Palestinian Land Deeds Fail to Prevent Forced Displacement Amid Rising Settler Violence

Mleihat’s experience aligns with a recent Amnesty International report, which asserts that Israel is executing a state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities to annex significant portions of the occupied West Bank. The report characterizes these actions as the war crime of unlawful transfer and a crime against humanity involving forcible transfer.

Referencing United Nations data, the report indicates that approximately 5,910 Palestinians were displaced from 117 communities between January 2023 and April 2026, with at least 45 communities completely depopulated. The highest number of displacements occurred within the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, where Mleihat currently resides.

While Amnesty’s findings primarily focus on Area C—the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control—the state utilizes administrative tools such as demolition orders, “firing zone” declarations, and the reclassification of unregistered land as state land to facilitate removals.

However, these administrative mechanisms are largely inapplicable to Mleihat’s plot, which is located in Area B and is privately registered with an official deed. Under these legal conditions, the army cannot easily demolish a legally constructed home, nor can the Civil Administration lawfully evict the owner.

Consequently, this has led to the use of extra-legal force. “The only way for the state to kick them out is illegally,” explained Yotam, an Israeli activist who has provided protective presence for local Palestinian communities for several years. “And for that, they use these settler gangs.”

Local residents and activists argue that this explains why some of the most violent new outposts—appearing in locations such as Tayasir, Beit Imrin, Jilijliya, Ein al-Duyuk, al-Mughayyir, Jaloud, and Madama—are situated in Areas A and B. In these regions, land deeds and Palestinian administrative control were previously believed to offer a layer of protection.

Two settler outposts now exist near the Taybeh Junction. Residents state the newest was established by Ben Pazi on a small strip of state land at a water-access point. While this foothold is technically on state land, the resulting displacement extends into the surrounding private plots of Area B, a process the state has failed to prevent.

Yotam noted that a photograph of Ben Pazi’s herds grazing on the now-vacant lands of Wadi as-Seeq was displayed in the local police station, seemingly presented as a gift.

Ben Pazi’s newest outpost has adopted the aggressive tactics used in previous displacements, employing a group of teenage settlers who manage the flocks while systematically harassing local residents.

On June 1, the Israeli military implemented a year-long closed military zone order around the junction, restricting civilian access. While the order nominally applies to everyone, activists and residents claim it is enforced exclusively against those providing protective presence to the family in the area. Meanwhile, the settlers remain in the illegal outpost alongside a permanent military post. Similar selective enforcement has historically preceded the violent displacement of Bedouin communities.

Nayef Khalaife, whose family is the last remaining on the northern side of the road, sees this as a systemic failure of the legal system. “When the army comes, it doesn’t talk to the settlers. It comes, stands by him, and leaves,” he said. “There’s no law. There’s no law for the settlers. We are outside the law’s protection.”

Al Jazeera has reached out to the Israeli military and security authorities for a response to the allegations raised by activists and residents in this report, but has not yet received a comment.

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