When Israel began bombing Gaza on October 7, 2023, Fayez Atil feared that his community in the occupied West Bank would soon come under attack as well. Atil is from the Palestinian village of Zanuta, a traditional herding community in the Jordan Valley. For years, settlers from illegal Israeli settlements had harassed and attacked his village. However, the violence escalated dramatically after Israel launched what many describe as a “genocidal” war on Gaza.
“It suddenly felt like a war,” Atil told Al Jazeera by phone. “Every day and every night, the illegal settlers would try to steal our sheep or vandalize our village by destroying our property and cars,” the 45-year-old added. Over time, the 250 inhabitants of Zanuta were forced to leave their village and way of life due to the relentless settler attacks and harassment.
Atil and his family packed their belongings and left after Israeli settlers brutally beat a 77-year-old Palestinian shepherd at the end of October 2024. “They beat the old man, his wife, and children,” Atil said. “It was the first time we ever saw that level of aggression from settlers.”
### Easy Targets
The villagers of Zanuta are among 46 Palestinian Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank that have been expelled from their land by state-backed Israeli settlers since October 7, 2023, according to Al-Haq, a Palestinian nonprofit. “What is happening [to Bedouin communities] is not simply an issue of violent and radical settlers. This is state violence,” explained Shai Parnes, spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
At the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Israel called up thousands of reservists serving in the West Bank to fight in Gaza, replacing them with “extremist settlers,” Parnes said. “Settlers … suddenly got weapons, ammunition, and military uniforms [after October 7],” he told Al Jazeera. These settlers were granted the legal power to kill and arrest Palestinians.
All the expulsions occurred in Area C, a sparsely populated region rich in agricultural resources. Comprising 60% of the occupied West Bank, it is the largest of three zones created under the 1993 Oslo Accords between Palestinian and Israeli leaders. The Oslo Accords aimed to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel. However, over the past 32 years, the size of illegal Israeli settlements has steadily increased, with their population growing from about 200,000 to more than 750,000.
Area C is under the complete control of the Israeli army, making it easier for settlers—supported by soldiers—to surround vulnerable Palestinian herder communities and expel them from their lands, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. This differs from Area A, which is technically under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, though Israeli troops frequently raid it, and Area B, which is under joint control of the PA and the Israeli army.
### A Racist System
Even Palestinian Bedouins who are citizens of Israel are being forced off their land, human rights groups and activists say. About 120,000 Palestinians live in so-called “unrecognized villages” across the Naqab Desert. They are descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land during the Nakba, when Zionist militias ethnically cleansed approximately 750,000 Palestinians to make way for the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The Israeli government insists that Bedouin communities from “unrecognized” villages should relocate to cities, but doing so would sever their connection to the land and threaten their herding way of life. Most Bedouin communities have resisted, holding onto their right to stay on their land. However, Israel has long claimed that Bedouins are nomads who never truly settle in one place.
Khalil Alamour, a Bedouin leader from the village of Khan al-Sira, explains that Bedouins stopped migrating more than two centuries ago and always return to their land after seasonal migrations to find food for their cattle. “Bedouins are tied to our land. We are an Indigenous community … we can’t just be moved to another place,” he said. Yet, Israel has refused to provide services to “unrecognized villages,” instead evicting inhabitants and confiscating their land.
In November 2024, Israeli police completed the demolition of Umm al-Hiran, even though the Bedouin inhabitants had agreed to live alongside Jewish settlers, as they told Al Jazeera in February 2024. “The violence against us is part of a racist policy against all Bedouins and against the Palestinian community more generally. And Bedouins are part of the Palestinian community,” Alamour told Al Jazeera.
### Legal Whitewashing
Many herder communities in the West Bank have been uprooted multiple times since the Nakba. Abu Bashar, the Palestinian mayor of Wadi al-Seeq, said his community has been displaced four times since Israel’s establishment. The most recent incident occurred just days after October 7, when Israeli settlers stormed the community and terrorized its inhabitants.
About 187 people—45 to 50 families—fled on foot, walking for hours until they reached Ramon village, where they have remained since. “After October 7, the settlers went crazy. They surrounded our village, came with the army, which protected them, and expelled us from our village,” Abu Bashar told Al Jazeera. “We’re now living in tents and under trees in terrible circumstances in Ramon,” he said.
Over the past two years, the villagers of Wadi al-Seeq and Zanuta have filed suits with the Israeli Supreme Court. Critics argue that using Israeli courts—which, under international law, have no jurisdiction over occupied land—legitimizes Israel’s occupation. Human rights groups say Israel’s Supreme Court has played a key role in legitimizing policies that violate Palestinian rights, such as approving the demolition of Palestinian homes and entire villages.
“The Supreme Court is another mechanism used to whitewash the Israeli occupation,” said Parnes of B’Tselem.
### No Other Recourse
Despite the Supreme Court’s controversial role, several Palestinian Bedouin communities have filed cases with it. Qamar Mashraki, a Palestinian lawyer representing Zanuta and other Bedouin communities expelled from their lands since October 7, has won two cases so far. In January 2024, the inhabitants of Zanuta and Umm Dharit were informed they had the legal right to return to their land.
“We have to exploit every tool we [as Palestinians] have,” Mashraki told Al Jazeera. However, when families from Zanuta attempted to return, Israeli settlers attacked them, preventing the community from rebuilding homes and herding their animals. Many were forced to flee again in September 2024. With Mashraki’s help, Zanuta’s inhabitants filed a second court motion demanding that Israeli authorities protect them from settlers.
Last month, the court ruled that the army and police must protect the people of Zanuta, Atil said. He added that families now feel relatively safe to try and return to Zanuta again. However, dozens of other Bedouin communities driven off their land are not as fortunate. Many fear losing their land and way of life, even if they pursue legal action.
Abu Bashar, from Wadi al-Seeq, said his community is still waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether they can return to their land. Even if they are legally allowed to return, he worries settlers will attack them again. “The settlers took everything from us: our homes, our tractors, our water supply, and even our food,” he told Al Jazeera. “We’re under siege.”
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