Guns and sheep: Settlers use shepherding outposts to seize West Bank land

NEW DELHI: Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said they are facing increasing land seizures by armed Jewish settlers who establish so-called shepherding outposts and refuse to vacate the area.
The settlers, some of whom dress like Palestinian farmers, have been accused of employing violence, throwing stones, and blocking roads, according to Abdullah Abu Rahme, a member of a Palestinian anti-settler group.
"The settlers imitate us in every way," said Abdullah and "throw stones at us and block roads".
Haidar Abu Makho, a 50-year-old local resident, expressed his sadness as he gazed at a hill where settlers' sheep were grazing on land that he said, "rightfully belongs to my grandfather and father and is meant to be passed down through the generations".
But now "this shepherd, who is a settler... has obstructed my access to my land," he added.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to three million Palestinians, since 1967, and around 490,000 Israeli settlers live there in communities considered illegal under international law.
Violence has frequently erupted, but the level of violence has increased significantly following the attack on October 7 by Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, which triggered a destructive war in the Palestinian coastal region.
Human rights groups have attributed the increase in attacks and land grabs to the hardline religious-nationalist settler movement, particularly since the start of the Gaza war. The most radical among them are the "hilltop youth," often teenage school dropouts who aspire to settle all of the biblical land of Israel and sometimes clash with Israeli security forces.
Israeli analyst Elhanan Miller said the hilltop shepherds as "far-right extremists who settle Palestinian land illegally," primarily in the southern West Bank and Jordan Valley.
Miller said that many of them are "marginalised' youths who left school early and use shepherding of sheep and goats as a cover to seize land and natural resources.
Rights groups have reported that settlers in shepherding outposts carry firearms and have employed attack dogs to intimidate and harm Palestinians, resulting in the killing of their livestock and destruction of their property.
The groups have been especially active around Deir Jarir, a village of about around 5,000 people, said Abu Makho.
"The settlers have effectively blocked access to vast stretches of land around Deir Jarir, preventing both agricultural use and grazing for the people across tens of kilometres," he said.
"By situating a shepherd with a flock of sheep atop a hill, a substantial portion of land is seized... denying Palestinians access to it," he added, stating that the settlers had "aggressively confiscated" local houses and tractors as well as horses and donkeys, all "symbols of the Palestinian traditional farming life".
Israeli rights group B'Tselem, in a report in March said that the attacks had increased, including incidents where settlers in vehicles were "speeding erratically directly into Palestinian flocks and herds'.
B'Tselem also accused settler groups of receiving support from Israeli security forces.
"Through cooperation and collaboration among the military, police, settlers... Israel has reduced grazing areas available to Palestinians, blocked regular water supply and took measures to isolate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank," it said.
The mayor of the nearby village of Taybeh, Suleiman Khouriyeh with a population of 1,800, said the "entire eastern region has been encroached upon by numerous hilltop shepherds".
"We are unable to access the olive groves that we rightfully own" during harvest season, he said, adding that the community's losses amounted to thousands of dollars.
Khouriyeh said that locals don't have "the power or strength to confront the heavily armed" settlers.
"We are defenceless against them and their weapons."
(With inputs from agencies)