“I fear that we are witnessing the beginnings of a civil war”

Dawn breaks over Jerusalem. Not far from the walls of the old city, around fifteen Israelis of all ages share a coffee in a parking lot then board a minibus. Head for the hills south of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The small troop is part of the Taayoush association (“living together” in Arabic), founded in the early 2000s. The NGO deploys its Israeli volunteers in Palestinian villages in order to oppose a “protective presence” to attacks by settlers .

Since the Hamas terrorist attack and the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, these have experienced a real explosion. In one year, according to the UN, West Bank settlers have since attacked West Bank Palestinians 1,360 times¹leaving at least 120 injured and 10 dead².

After crisscrossing the sleepy fringes of the Judean Desert, the minibus stops not far from the wild settlement of Mitzpe Yair, where around fifteen ultra-Orthodox families live inside prefabs perched on top of a hill. Below, a small Palestinian village is silhouetted in the morning mist. The place, almost completely abandoned, is only inhabited by Jibrin Abu Ranem, a 62-year-old shepherd.

Annexations are on the rise again

This blue-eyed Palestinian welcomes Israeli volunteers with warm bread, zaatar (a thyme-based powder), olive oil and tea. Thanks to his guests, the shepherd will now be able to take his sheep to graze without fear of being attacked.

Accompanied by Haïm, Zuraya and Avishay, three of Taayoush’s volunteers, the shepherd soon releases his flock on the slope of the hill. “I want to show the Palestinians that not all Israelis wish them harm. On the contrary. The settlers dishonor Israel and endanger our legitimacy in the eyes of the world,” explains Haïm, an architect in Jerusalem, sadly, walking after Jibrin. A pickup truck suddenly bursts out of Mitzpe Yair and rushes towards the small group. The Taayoush volunteers draw a camera and jump to meet the vehicle. The machine turns around in a cloud of dust.

In the distance, behind an olive grove, the ruins of the old Jibrin sheepfold, destroyed by settlers, lie under a cottony sky. If the shepherd gives in and packs up, the settlers will have won. Its section of hill will fall into neglect and may, one day, be declared “state land”.³ » by the Israeli state by invoking an Ottoman law of 1858 which indicated that a field left vacant returns to the Empire. Thus annexed, its land would eventually be ceded by the State to the settlers, paving the way for the construction of roads and permanent houses. About a sixth of the West Bank has been annexed using this method since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967. After the Oslo Accords in 1993, annexations experienced a relative respite.

The attack of October 7 revived them: 2400 hectares⁴ land has been annexed by the Jewish state since March, as much as between 1993 and 2023.

Above the law

The overwhelming majority of these new annexations are taking place in the Jordan Valley, which is less populated than the rest of the West Bank. The Palestinians are even more vulnerable there. The inhabitants of Ein al-Hilwa, a shepherds’ camp not far from the Jordan, know something about this.

On August 11, early in the morning, the five families in the camp were sleeping peacefully in their tents when the noise of the engine suddenly drowned out the crowing of the rooster. Around fifty Israeli settlers perched on motorbikes roll down the slope of a nearby hill. Armed with revolvers and sticks, they begin to stone the tents, scare away the sheep and insult the Palestinians. “We were sheltering inside the tents, paralyzed by fear. The children were screaming. It was abominable,” recalls Nabeel Abu Faras, one of the shepherds of Ein al-Hilwa, met a few days after the tragedy.

As they leave, the settlers shout a final warning: “Get out of here before it’s too late!” »

An Israeli flag was planted by the settlers at the top of the hill.

Out of pride or courage, the shepherd swore not to leave the camp. He now lives alone in the middle of a pile of torn tents, abandoned furniture, hastily emptied sheepfolds. According to him, most of his attackers were only teenagers. None of the adults in the camp, however, put up the slightest resistance.

“It was a real military operation”

Palestinians in the West Bank live under a regime of military occupation. The settlers come under the control of Israeli civil power. Judges, however, seem increasingly powerless to enforce the law.

Here again, October 7 accelerated the trend. The Palestinian village of Jit, located not far from Nablus, has just provided an example. Four days after the attack on Ein al-Hilwa, around a hundred settlers, all dressed in black and heavily armed, emerged from an olive grove to burn cars and homes. Some shoot at roof level to frighten the population. One resident was shot and killed, another was seriously injured.

“There were 15 of us in the house, we thought we were going to die,” Doctor Ibrahim Seddeh still trembles in front of his house blackened by the flames. “It wasn’t an attack by radicalized kids. It was a real military operation. I suspect they came from several colonies. The one opposite is too small to supply so many fanatics on its own. » His neighbor, Rabah Erman, saw his car go up in smoke. “October 7 changed everything. There are no more limits. I fear that we are witnessing the beginnings of a civil war,” he grumbles from his balcony. Only four of Jit’s attackers were arrested.

1. Consult “The Humanitarian Situation Update” (in English)

2. Read “UN rights office criticizes Israel over deaths of 500 Palestinians in West Bank”

3. See “What is a declaration of state land?” ” (in English)

4. Read “The Government Declares 12,000 Dunams in the Jordan Valley as State Lands”