"A [Palestinian] landscape that has endured for centuries, of steep terraced hills, olive groves, vineyards, lemon trees planted around springs, and fields of herbs and vegetables in the valleys, is consequently being ripped apart at breakneck speed." Palestinians brace as Israeli settler figures in coalition seek to cement West Bank gains before election

Ilhan Karajeh inspects olive trees destroyed by Israeli settlers. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

Growing number of [Israeli] farm outposts using violence to seize territory, a process seemingly enabled by radical elements in Netanyahu’s government

Julian Borger in Ein Arik. Photographs by Quique Kierszenbaum

Wed 8 Jul 2026

The attack in Ein Arik came in the middle of the night and was aimed at the rudiments of life: the earth, water, roots and seedlings.

Ilham Karajeh awoke on Friday last week to find her family allotment raided and ruined. The thin black irrigation pipes had been sliced, grape vines cut and 70 young olive trees, the embodiment of the family’s aspirations for the future, had been uprooted.

On Sunday, Karajeh and her husband, Mohammed, were collecting the severed branches. “See – they are still wet with sap,” she cried out in horror at the cruelty of the act.

There was no doubt in this West Bank village about the perpetrators. Since a new settler outpost had been established last year on a neighbouring hill, violence has flowed down into the valleys in a gathering tide.

The outpost, which now calls itself Maoz Tzur, began with just a handful of Israeli settlers but they quickly set about seizing territory. Their first target was the Bedouin shepherd community on the surrounding hills and valleys. Then the pressure was turned up on the villagers. For more than a year they have been prevented from reaching family olive and citrus groves and springs on the hillsides to the south, nearest the new settler outpost. Those brave enough to venture in that direction were repeatedly attacked with clubs and stones.

The night attack on the Karajeh family’s small farm reflects an acceleration in the intimidation campaign around Ein Arik, extending northwards and up the slope towards the neighbouring village of Deir Ibzi. It is part of a surge of settler aggression across the West Bank driven by the febrile dynamics of Israeli politics.

Elections are looming. They must be held by the end of October at the latest and as things stand, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right bloc is facing the prospect of defeat after more than three years of political domination. The radical settler elements in the coalition are scrambling to impose facts on the ground in the West Bank before the vote.

A landscape that has endured for centuries, of steep terraced hills, olive groves, vineyards, lemon trees planted around springs, and fields of herbs and vegetables in the valleys, is consequently being ripped apart at breakneck speed.

“These are going to be very tough months,” said Dror Etkes, the founder of Kerem Navot, an advocacy group dedicated to monitoring the unfolding land grab in the West Bank. “Firstly, it doesn’t look good for the current coalition, so there could be a new government. Secondly, all the attention is on the elections so the settlers can use this period to do whatever they want.”

Throughout 2025 and the first half of this year, the creeping de facto annexation of the West Bank has broken into a gallop, driven primarily by... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/08/palestinians-brace-as-israeli-settler-figures-in-coalition-seek-to-cement-west-bank-gains-before-election

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‘We are reliving the Nakba’: A Palestinian community says it’s being erased as Israeli settler violence intensifies

 CNN

By Zeena Saifi, Jeremy Diamond, Cyril Theophilos

 

Ras Ein al-Auja, West Bank  —  PUBLISHED Jan 28, 2026

Suleiman Ghawanmeh is tired of talking. For over 10 years, he talked himself hoarse until he realized his words could not save his community from being driven out. After his final appeal for help came to nothing, he, too, left.

“I am angry with the world… nobody listens to us… it’s as if we are not human beings,” he told CNN.

His village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the occupied West Bank has now been erased – emptied of its Palestinian residents after a years-long campaign of relentless settler harassment that has intensified over the past two years.

The ongoing violence against what was once the largest shepherding community in the West Bank increased markedly this month, forcing families to abandon their homes, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Armed and masked settlers, many of them teenagers, descended on the Ras Ein al-Auja daily, residents and activists say, terrorizing the nearly 120 extended families – more than 800 people in total – who lived there. By the end of January, that harassment forced them all to leave. 

Ghawanmeh, 44, and his family were the last to go on Sunday.

“We didn’t get displaced because a shepherd or a settler attacked us. No. The issue is bigger than that. The shepherd is a tool – a means of the occupation,” he said.

Ras Ein al-Auja is the 46th shepherding community in the West Bank to be forcibly displaced since October 7th 2023, according to B’Tselem, which calls this a form of “ethnic cleansing.”... READ MORE  https://www.cnn.com/world/middleeast/palestinians-west-bank-erasure-israel

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1936, Jerusalem, Palestine 🇵🇸 A Palestinian shepherd.

1936, Jerusalem, Palestine  A Palestinian shepherd.

Pals

@palsofnations

https://x.com/palsofnations/status/2013478790047969428 

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When Pope Francis stopped, touched the wall, and said a prayer, it was truly a monumental moment that made waves in world news. Pope Francis couldn’t help but notice the ugliness of this concrete structure at the heart of Bethlehem. This wall should make us all uncomfortable. To this discomfort, the Pope couldn’t help but react and reach out. By responding in this manner, the Pope touched more than the wall. He touched the ugliness of the occupation and war. He touched the depth of our suffering. With humility and weakness, he looked injustice in the eyes, and challenged it." The Other Side of the Wall by Pastor Munther Isaac

 

Pope Francis in Bethlehem, Palestine

Munther Isaac

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Palestinian, and Palestinian Christians in particular, have lost a dear friend today. Pope Francis was beloved in Palestine. He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on calling the Christian community besieged in Gaza on a constant basis, even from his hospital.

Some years ago, Pope Francis visited Bethlehem. We all remember the iconic image of him praying at the Wall. This is what I wrote about this incident in my book “The Other Side of the Wall”.

When Pope Francis stopped, touched the wall, and said a prayer, it was truly a monumental moment that made waves in world news. Pope Francis couldn’t help but notice the ugliness of this concrete structure at the heart of Bethlehem. This wall should make us all uncomfortable. To this discomfort, the Pope couldn’t help but react and reach out. By responding in this manner, the Pope touched more than the wall. He touched the ugliness of the occupation and war. He touched the depth of our suffering. With humility and weakness, he looked injustice in the eyes, and challenged it.

What did he say in his prayer? The truth is, I don’t want to know. Some words are better left unspoken. The image of him standing next to the wall and praying will forever be engraved in our memories. For me, this image went everywhere. On my office wall, Facebook page, desktop wallpaper. For us as Palestinian Christians, this image was stored deep into our memory. And when this wall falls one day (not if, when), we might go back to this moment and this prayer as one of the key moments that led to its fall.

At the end of the day, the Pope left, and the occupation and the wall remained. But we were left with a renewed sense of hope—knowing that we are not forgotten. We were left with a mandate to continue lamenting the current situation, to fight against injustice . . . and to pray. (The Other Side of the Wall, pp. 182-183)

The Pope left our world today, and the occupation and the wall remained. Even worse, he left our world while a genocide continues to unfold. Back in November he wrote: “I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory… According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Today I wonder: Will the millions who will mourn his death these coming days respect this wish of his? Will they care for Gazans and Palestinians the way he did?

May his soul rest in glory with his Savior. Humanity lost a special soul today.

‘Last nail in the coffin’: Israeli settlers push on with fresh West Bank land grab... "Israeli settlers are pushing ahead with a largely unnoticed de facto annexation of large areas of rural land in the occupied West Bank that has already seen the almost total displacement of Bedouin in large areas." 13 Feb 2025

Jameel Shahalda from the Palestinian village of Minya monitors the movement of Israeli settlers from an illegal outpost nearby. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

There are fears that a widely unnoticed displacement of Bedouin has the aim of fragmenting the territory intended for a future Palestinian state

Peter Beaumont and Quique Kierszenbaum in Tko'a

Thu 13 Feb 2025 00.00 EST

Last modified on Thu 13 Feb 2025 03.00 EST

Israeli settlers are pushing ahead with a largely unnoticed de facto annexation of large areas of rural land in the occupied West Bank that has already seen the almost total displacement of Bedouin in large areas.

While settler activity, including violence, has long been well-documented in the section of the West Bank designated by the 1993 Oslo accords as under Israeli security and administrative control – the so-called Area C of the occupied territory, including the south Hebron Hills – settlers have switched their focus to mostly rural Area B, which was designated to be under Palestinian civil control initially.

All three of the Oslo areas – Area A being the major Palestinian cities – were intended under the accords to be transferred to a future Palestinian state.

At a time when the US president, Donald Trump, has talked about the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, effectively endorsing its ethnic cleansing, a process of displacement is already advancing in Area B as West Bank Palestinians come under pressure from settlers and their far-right political backers in Israel

In one section of Area B in the arid desert hills between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea near the Israeli settlement of Tko’a all evidence of Bedouin who once lived there appears to have been erased, while in a second area those that remain are being harassed by settler violence.

In a landscape of deep wadis and dusty limestone escarpments, Bedouin shepherds until recently grazed flocks on the low-lying plants that appear in the winter months, or on seasonally cultivated forage crops in the flat valley bottoms.

Valleys that once sustained groups of Bedouin... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/13/last-nail-in-the-coffin-israeli-settlers-push-on-with-fresh-west-bank-land-grab

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A Christmas Message for our World from Rev. Imad Haddad: "As we sing “silent night holy night” this Christmas let us remember the nights in which the silence was shattered by the sounds of bombs..."

Holy Family art work is by the Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour

 A Christmas Message for our World

Rev. Imad Haddad

 

As we sing “silent night holy night” this Christmas let us remember the nights in which the silence was shattered by the sounds of bombs, gun shots, and aircrafts. 

 

The only silence people in Gaza can hear these days is the horrendous silence of death. 

 

There is nothing holy in the nights or the days in which human life is desecrated. The only holy thing during those days are the sound of prayerful cries that comes out of a broken heart rising up to disturb the evil silence of death.

 

As we sing “Away in a manger” this Christmas let us direct our attention to those kids in Gaza whose only manger is a coffin, and their crib is a tomb under the rubble. The “stars in the sky” cannot “look down where [they]lay” for the smoke of bombed and shattered houses cover the scene of the sky.

 

This Christmas, as we celebrate reading from Luke: “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” Let us think of those who take refuge in Churches, mosques, schools, hospitals, or in the open air for the only thing that shines around them are light bombs. They try to find life away from home but even their shelters are bombed. The only words that speak to them from this reading is the status of the shepherds who were terrified. For terror and fear describe the story of the present days in Gaza. 

 

As we sing “let every heart prepare him room” remember to see the face of Jesus in every refugee so we can accept, serve, and protect them as we would do for Jesus. Remember that Jesus was a refugee too. His family was first forced to leave their home in Nazareth due to the orders of the empire, then they were also forced to escape and take refuge in Egypt due to political tyranny. 

 

This Christmas as we pray for those who are afflicted in our world, and as we pray for Justice and peace, let us remember that Jesus was incarnate in our world during a situation that does not differ much from our own. The “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” to bring justice and peace to a world that is torn apart. He dwelt among us to be with us, to be one of us, and to free us from the bonds of oppression. The dwelling of the Word among the people has transformed the incarnation to be “intra-carnation.” This is the message of hope that we give to the world as we go through these times of injustice, oppression, and ethnic cleansing: Jesus is with us, he is one of us, he chose to unite himself to us

 

Christ is born…Halleluiah…. The savior is born…. Halleluiah…. “Let earth receive her king” …. Halleluiah 

How Israeli settler violence is forcing Palestinians to flee their homes – video in The Guardian

VIDEO 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/dec/14/how-israeli-settler-violence-is-forcing-palestinians-to-flee-their-homes-video

Masafer Yatta, the most rural and desolate area in the West Bank, is home to about 1,000 Palestinians. The community are mostly herders who raise goats and sheep, and have steadfastly refused to leave their homes despite the mounting difficulties posed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers on the one hand and radical Israeli settlers on the other.

But after weeks of intense settler violence in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October – and despite the decades-long fight to remain in their homes – these communities are now being forced off their land. Some have described it as “a new Nakba.”

The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan travelled to Masafer Yatta and heard from Palestinian families how armed settlers – some in reservist uniforms, others covering their faces – have begun breaking into their homes at night, beating up adults, destroying and stealing belongings, and terrifying children. These West Bank settlements are illegal under international law.

Click here for the latest on the Israel-Gaza war [in The Guardian]

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Gorgeous Pictures Of The Holy Land From 120 Years Ago

The Damascus Gate, built in its current form in 1537, is the main entrance to the Old City.

Click here to see the pictures »

 

A visitor to the Holy Land between 1890 and 1900 would have encountered a place that looked a lot like the pastoral setting described in the Bible and the Quran. 

A glimpse of this era is preserved through photochrom prints from the Library of Congress.

We invite you to put aside your political views (note: we've turned off comments) and enjoy these vintage pictures of "the land flowing with milk and honey."

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 http://www.businessinsider.com/palestine-in-the-19th-century-pictures-2013-10?op=1#ixzz2nGB2kPsZ

This print, called the Route To The Station, may show a road leading to the first railroad station, built in 1892.

Capernaum, a fishing village that was home to several Apostles

the Temple of the Sun in Baalbek

The ruins of an ancient colonnade in Samaria

The birthplace of Mary Magdalene in Magdala.

The Tomb of Lazarus in Bethany

Relaxing outside Lydda

Making Bread

A fisherman's boat on the Sea of Galilee by Tiberias

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/palestine-in-the-19th-century-pictures-2013-10?op=1#ixzz2nGIlGT7N