May 2025 didn’t just see Israel’s mass starvation of people in occupied Gaza attract increasing global criticism. It also saw the settler-colonial power step up its ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. And in a clearly defiant challenge to the world, it has targeted the community of Masafer Yatta, which became famous thanks to Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
Israel: a colonial stranglehold of terror
A key part of Israel’s ethnic-cleansing escalation in Masafer Yatta is keeping international activists and journalists away. For example, the occupying power ordered activists in the village of Khalet Al-Daba’a to leave on 31 May. It later arrested 48-year-old Susanne Björk and 70-year-old D. Murphy, seeking to deport them. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) explains that:
As they complied, Israeli settlers in army uniform… stopped the two activists and began harassing them. Israeli police were called, arresting the two activists… The day before, May 30, an Israeli settler stole Björk’s phone while she documented human rights violations, and police was called to report the incident.
This persecution is part of a push that started last year, when “Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir created a special task force to rid the West Bank of activists… reporting settler violence they witness”. It is also part of “a shocking wave of violence and harassment in recent months” in Khalet Al-Daba’a, which culminated in Israeli forces destroying “roughly 90% of the village’s homes and infrastructure” on 5 May.
This is one of the main villages you saw in No Other Land. Today it was destroyed by the Israeli army. https://t.co/Gh0DubagoE
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) May 5, 2025
Three weeks later:
settlers went into the village, forced families out of their caves, brought livestock and established an outpost at the edge of the community. Since then, settlers have returned on a daily basis to harass families, in an attempt to forcibly expel the residents who are steadfastly remaining on their land. These crimes were carried out under the watch of Israeli forces.
This coincided with a decision by the Israeli regime on 22 May to:
establish 22 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank – the largest expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in decades – defying the ICJ’s ruling that the occupation is illegal and settlements must end.
Silencing international solidarity to tighten its grip on Palestine
No Other Land co-director Basel Adra suggested that Israel’s destruction of Masafer Yatta would be imminent “unless more activists and journalists… urgently come and join us on the ground”. He added that:
silence allows them to end it
It’s not easy for me to write this, but my community Masafer Yatta will be destroyed unless more activists and journalists don’t urgently come and join us on the ground. Settlers are now in Khalet Al-Dabia village 24/7 after the army destroyed it. pic.twitter.com/KQ3fIzhIAj
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) May 29, 2025
“Masked soldiers”, he said, were actively trying to “prevent international journalists from reaching the area”.
Masked soldiers decided to close off Masafer Yatta and prevent international journalists from reaching the area.
This is what it means to live under occupation: a masked soldier decides who and when can pass, when to destroy or to invade our homes. https://t.co/SMsX7PrEEQ— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) June 2, 2025
Speaking about her own solidarity with the Palestinian people, D. Murphy said:
When most governments all around the world are ignoring the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, ordinary people like me are answering the Palestinians’ call to come and be a witness to these events being carried out by the Zionist Israeli entity. It’s not about politics, it’s about justice and freedom for all people.
Since October 2023, there have been roughly four acts of settler violence every day in the West Bank, aiding Israel’s expansion of illegal colonial control in the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, meanwhile, has consistently documented how settler violence and state violence are the same, saying:
The settlers are not defying the state; they are doing its bidding.
The independent International Crisis Group, meanwhile, has outlined how settlers “terrorise” Palestinians, “often with state support”, in order to “dispossess Palestinians, expand settlements and extinguish any hope of Palestinian statehood”. Indeed, as war-criminal minister Israel Katz said himself when announcing the recent decision to expand illegal settlements, it is “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
Featured image via ISM
