing the total throughout the West Bank to over 140. The report alleged that some NIS 80 million in public funds have been funneled to support these outposts.

Displaced Bedouins say settler attacks have continued in their new locations. Just this week, a family that was expelled from Wadi a-Siq and resettled near the village of Sinjil was attacked. A source close to the family told The Times of Israel that several members were beaten, and one was hospitalized with head injuries. Video footage from the scene showed that tents were set ablaze and solar panels were destroyed.

According to the military, “A report was received of a confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians near the village of Sinjil. During the incident, Palestinians threw stones, and Israeli civilians set fire to several shacks, tires, and trees in the area. Upon receiving the report, security forces arrived to disperse the confrontation and arrested a Palestinian suspected of throwing stones.”

In other areas of the West Bank where Bedouins continue to herd on their traditional lands, residents have alleged increasing incidents of livestock theft by settlers. One such incident was reported to police in early March.

According to Haitham Zayed, a resident of Ras al-Ein near Jericho, dozens of settlers, accompanied by IDF and police forces, entered the area on the night of March 7. Zayed said the group seized approximately 400 sheep and lambs from his property — of a total of 1,500 animals taken throughout the area.

The current whereabouts of the livestock remains unclear, with conflicting accounts as to whether the animals are in the hands of settlers or have been confiscated by authorities. Some of the missing livestock were identified on March 21 by Zayed near an outpost, where he said he saw settler herders tending the flock.

He claimed that during the March 7 incident, settlers claimed that they were searching for livestock stolen from a nearby outpost. The outpost’s owner filed a police complaint immediately after the incident, alleging that 40 animals had been stolen from him.

On March 10, Zayed filed a complaint with the Israel Police regarding the alleged theft of his livestock. However, by March 18, his legal team learned that the case had been closed just one day after it was filed, due to “insufficient evidence to prosecute.” The attorneys submitted an appeal against the decision to close the investigation, but as of now, no response has been received from the authorities.

Rising tensions in the Jordan Valley

Another area facing mass displacement is the northern Jordan Valley. Since the war began, hundreds of Bedouins have left, comprising at least three large communities and several smaller clans. Palestinians say four new outposts have been established in the area, the latest as recently as a few months ago.

Mahmoud Ka’abneh says he fled from Um al-Jamal in the northern Jordan Valley in August 2024.

“We were 13 or 14 families, dozens of people. Then they built an outpost just a few meters above us. The settlers would walk between the homes and peer into them. It scared the women and children. The army and police were with them, so there was no point calling them,” he said. “Within three days, we left. Afterwards, bulldozers belonging to the [Jordan Valley] regional council destroyed what remained.”

As Israel’s Civil Administration is officially responsible for land enforcement in the West Bank, not regional councils, it is unclear under what authority the demolition was carried out, and the Jordan Valley Council did not respond to a request for comment.

Now living beyond the Tayasir checkpoint near Tubas, Ka’abneh says his community has scattered and cannot return. “If I could go back, I would. But it’s not allowed,” he said. “There’s no safety. They beat our neighbors at night.”

Yasser Abu Aram also fled his home in the northern Jordan Valley with his family. He said that settlers built a house five meters from his, prompting his departure that very day. “They harassed me. They stole my sheep, shattered my solar panels, broke into my home and stole my belongings… I was afraid they’d set the kids on fire.”

Soon after he left, Abu Aram said, Civil Administration officials confiscated his belongings — including water tanks and generators — and demanded a NIS 500,000 fine to retrieve them. “Why arrest the belongings and not the person?” he asked. “We didn’t throw stones or fire rockets. We’ve never caused problems.”

The Civil Administration told The Times of Israel that the family had pitched tents in a live-fire military zone, and the seizure was legal. It said that the family could seek the return of the property through official channels.

According to other Bedouins who still reside in the area, the settlement structure built alongside Abu Aram’s home was dismantled the day after he and his family fled.

‘The settlers are the army and the police’

Kadri Dararmeh lives in Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley, one of several Bedouin communities that have not been displaced but whose 40-odd residents say they are increasingly considering leaving due to the mounting pressure.

Dararmeh owns the land on which he lives, documented in the official land registry (tabu), and some of the grazing land used by his cattle is also registered to him. Nevertheless, he says he faces ongoing threats from settlers living nearby.

He has also suffered financially due to the unexplained confiscation of part of his herd. In June 2024, some 80 heads of cattle were taken from his enclosure at night under unclear circumstances. After conducting inquiries, the family discovered that the Jordan Valley Regional Council had confiscated the animals and relocated them to a holding pen far from their home.

He was instructed to pay a NIS 50,000 fine in order to retrieve them, but after paying it he only received about 30 of the 80 cows back. Together with the left-wing legal aid group Yesh Din, he filed a petition to the High Court of Justice against the head of the IDF Central Command, the regional council, and the Interior Ministry, arguing that local councils have no authority to seize livestock belonging to Palestinians.

That same month, a hearing was held in the case, and the court issued a conditional order instructing the regional council to refrain from seizing or detaining animals that are reasonably believed, or claimed, to be owned by local residents (referring to Palestinians). However, the court has yet to issue a final ruling on the matter, and several hearings have already been postponed, with the next one scheduled for May.

The Jordan Valley Regional Council did not respond to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.

“I’ve lived here my whole life. My father lived here his whole life. We were here in the time of the Turks, the Jordanians. We used to sleep safely, come and go freely — no one questioned us,” Dararmeh told The Times of Israel recently in the living room of his home.

“Today it’s completely different. The settlers are the army and the police,” he said. “They threaten the homes, they steal and kill the livestock. I’m barely able to support my children now — there’s no grazing land, no water. I’m thinking about selling the herd and leaving the land.

“Life here has become hard, almost unbearable,” Dararmeh said. “There’s no future here.”