Jewish settlers forcing Palestinian Bedouin communities in West Bank to leave

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Jewish settlers are forcing five Palestinian Bedouin families from the occupied West Bank to leave their land, according to a Palestinian Bedouin leader.

Hassan Melihat, head of the Bedouin Rights Defense Organization (BEYDER), told Anadolu that on the evening of March 17, a group of Jewish settlers attacked Bedouin families living in the Es-Suhn area east of Nablus city, preventing them from grazing their sheep and taking them to water.

He said that Jewish settlers "threatened five Bedouin families of about 30 people with weapons and forced them to migrate to seize large pastures belonging to Palestinians."

Noting that about 200 people live in the area, the official stressed that their only source of income is animal husbandry and that they have been residing in the area since the 1970s.

"The threat of expulsion also threatens other families living in the area,” he noted.

“If all the families living in the area leave, it means that settlers will take over a large area of more than 15,000 acres inhabited by Bedouins, which they use for livestock and agriculture," he warned.

Melihat emphasized that the Bedouin, especially in the Jordan Valley, are the communities that have suffered the most "ethnic cleansing" since the Nakba, adding: “The Bedouin feel the pain of being left alone in an unequal war with the settlers and alienation in their homeland.”

According to the data by BEYDER, 28 Bedouin communities in the West Bank have been forcibly displaced since Oct. 7, 2023, and four Bedouin communities were displaced before that date.

Melihat said that six schools belonging to Palestinian Bedouin communities were demolished in 2023 and six schools were vandalized, pointing out that a total of 1,024 violations and attacks were carried out by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers last year.

Palestinians fined for grazing sheep on mountain

The official further said that the organization he leads has "documented around 460 violations" since the beginning of 2024.

"The occupiers and Jewish settlers introduced a new policy against the Bedouin at the beginning of this year,” he stressed. “The Settlement Council in the West Bank imposes heavy fines on those who bring their sheep to the mountains to graze."

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that a group of Jewish settlers attacked two shepherds in the al-Matwi area west of Selfit, wounding them and stealing 40 sheep.

Hamed al-Azazma, a resident of the area, said: "10 armed occupiers attacked my sons herding sheep in the Matvi area and injured two of them, broke their phones and stole 40 sheep."

Condemnation by Palestinian Foreign Ministry

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks by Jewish settlers.

"The non-implementation of UN Resolution 2334 encourages the occupation militias and their political backers to continue further violations, oppression and abuse against the Palestinians, and to steal more land and allocate it for settlement purposes,” the ministry said in a written statement.

The ministry called on all global actors to “put pressure on Israel to stop Jewish settlement, disband and disarm the occupation militias, dry up their financial resources, and remove the shield of political and legal protection from them."

It also strongly condemned "the establishment and expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land west of Ramallah."

Some 700,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Under international law, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal.

Jewish settlers living in the area make life even more difficult for Palestinians living under occupation in the occupied West Bank.

*Writing by Merve Berker in Ankara