"Israel is Implementing Practices of Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians"

Just days before Passover, "Zionut Datit" ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Struck gave a holiday gift to the settlers of South Hebron region. In a filmed ceremony held at the foot of one of the illegal outposts, 25 Polaris Ranger ATVs were presented to 25 so-called "shepherd farms." The cost of such an ATV is about 110,000 shekels (including VAT). It is the Rolls-Royce of ATVs, and according to the Israeli government, those deserving of this gift are the ones uprooting Palestinian residents from their land.

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"Each one is marked with the name of the farm it goes to," said Smotrich in a video he shared from the event, sitting beside Eliram Azulai, head of the Har Hebron Regional Council. "Twenty-five farms," boasted the council head, each of which, according to him, guards between 5,000 to 10,000 dunams. Just two weeks earlier, in that same council’s territory, settlers in military uniform and soldiers from an artillery unit attacked the shepherding community in Jinba, seriously injuring three residents and destroying their property. The incident was so severe that IDF Chief of Staff made a rare visit to the area to draw a red line.

The ATVs and accompanying equipment, such as night vision devices, were funded by the Ministry for Settlements and National Missions, headed by Minister Orit Strock, who also participated in the festive launch. Her ministry recently received a significant budget increase—from 123 million Shekels to 391 million—an increase of 320% in the 2025 budget, despite widespread cuts to essential services.

Around the same time, the organizations "Yesh Din" and "Physicians for Human Rights" published a report titled "Displaced Communities, Forgotten People: The Forced Transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israel." The report discusses events that led to the expulsion of hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in the West Bank. In less than two years, about 100,000 dunams of land east of the Alon Road were almost entirely emptied of the Palestinian shepherd communities who had lived there for decades. This “achievement” can be credited to the illegal outposts—referred by Smotrich as “shepherd farms."

According to Oded Shalom’s publication in YNET, the organizations "Peace Now" and "Kerem Navot" are expected to release a report soon revealing the extent of Israeli government involvement in funding these shepherd farms and supporting the violent actions aimed at forcibly transferring Palestinian populations. As we’ve been reporting for some time, the goal of the Netanyahu-Smotrich government is to push Palestinian shepherd communities to abandon their land and move to towns and villages, thus reducing Palestinian territorial presence—particularly in Area C. The land seizure isn’t just the result of settler presence but is a direct outcome of violent attacks and daily harassment.

The conclusion of the investigation "Displaced Communities, Forgotten People" is that "the state bears responsibility for committing the war crime of forcibly transferring Palestinians in the West Bank, which occurs with its support, through its agents or citizens. Moreover, the state’s deep involvement, its operational methods, the systematic nature of these acts, and their repetition in different places, lead to the grave determination that in certain parts of the West Bank, Israel is implementing practices of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians."

The report of “Yesh Din” and “Doctors for people’s rights”, focuses on  communities which were expelled from  the Jordan  valley. This area, covering about 100,000 dunams, was home—prior to October 7—to seven Palestinian communities with approximately 1,000 residents. Eleven shepherd farms established in the area succeeded in breaking the resilience of these communities and forced them to abandon their homes.

We at "Looking the Occupation in the Eye" focus on defending two communities in the Jericho Valley—Ras al-Ein Uja and Ma`arajat (East)—among the largest in the Jordan Valley. Only constant 24/7 presence documenting the actions of settlers and the army helps to thwart the plans being carried out from nearby illegal outposts.

These two communities are still holding on despite daily harassment by outpost settlers and the youth acting on their behalf. A violent attack on the school in Ma`arajat, the burning of the village mosque, and the looting of 1,500 sheep from Ras al-Ein Uja in a night time raid in front of passive soldiers marked the peak of settler terrorism. A drive along Route 449—from the Taybeh Junction (near the Rimonim settlement) to the valley shows the success of this violent expulsion policy: destroyed homes and animal pens along the roadside symbolize the progress of ethnic cleansing.

According to the "Yesh Din" and "Physicians for Human Rights" report, settlers, with the state’s assistance, have established over 100 new outposts across the West Bank in the past decade. These outposts are usually built on land declared “state land” by Israel and are home to only a few individuals—sometimes a young family and a few volunteers, including “marginal youth.” The settlers, who own flocks of sheep, cattle, and camels, seize large areas by constructing illegal structures, grazing livestock, pushing Palestinian shepherds out of their traditional pastures, taking over natural water sources, and committing acts of violence against the local Palestinian population.

The pace of establishing these shepherd farms increased under the Bennett-Lapid “change government” and has intensified under the current far-right coalition led by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. According to a report by "Peace Now", these old and newly sprouted outposts have seized about 786,000 dunams—14% of the West Bank. Since Smotrich took control of the Civil Administration under the Defense Ministry, many powers have been transferred from the military to civilian bodies affiliated with the settlement project. This shift facilitates advancing the government’s policy of seizing land in the West Bank.

Just like the well-known cases of Khan al-Ahmar and Masafer Yatta, we are talking about Bedouin communities who rely on sheep grazing and were expelled from the Negev after Israel’s War of Independence (1949) to the Jordanian-controlled West Bank—beyond the Green Line. Ethnic cleansing has existed since the state’s founding. Since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Israel, through the Custodian of Government Property in the Civil Administration, has allocated over 680,000 dunams of public land to various entities without public tenders. Unsurprisingly, 99.76% of that land went to Israelis.

According to the report: ” The flagrant disparity is  also noticed in the building permits.  Between 2016 and 2020, the Civil Administration granted 8,356 housing unit permits for settlements, but only 24 out of 2,550 Palestinian requests for construction permits in Area C were approved—a 1:348 ratio. According to UN data, since 2009, Israel has demolished 8,691 Palestinian homes and structures built without permits in Area C. While the Civil Administration also issues demolition orders for buildings in illegal outposts, those are rarely enforced.

These outposts were built in defiance of Israel’s official policies over the years, and should be considered illegal. Needless to say, both settlements and outposts in the West Bank violate international law. Yet settlers in both legal and illegal settlements could not have succeeded in expelling Palestinian communities without state support. That support includes: the Civil Administration, which denies Palestinians building permits and demolishes their homes while allocating grazing lands exclusively to Jews; the army, which designates firing zones and fails to fulfill its duty under international law to protect the occupied population; regional councils that fund settlers; various government ministries—agriculture, education, religious services, and others; the Jewish National Fund (JNF); and the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, which allocates unique funds to support West Bank settlement.

The bitter truth is that the army, which is legally responsible for the area, fails to perform its duty and leaves the path clear for rampage of both setters  and their sponsors. As the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division said in a conversation with a senior police officer: “This isn’t an army. It’s a joke. It’s militias. It’s settlers themselves."

All this occurs without objection from the "patriotic" opposition and without a second thought from the protest leaders at Habima Square or Kaplan and Begin Junction in Tel Aviv. The word “occupation” terrifies them, while the occupation itself—its consequences and implications, including October 7—does not cause them to re-examine their actions, even a year and a half into the war. A war which, from Netanyahu’s perspective, is meant to last forever.