‘I was born here, my father was born here, his father before him was also born here. I will stay on my land.’
Sheikh Saeed Rabaa, South Hebron Hills
The quad bike is easily visible in the near distance above us, silhouetted against the clear blue sky as it drives up along the crest of the hill. It’s heading toward the Avigayil settlement, one of 141 settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law. Down where we are, at the home of Sheikh Saeed Rabaa, an elderly Palestinian farmer and father, in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, a crowd of relatives and friends is gathered, sitting around on carpets and cushions, shaded from the sun by a recently-erected tarpaulin, the younger family members offering coffee and sweets to newly arrived guests. Masafer Yatta is the location of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. It also featured in Louis Theroux’s recent BBC documentary, The Settlers. But the situation for Palestinians is deteriorating so rapidly in real-time that both films already feel out of date. As Theroux himself put it:
‘the ongoing displacement and intimidation of Palestinians is more severe than we could capture.’
Above Saeed’s farm, the quad moves slowly, appearing to take a good long look down at the activity below. One guest says:
‘See how it moves… [the settler] wants us to know they are there. Trying to intimidate us.’
The crowd was gathered in solidarity due to a major incident of settler violence that had occurred a few days previously. Nearby settlers had been intruding onto Saeed’s land and damaging his property.
Sheikh Saeed’s farm in Masafer Yatta, with the road to the Avigayil settlement in the distance
On our previous visit, we learned that settlers had broken a fence in a nearby olive grove belonging to Saeed. A few days later, on April 17, three armed settlers appeared on Saeed’s land in the early evening, intending to drill iron pillars into the ground. According to Saeed, he and his 15-year-old son, Ilyas, went outside to confront them. When Ilyas began filming the settlers on his phone, he was attacked by one of them, who pinned him to the ground in a choking position. Saeed tried to intervene but had his arm grabbed and twisted behind his back by another settler, who first fired two shots into the air and then shot him in the leg. Saeed fell to the ground, bleeding heavily.
The man who shot him was later identified by Israeli peace activists as Benjamin Boheneimer, the head of security at the Avigayil settlement. Israeli soldiers arrived soon after. They did not reprimand Boheneimer nor his associates. Instead, they arrested Ilyas, claiming he had tried to grab a settler’s gun. Ilyas was driven away and detained for several days in harsh prison conditions.
A Palestinian ambulance was blocked from reaching the scene by an Israeli military checkpoint, and Saeed instead had to wait untreated on the ground for an Israeli ambulance to arrive and take him to an Israeli hospital, where he would be handcuffed to his bed. Saeed’s wound was deemed untreatable, and his leg was amputated. For him and his son to be released, a military court ordered Saeed to pay 10,000 shekels (more than 2000 GBP) in bail money. Meanwhile, the settlers involved received no punishment, as the police and army claimed Saeed and his son attacked them first, despite there being no evidence of this. Instead of being under investigation, the settlers appeared the following day on Saeed’s farm, escorted by Israeli police and soldiers, to continue their takeover of his land. Now home and permanently disabled, Saeed is adamant that he will remain.
Sheikh Saeed at home following his operation
This incident is one of many violent attacks committed by Israeli settlers on local Palestinians. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicates that settler violence has reached unprecedented levels. Between October 7 2023 and the end of 2024, an average of four attacks occurred daily in the West Bank. The role of the army and police in the above incident demonstrates what local activists and human rights groups have long claimed, that the Israeli state supports settler violence. As the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem stated in a 2021 report:
‘Settler violence…serves as a major informal tool at the hands of the state to take over more and more West Bank land.‘
This policy is driving the expansion of the Avigayil settlement, that threatens to displace Sheikh Saeed and many others.
The Israeli state supports settlers establishing outposts on land belonging to Palestinians, and helps these outposts in a variety of ways, despite being considered illegal even under Israeli law. A example of this was seen in April, when Israel’s far right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich attended a ceremony in the South Hebron Hills to mark the government’s gifting of a fleet of quad bikes to illegal outposts in the area. These vehicles regularly feature in reports of settler harassment, used to attack Palestinian livestock and shepherds. They are central to settlers’ daily efforts to drive Palestinians off their land.
The outposts are protected by the military, and quickly become connected to the Israeli road, electricity and water networks. They also receive state-funded grants and subsidies. Over time almost all illegal outposts are retroactively legalised by the Israeli government, thereby formalising Israel’s appropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
This process is now happening at an unprecedented pace in the wake of 7 October 2023, and driven by the strong influence of radical pro-settler ministers in Israel’s current government, most notably Itaman Ben Gviir and Smotrich. Avigayil was itself legalised within Israel into an ‘official settlement’ in 2023, along with two other outposts, which was a condition set by Smotrich, as part of the coalition deal.
According to Israeli media, the country’s military administration governing the West Bank, has ceded control of the occupation apparatus to Smotrich and his pro-settlement agenda. In May 2025 the Israeli cabinet voted to only recognize Israeli jurisdiction over the registration of land ownership in Area C of the West Bank, to ‘develop settlements’ according to Smotrich.
Area C makes up more than 60% of the West Bank landmass, is under direct Israeli military control, and is where Palestinian communities are being displaced by settlement expansion. The cabinet decision will facilitate the Israeli government to declare null and void private Palestinian land ownership in Area C, threatening places like Sheikh Saeed’s farm and other rural communities, many of which have already disappeared or significantly reduced in size.
According to a 2024 ACLED report, there has been a significant uptick in violence towards Palestinians committed by the Israeli military in the wake of 7 October. This spike in violence has been attributed to the enrolment of local settlers, typically far right, ideologically motivated individuals, into army units in the West Bank, to fill the gaps created by Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon since 7 October. This development only worsens pre-existing realities of endemic state complicity in settler violence. As B’Tselem’s 2021 report stated,
‘broad, consistent documentation [of settler violence] has had almost no effect…the military avoids confronting violent settlers as a matter of policy… [Israeli] enforcement authorities do their utmost to avoid responding to these incidents [of settler violence against Palestinians]…complaints are difficult to file…indictments are hardly ever filed against settlers who harm Palestinians.’
According to the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, 94% of such cases are closed without charge, and usually with no investigation by Israeli police. It is therefore not surprising that Benjamin Boheneimer walked away after shooting Sheikh Saeed. Israel’s consistent non-prosecution of violent settlers creates a reality of settler impunity which B’Tselem conclude is part of Israel’s de-facto annexation of the West Bank.
Last year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its most unequivocal ruling on the illegality of Israeli settlements, urging Israel to cease ‘its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately’. The court added that ‘Israel’s systematic failure to prevent or to punish attacks by settlers against the life or bodily integrity of Palestinians… is inconsistent with its obligations.’
The UK government recently announced it would sanction Israeli far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – but this does not go far enough. Please see our urgent actions below and stand in solidarity with Saeed and all Palestinians who are forced to live with the threat of settler violence and Israeli government impunity.
Take action!
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The UK and Irish governments are obliged under international law to take concrete actions to honour the the ICJ ruling, and to end their complicity the Israeli governments systematic impunity for settler violence. Write to you elected representatives today and urge them to sanction all settlers inciting and committing violence against Palestinians.
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Sign our urgent email to your MP/TD saying no the continued expansion of Israeli settlements and the annexation of Palestinian land. It takes just 1-minute.
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Watch and share Louis Theroux’s recent documentary The Settlers and the Oscar-winning Palestinian film No Other Land to learn more about the daily realities for Palestinians like Saeed living in the South Hebron Hills, occupied West Bank.
What does international law say?