Palestinians in West Bank Endure Displacement Pressures on International Day of Indigenous Peoples
Al Jazeera Staff
In the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair, Palestinians face daily pressure from Israeli settlers and military forces, including attacks, arrests, and demolition threats. The community, already mourning a leader killed by a settler, is pushing back against efforts to seize land and erase their presence as displacement rates reach record levels.
This week, the small village of Umm al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank held a wedding for two of its sons, but almost no one danced. The Bedouin community held the festivities cautiously, spreading out rather than gathering in large groups, fearing the presence of Israeli soldiers might interrupt the ceremony.
Tariq Hathaleen, an English teacher and community leader in Umm al-Khair, said the mood did not allow for carefree celebration, coming just after the one-year memorial for Awdah Hathaleen, an activist and community leader shot dead by an Israeli settler in July 2025.
On the first day of the wedding, Shimon Atiya, an Israeli settler behind the illegal outpost of Havat Shorashim, located about 800 meters from the village, brought cattle into a resident's vegetable garden. When villagers protested, accompanying Israeli soldiers said the maps had changed but refused to show them the new ones. That same night, the fence of the outpost facing the village was dismantled, raising fears that the boundary would be pushed further into their area.
Tariq Hathaleen linked the incident to Atiya's recent indictment, one of the rare cases of an Israeli being prosecuted for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank since October 2023. Days earlier, settlers had also set fire to buildings and vehicles in the nearby Palestinian community of Khirbet Tuba.
Forced Displacement and Erasure of Identity
According to monitoring groups, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza face threats including detention, killing, home demolitions, movement restrictions, and forced displacement. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 242 children, according to the Israeli NGO B'Tselem.
More than 3,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank have been demolished since October 2023, mostly due to a lack of Israeli permits, which Palestinians in Area C are often denied. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), demolitions and settler violence have displaced an average of 17 people per day this year, double the rate of the previous three years.
A June report by the West Bank Protection Consortium said 96% of those previously forcibly displaced relied on agriculture or herding. They have largely lost access to their lands or pastures.
Tariq Hathaleen argues the erasure is not just physical but cultural, as settlers seek to mimic the indigenous Bedouin lifestyle, pitching tents, herding camels, goats, and sheep, even wearing Palestinian scarves and attempting to speak in the Bedouin dialect. He said: "They know the indigenous people of this land are the Bedouin and other Palestinians. So they try to mimic to show themselves and the world that they are the indigenous people of this land."
Reactions from Organizations
Yair Dvir, a B'Tselem spokesperson, described the situation as "Israel carrying out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and a comprehensive attack on Palestinians" through military violence, home demolitions, and funding settler militias. Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said these actions have been ongoing for nearly 80 years, starting with the Nakba and escalating since October 2023.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the "ceasefire" in October 2025, more than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to over 73,000. UN satellite analysis shows about 81% of structures in Gaza have been damaged, and about 59% of Gaza's population faces severe food insecurity.
Despite all the pressure, Tariq Hathaleen remains steadfast: "They will try a million ways to erase the indigenous Palestinians, but they will fail because this land does not speak their language, does not carry their colors... This is our land, and we have always lived in harmony with nature, the desert, the mountains, and the valleys of Palestine, because we are the indigenous people of this land."
