With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
With the Complicity of
the Army and Police,
Settlers expelled yet
another herding community
from the Jordan Valley
For years, Mistachlim activists have accompanied Maʿarajat’s community, walking alongside herders and providing a protective presence in the face of settler violence and military harassment. Our activists have been attacked more than once, detained on false pretexts, and removed by arbitrary police orders. Despite all this, Mistachlim activists stood by the community in an attempt to hold back the tide of terror. Yesterday our activists were of no use; their power did not hold in front of the state.
The State of Israel - its police, the Civil Administration in the occupied territory, the army, and the Jordan Valley regional command - was fully aware of the settlers’ violence yet chose to look away, cooperate, and even advance the terror. This is the state, and this is its face; the same is true of the silent majority that chose to close its eyes and not see things as they are.
After months of harassment, theft, abuse, and violence from residents of nearby illegal outposts and settlements, the people of Maʿarajat decided to relinquish their lawful hold on the land and choose life.
Starting on the previous evening, settlers broke into the village, entered Palestinians’ houses, expelled families with their children, and destroyed or stole valuable property - an escalation carried out with full cooperation between settler leaders in the government and terror gangs in the field, all with police backing and in the presence of the army.
The IDF spokesperson stated, “The Israeli citizens were removed from the area by security forces.” Reporters in the field made it unequivocally clear that this was a lie.
It is important to note that on 24 June, Mistachlim activists sent a letter to the IDF chief of staff and other senior officers responsible for the West Bank, urgently calling on them to act to stop the terrorist activity of settlers from illegal outposts aimed at expelling residents of both communities in Ras al-Ein and Maʿarajat from their homes. "If you do not act to prevent the ethnic cleansing of these communities and the many others in similar situations across Area C of the West Bank, at the very least—You and the other recipients—will not be able to say you didn`t know" the letter concluded.
No security will grow from the ethnic cleansing of the Maʿarajat community, and we will all pay the price.
