For several years now, we have been witnessing an accelerating process of ethnic cleansing in the Jordan Valley, where shepherding communities in Area C are being uprooted. Anyone who spends even a single day in there can observe its visible arm in action — outpost youth trespassing with their herds onto Palestinian residential lands, or their backers rampaging there in Ranger vehicles courtesy of ministers Smotrich and Struck. However, a significant part of the expulsion project takes place behind the scenes.
Questions such as: Who initiates the displacement of local shepherding communities? Who raises the necessary funds? Who provides backing for the violence used against residents to force them out? — received an answer this week in a shocking yet illuminating post on the social network X.
In the post, Yoel Shilo, secretary of the settlement Mevo’ot Yericho over the past three years, describes how the displacement of one relatively large village, Ras Ein al-Auja, was carried out. “During these holiday days, we are all moved to see these images — al-Auja is returning to the Jews!!!” Shilo writes.
As an activist in the organization “Looking the Occupation in the Eye,” who, together with others, accompanied the village over the past two years and stayed there weekly, I find this post both important and revealing, as it illustrates how organized and planned the displacement process was, carried out in cooperation with a range of state institutions.
Ras Ein al-Auja was home to more than a thousand residents before the displacement process began. It consisted of four Bedouin communities that were relocated there under the direction of the military administration in the occupied West Bank during the 1970s and 1980s. Grazing was the main source of livelihood for its residents. There was a mosque and a relatively large school, attended also by students from the nearby village of al-Auja. Ras Ein al-Auja is located near “Ein al-Auja,” a relatively abundant spring that flows steadily most years. Its upper and western parts are designated as a nature reserve (Yitav Reserve), from which a canal leads to al-Auja, located along Route 90. The residents of al-Auja use the water for agriculture. The land on which the residents of Ras Ein al-Auja built their homes is privately owned Palestinian land.
Before describing the displacement project as presented by Shilo, it is also important to note the context in which his post was published. This post is one of many published during Passover, expressing a surge of joy over the uprooting of the village. This joy was manifested in a celebration attended by hundreds of people who came to the spring during the holiday. What is new about these posts is that, on the one hand, they were not written only by those known for their “extremism,” such as those identifying with the “Hilltop Youth,” and on the other hand, they openly refer to “Judaization” — the displacement of Palestinian communities — as a desirable goal.
Yoel Shilo does not hide, as was customary in the past among settlers in the area, behind false claims about Palestinian violence or provocations by “anarchists.” He describes, without sugarcoating—even if he ignores the violence underlying it—the planning and execution of the “Judaization". For me, the main contribution of the post is its revealing description of the state’s role in the process of displacing Palestinians.
Below is a brief summary of the project’s description—one that took four years to carry out—as it appears in Shila’s post. He describes the beginning of the operation as the organization of “holiday events” at Ein al-Auja, with an investment of tens of thousands of shekels from the budget of the Jordan Valley Regional Council. In the next stage, he explains, the “Settlement Administration” allocated ten million shekels, and the Jordan Valley Regional Council invested an additional one hundred thousand shekels “for developing the reserve,” including deepening the pools, with the work entrusted to the Nature and Parks Authority.
The third and critical stage occurred two years ago. Near the village Ras Ein al-Auja, a new outpost was established—a “farm,” in settler terminology. According to Shilo, establishing the farm involved tens of millions of shekels from the funds of the “Amana” organization and private investors for the purpose of purchasing land. It received, as he writes, full backing from the Ministry of Settlement and was recognized with unusual speed as a new settlement, “Yitav West.” The establishment of the farm, according to Shilo, led to “remarkable achievements in control of the area.” These achievements—described elsewhere in the post as the “Judaization of al-Auja”—were, according to Shilo, the result of the activity of “the amazing and heroic shepherds on the ground,” who are “our Sayeret Matkal" (elite unit).
The shepherds’ activity was conducted, according to the post, “with full backing from the army and from the security coordinator of Mevo’ot Yericho (a position held in recent years by Gabriel Kalish), who received explicit authorization from the brigade commander to operate in the area.” The entire operation was also supported by the Jordan Valley Regional Council, which invested significant funds in the project and sent its land coordinator (the inspector, Meir Nir) to assist.
The bottom line,” writes Shilo, “if you ask who is responsible for the Judaization of al-Auja, the answer is: "you—the public, the people of Mevo’ot Yericho and the surrounding settlements, the council, your presence, the donations, the farms, the shepherds, and no less importantly, the vote you cast at the ballot box".
From an outside perspective, it is clear that all the moves to “encourage tourism” were aimed at displacing Palestinians, or at the “Judaization of al-Auja.” It is also important to clarify that Shilo did not enumerate all the extensive actions within the displacement project. For example, he did not mention a road that was illegally carved from the mountain to the village to make it easier for harassers to arrive from additional outposts along the Allon Road. Third, the claim that the funds invested in establishing “Yitav West” were meant for land purchase is incorrect. The farm is located on state land, so it is more likely that the funds were simply used to finance the farm itself.
But more important than all of this is what is missing from Shilo’s post. It is clear to anyone that the village’s residents did not choose to leave their homes voluntarily. The actions taken by the farm's people to Judaize the Auja or "increase control" were concretely violent.
The acts of violence included directing the herds into the residents' yards, repeated cutting of water pipes and electricity cables, and repeated theft of livestock, which on one night alone included over a thousand heads. When taking these illegal actions into account, one realizes how terrible it is that all this was done, as Shilo makes clear, under the shared responsibility of the army, the settlements of the area, the regional council, and ultimately, us, the entire Israeli public.
