How a Palestinian town is defending itself from Israeli settler attacks

SINJIL, West Bank, July 9 - On a cool night in June, some 15 Palestinians from the town of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank gathered on a hilltop to watch the shadowed valleys below for any sign of movement that might signal an impending Israeli settler attack.

They are part of a grassroots volunteer group — similar to others in the West Bank — that has stepped in to defend the town from rising settler violence that Palestinians say the Israeli military and their own government have proved unable or unwilling to prevent.

"We have been left on our own. You are facing settlers supported by their government," said Fadi Alwan, one of the volunteers.

"We have nobody. So we are forced to stay here and protect this town."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government has approved hundreds of new settlements and settler outposts across the West Bank, the smaller outposts often serving as staging grounds for violence that has displaced thousands of Palestinians.

The Israeli government has said that through the strategic placement of settlements it plans to thwart a Palestinian state with the West Bank at its heart — a Palestinian objective key to the two-state solution long backed by world powers.

Most of the world considers all Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule and the Israeli military operates freely, as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this view.

Palestinians say that when they call the Israeli police or the military they are either late to respond, or come to the aid of the settlers perpetrating the violence. The military denies this.

"The army protects them and doesn't stop them. We call the army. We call the police. It's useless," said Alwan.

Asked for comment on Sinjil and what residents describe as an escalating campaign of attacks, Israel's military said troops deploy to disperse confrontation but that responsibility for Israeli civilian actions in the West Bank lies with the Israeli police.

Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment.

SEARCHLIGHTS, WHATSAPP GROUPS TO FEND OFF ATTACKS

On June 26, as the men gathered around a fire on a Sinjil hilltop, one of them used a searchlight to scan the hills for settlers.

Others drove on patrols around the town, all of them tuned into community WhatsApp groups where residents can alert one another to potential attacks. Towns elsewhere in the West Bank also have groups, though the patrols around Sinjil appear unusually organised.

"If they get close to the houses, we go confront them, we send (messages out) on the WhatsApp groups," Alwan said.

Just a few days earlier, Alwan said he was beaten by a settler wielding a spiked club in a daytime attack as he attempted to harvest wheat. He lifted his shirt to show his wound, still fresh.

He said settlers last year shot live bullets at a tent erected by the volunteers, only missing the young men inside by luck. He said the next day troops came and dismantled the tent.

Israel's military did not immediately provide comment on allegations that they dismantled the watch tent.

Alwan and other residents said they believed most of the settlers perpetrating violence against their town came from the six settler outposts perched on the hills around them.

The Yesha Council, an organization that represents settlers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on events in Sinjil and what local regional councils are doing to curb violence.

GRASSROOTS SOLUTION

Sinjil sits along the main road between the Palestinian urban centres of Ramallah and Nablus, and the hills north of the village are dotted with settlements and outposts.

Deepening the town's isolation, local officials say Israel's military closed off four of its five entrances, and has built a metal wall around the town cutting it off from 2,000 acres of private land.

Moataz Tawafsha, the head of Sinjil's municipality, said that after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, settler attacks escalated and the town needed to find a way to protect itself.

"We really feel as if we are living in a collective prison," Tawafsha said. "As a result, the municipality has taken primary responsibility for providing protection."

Since October 2023, settler attacks have killed two people and displaced more than 100 from the Bedouin Palestinian community living on town land, according to Tawafsha. The violence has displaced a further 20 families from their homes in the town's core during the same period, he said.

CALL FOR HELP

Some Sinjil residents credit community protection for their survival.

Abed Foqahaa installed metal bars over the windows of his house and built a tall metal fence around his garden after settlers threw a Molotov cocktail through his window while he and his family were inside around two years ago.

"The fire broke out and we couldn't control it. We tried to save the house, but all of us suffered from the smoke," said Foqahaa.

Foqahaa used the town WhatsApp group to call for help. Young men from the town, initially stopped by the Israeli military, arrived and helped carry out Foqahaa's wheelchair-using father, he said.

"God bless them, they really helped us," Foqahaa said. REUTERS