[News] How Israeli settlers organize violence to expel Palestinians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/how-israeli-settlers-organize-violence-to-expel-palestinians>
How Israeli settlers organize violence to expel Palestinians
Al Mayadeen English
December 25, 2025
------------------------------

An investigation reveals how settler outposts expand through coordinated
intimidation, online mobilization, and repeated forcible displacement of
Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

   - [image: How “Israel” settlers organize violence to expel Palestinians]
   <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/12/25/e1f83553-c498-44b5-bcc2-af12177d9b15.jpg?v=4&width=1000>
   Concrete blocks set up by Israeli authorities are seen next to a gate at
   the entrance of the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 (
   *AP*)

*The Guardian* describes the Israeli settler outpost of Or Meir as small
but strategically placed: a cluster of prefabricated white structures at
the end of a dirt track branching off Road 60, the main north–south artery
cutting through the occupied West Bank
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-raids-target-west-bank-towns--settlers-injure-baby-g>.
Far from accidental, its location reflects a calculated effort to usurp
more Palestinian land.

According to *The Guardian*, outposts like Or Meir are routinely presented
as temporary, only to be gradually entrenched and later formalized as
permanent settlements. Israeli cabinet members have openly acknowledged
that this method of expansion is intended to fragment Palestinian territory
and obstruct the emergence of a viable Palestinian state, entrenching a
settlement project widely condemned under international law.

For Palestinians living nearby, the expansion has frequently been
accompanied by violence. A Bedouin family told *Reuters *that attackers
descending from Or Meir last year hurled Molotov cocktails, forcing them
from land they had long inhabited. They say they fear they will never be
able to return.

Messages shared on Or Meir’s public Telegram channel celebrate the
expulsion of Bedouin herders and frame the effort as a campaign to secure
lasting control over what settlers describe as “strategic” territory.
A year of escalating settler violence

According to United Nations data, this year has been among the most violent
on record for Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/cabinet-approves-19-west-bank-settlements-to-block-statehood>,
with more than 750 people injured. The violence has coincided with a rapid
spread of settler outposts across land Palestinians see as central to any
future state.

The Israeli NGO Peace Now has documented 80 outposts built in 2025 alone,
the highest number since it began tracking such activity in 1991. On
December 21, "Israel’s" cabinet approved 19 additional settlements,
including several former outposts.

For decades, settlers have established outposts without official
authorization. While Israeli authorities sometimes demolish them, many
reappear and are eventually recognized as formal settlements. Smotrich has
been a driving force behind efforts to legalize dozens of such sites.

Most of the international community considers all Israeli settlement
activity in the West Bank illegal under international law governing
military occupation.

“Since establishing our presence on the land, we have driven away nine
illegal Bedouin outposts, and returned 6,000 dunams to Jewish hands,” an Or
Meir account posted in September, using a land measurement equivalent to
about a quarter of an acre.
Organized campaigns to usurp Palestinian land

An examination by *Reuters *of Or Meir’s Telegram channel, alongside a
dozen similar Telegram and WhatsApp groups, interviews with settlers and
pro-settler activists, and on-the-ground reporting, suggests coordinated
efforts to usurp land and expel Palestinians
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/belgium-condemns--israel-s--west-bank-settlements-expansion>
.

“The evidence shows that this is a systematic pattern of violence,” said
Milena Ansari, an al-Quds-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.

The Bedouin Musabah family said attackers arrived at night in June from the
direction of Or Meir. When *Reuters *visited the site in December, the
charred remains of their home and a barn were still visible.

“We were living here, sitting in God’s safety,” said Shahada Musabah, 39,
now sheltering in the nearby Palestinian village of Deir Dibwan. “They
started to set fire, and they destroyed everything. They didn’t leave us
anything at all.”

"Israel’s" military told *Reuters* that dozens of Israeli settlers set fire
to property in Deir Dibwan on the night in question, but claimed all
suspects had left by the time security forces arrived. A local council
official said as many as 60 settlers were involved, injuring several
villagers.
Minimal accountability

In a phone call, Or Meir settler Elkanah Nachmani threatened *Reuters
*reporters
not to approach the outpost again, but did not address questions about the
attacks.

Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din says that of the hundreds of cases of
settler violence
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/smotrich-calls-for-settlers-to-enforce-mass-expulsion-of-gaz>
documented since October 7, 2023, only 2% have resulted in indictments.

More than 1,000 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October
2023 and October 2025, mostly during Israeli raids and some in settler
attacks, according to the UN.
>From outposts to settlements

The Or Meir group has openly articulated its ambitions. In November 2024,
it said it aimed to establish “a continuous Jewish settlement presence”
along a ridge near the settlement of Ofra.

Dror Etkes, an Israeli peace activist, said such outposts fracture the West
Bank and “limit the possibility of Palestinians to be in these places”.

Despite government moves to formalize dozens of outposts, "Israel’s"
military told *Reuters *that Or Meir remains illegal and has been evacuated
multiple times. It did not explain why the site was repeatedly dismantled
or how it was allowed to re-emerge.

After its most recent evacuation in March, Or Meir resurfaced with the help
of more than 100,000 shekels ($30,000) raised through donations, according
to its website, a claim *Reuters *could not independently verify.

Ofra itself, just north of Or Meir on Road 60, began as an illegal outpost
and has since grown into a large settlement.

“All breakthroughs in settlements were accomplished this way,” the Or Meir
Telegram account posted after the March evacuation. “At first, the state
refused … but due to the persistence of the citizens, it eventually had to
accept it.”

Smotrich said in December that more than 51,000 units had been approved in West
Bank settlements
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--grants-final-approval-764-new-west-bank-settlement>
since late 2022, part of what the UN has described as the fastest expansion
since monitoring began in 2017.
Mapping control

In September, the Or Meir Telegram account published a map marking a wide
area extending to the edge of Deir Dibwan, claiming it was under the
outpost’s control. Local officials say Palestinians can no longer
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--committed-multiple-war-level-expulsions-across-west>
access roughly 250 dunams of land within the marked zone.

The map also identified multiple locations labelled “abandoned Arab
invasion outpost," referring to sites where Bedouin families were forced
out.

Road 60 is lined with settlements and intersects with Road 505, which runs
east toward the Jordan Valley. Along it lies Evyatar, a settlement that
began as a tented outpost in 2019, was evacuated in 2021, and was
officially recognized in 2024.

Evyatar’s mayor, Malkiel Barhai, credited Smotrich for the approval.
Speaking with a pistol tucked into his trousers, Barhai said the settlement
was needed to keep Road 505 open “because we have Arab villages, hostile
Arab villages, around."

A Beita municipal official told *Reuters* that settlers from nearby
outposts and settlements had killed 14 people in the area between 2021 and
2024.

On November 8, *Reuters *journalists witnessed settlers attacking
Palestinians harvesting olives near Beita, using sticks, clubs, and stones.
Two *Reuters *staff members were injured. Barhai denied that settlers were
responsible.

Samer Younes Ali Bani Shamsah, a farmer whose leg was broken in a settler
attack, said he would not leave his land.

“This is my place, my home. Where would I go?” he said, gesturing toward
another outpost overlooking his olive trees.

*Read more: Hamas slams 'Israel's' approval of 19 new settlements in West
Bank
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hamas-slams--israel-s--approval-of-19-new-settlements-in-wes>*
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