At least five activists were injured on Tuesday when Israeli settlers violently expelled them from the West Bank village of Jannatah, throwing stones and unleashing pepper spray. An AFP journalist was hit in the chin with a stick during the attack.
The activists, part of a small movement of Israelis—many of them religious Jews—had traveled to Jannatah, near Bethlehem, to build a protective fence around the home of the Faraj family. The family has come under pressure from Jewish extremists. Mohammed Faraj, a member of the family, was killed in clashes with settlers in March, and several relatives were wounded. Nobody has been arrested over the killing, said his brother Hassan.
The group also sought to clear road obstacles blocking the Faraj family after settlers placed a prefabricated home on the family's private land. Upon returning, the activists and accompanying journalists found their cars vandalized, with smashed windows and punctured tires. After activists went to confront the settlers, two carloads of settler reinforcements—many young and wearing dark hoodies—rushed in to attack them.
According to the activists, the settlers' outpost, dubbed Kochav Yehuda, has been dismantled 64 times by Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time, most recently on Monday. The settlers involved are said to belong to the extremist Hilltop Youth movement.
Avishai Liss, 27, grew up in an ultra-Orthodox community outside Tel Aviv but left as a teenager and became secular. He said his ultra-Orthodox upbringing shaped his socialist outlook. Another activist, Sharp, said she joined the movement to "practice my commitment to my Judaism, which is humanistic and not violent," and to "decrease, to the extent that we can, the damage the Jewish people do to the Palestinians." She cited Jewish religious texts as her inspiration, explaining that Jews are "supposed to be part of tzelem elokim (the image of God), and to follow God's ways, and God's ways are pity, compassion and justice."
The incident comes amid a broader context of rising violence. More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and which is home to around three million Palestinians. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. The Israeli military spokesperson said the seizure of an AFP journalist's camera is currently being reviewed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is advancing settlement construction ahead of October 27 elections.
Local authorities and international observers have repeatedly expressed concern over settler violence and the lack of accountability, as the Faraj family's case illustrates. The incident underscores the growing tensions in the region and the risks faced by those attempting to intervene on behalf of Palestinian residents.