Country: occupied Palestinian territory Source: Amnesty International The Palestinian community of Shi’b Al-Butum in Masafer Yatta is at imminent risk of forcible transfer due to increasing state-backed settler attacks, as well as home demolitions, restrictions on access to land and illegal settlement expansion by the Israeli authorities, Amnesty International said today.This herding community, home to some 300 Palestinians, is one of the 12 communities that make up the area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and that for decades has been subjected to growing state-backed settler attacks and oppressive measures by the Israeli authorities. Since 7 October 2023 the situation has significantly worsened. Unless measures are immediately taken to hold violent settlers accountable, stop home demolitions and the expansion of nearby settlements, this community – like others in the area – will be forcibly displaced.“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank. Settlers trespass on their land, vandalize and steal their property, harass and physically assault them with total impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.“Through the cumulative impact of decades of occupation and apartheid, including violence, institutionalized discrimination and illegal settlement expansion, Israel is deliberately creating a coercive environment that as a result drives Palestinians like those in the Shi’b Al-Butum off their land. Unlawful transfer –the forced removal of civilians against their will – is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a war crime.”Since 7 October 2023, a spike in state-backed settler violence along with measures by the Israeli authorities have resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank. These include implementation of new military seizure orders, a sharp increase in the destruction of Palestinian property as well as the participation in, support for, or failure to prevent and punish settler attacks against Palestinians.According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2024 was the worst year for settler violence across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the organization began keeping records 20 years ago. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, OCHA documented 1,860 incidents of settler violence that led to the displacement of over 300 families (1,762 people, including 856 children). OCHA also recorded a rise in the number of violent settler attacks in the West Bank from an average of two a day in 2022, to four a day in 2024.Israeli human rights organizations, including Yesh Din and Haqel, have also documented the failure of Israeli law enforcement to protect Palestinian residents in the unlawfully occupied West Bank.Amnesty International has documented how the intensification of the coercive environment created by Israel, including through state-backed settler violence, has already led to the forcible transfer of the herding community of Zanuta, in the south Hebron Hills. Shi’b Al-Butum is now facing a similar fate.Evidence of forcible transfer in ZanutaAmnesty International visited the abandoned site of Zanuta, previously home to some 250 people, including 100 children, in March 2024. The organization also conducted interviews with five community members who previously lived in Zanuta, who said the frequency and violence of settler attacks against them intensified following the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, forcing the entire community to leave.They described how settlers from a nearby outpost, Meitarim Farm, have regularly attacked and harassed them since 2021. Despite the fact that such outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law, settlers also built structures and began herding their sheep on Zanuta’s farming land, causing damage to the crops.After 7 October 2023 residents said settler attacks escalated occurring almost daily leading many Palestinians to leave. On several occasions, settlers set property on fire or pumped sewage water into farming land.“Settlers attacked us at our home more than once after 7 October 2023. Once they broke our door and beat our children with their rifles. They broke the windows as we were sleeping,” said Hadeel Jabareen.The community was fully displaced by 22 October 2023. The Israeli Supreme Court ordered that the residents of Zanuta be allowed to return to their community in July 2024. However, after some families returned in August 2024, settler attacks resumed swiftly, forcing the residents to leave once again.The last families left Zanuta on 18 October 2024.“The settlers were armed and kept attacking us. We were the last family there. Everyone else had left, so we had to leave as well, for the safety of our children and livestock. We were afraid, it was terror,” said former resident, Adel A-Tal.Shi’b Al-Butum: a community at riskAmnesty International has also documented a rise in Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinian shepherds in grazing areas surrounding Shi’b Al-Butum since 7 October 2023 who now risk a similar fate to Zanuta. The organization interviewed six people from the community and verified 38 videos of the attacks.Residents told Amnesty International that settlers from the nearby outpost of Mitzpe Yair and the settlement of Avigayil harass and attack them almost on a daily basis since 7 October 2023. Avigayil is one of 10 outposts the Israeli security cabinet retroactively “legalized” in February 2023.The residents described how settlers regularly approach herders threatening them, using abusive language and often falsely reporting to Israeli law enforcement that Palestinians stole their sheep. Similar incidents have been reported in other communities in the South Hebron Hills area and elsewhere in the West Bank.Instead of protecting Shi’b Al-Butum’s Palestinian herders, the Israeli military ordered them not to use these areas, confining them to their village where there is not enough food for their flocks. This has placed a huge financial burden on many shepherds who cannot afford to buy animal feed all year round and are forced to sell some of their sheep, their main source of livelihood, to make ends meet.One shepherd, Khalil Jabarin, told Amnesty:“No one dares to go herd outside the village anymore. They took everything they wanted, but it’s still not enough for them…they want us to leave. They come here and tell me that I have no land here and that I should go to Yatta [a nearby Palestinian city].”Residents described how in particular, since early September 2024, one settler from Mitzpe Yair outpost regularly enters the village at any hour of the day or night, armed with a gun and dressed in military uniform. He walks around, takes photos and vandalizes property, especially agricultural land and structures. In videos recorded by the residents, he is seen destroying gates and fences around their agricultural lands. As a result, community members live in constant fear. In other videos, verified by Amnesty International, armed settlers are seen walking around the community or speeding through on their motorbikes to intimidate Palestinians.Iman Jabarin, who resides in the community and has seven children, said: “We don’t feel safe at home. We don’t have security or safety, not me, nor my children or my husband.”In a video verified by Amnesty International from 19 July 2024, a group of eight settlers, accompanied by one soldier, attacked members of the Najjar family who were sitting outside their house. According to the family, the settlers beat them with sticks as the soldier stood by. Video footage also shows the soldier pointing his gun at the Palestinian family, then shooting in the air. Two members of the family were hospitalized for their injuries. One of them, 64-year-old Wadha Najjar, said ongoing impunity for such attacks means they have no hope of justice within the Israeli legal system.Israeli authorities have also carried out demolitions of Palestinian homes and property in Shi’b Al-Butum. On 22 November 2023, Israeli forces demolished eight structures in the community due to lack of Israeli building permits, which are virtually impossible to obtain. According to OCHA, demolitions caused the displacement of 19 Palestinians from Shi’b Al-Butum, including 11 children. On 8 July 2024, Israeli forces demolished two residential structures citing lack of permits, displacing 14 people. According to Israeli organization Peace Now!, which monitors settlement expansion, Israeli planning authorities did not approve a single building permit or appeal for residential purposes for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.Settlers above the lawSettlers continue to enjoy near-total impunity for the violence they perpetrate against Palestinians. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, found that around 94% of police investigations into settler violence against Palestinians across the West Bank between 2005 and 2024 concluded with no indictment. These numbers back Palestinian residents’ conviction that the Israeli law-enforcement system is designed to privilege the interests of settlers at their expense.International inaction has also allowed Israeli settlement policies and settler violence to thrive and has entrenched impunity. On 21 January, President Donald Trump revoked all US sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. The very existence of all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – regardless of their status under Israeli law – flagrantly violates international law, yet states have repeatedly failed to stop their expansion or to ensure protection for the occupied population in the OPT. Even after the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024 declared Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful and called for its dismantling with 12 months, states have failed to act.“Deeply entrenched impunity for settler violence and the longstanding failure of the international community to act to halt the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements or to end Israel’s occupation are facilitating the unlawful transfer of Palestinian communities, which is a war crime. Instead of continuing to enable Israel’s relentless land grab, with devastating consequences for Palestinians, world leaders must press Israel to end its unlawful occupation and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.In addition to Shib al-Butum, nine other communities in Masafer Yatta are at imminent risk of forced displacement as the Israeli military declared their villages part of a military training zones. The plight of these communities, and their struggle to remain on their ancestral lands are featured in the documentary “No Other Land“, recently nominated for the Oscars.