Richard Hardigan - The Wild West Bank: Lawless Settlers

After seizing the West Bank in 1967, Israel began to exert control by encouraging Jews to settle it, and there are now more than 700,000 settlers living in 150 illegal settlements and 128 outposts. Many are ideologically motivated and believe they are doing God’s work by settling the land, which entails ethnically cleansing the indigenous Palestinians. Over the years, they have targeted Palestinians by throwing stones, setting fires to homes and businesses, cutting down olive trees, damaging water infrastructure and stealing or killing livestock. Settler violence has also involved beatings and the shooting and killing of Palestinian civilians. Now, with their far-right sponsors in the government, the world’s attention focused on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the increasing anti-Palestinian sentiment in Israel, they have sensed this is their moment to step up the violence even further.

Since October 7, the number of violent settler attacks has increased seven-fold, and the consequences have been devastating. Israelis have killed more than 600 Palestinians in the West Bank and seized 37,000 acres of land. To date 18 communities have been emptied.Richard reports on the situation among the Palestinian shepherds in the isolated South Hebron hills, who are particularly vulnerable to these attacks.

Richard Hardigan is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: An Eyewitness Account of the Occupation in Palestine and Why Did I Not Die With My Family: The European Refugee Crisis. His work has appeared in Al Jazeera, Huffington Post and other news outlets. His website is richardhardigan.com.