Over the last month, as settler violence has continued to mount against Palestinians and our communities, the Israeli state has maintained the violent processes of demolition and destruction. Since January, Israeli state forces have demolished 520 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem alone, affecting more than 24,000 people. Most of these structures were residential (121) or agricultural (222), meaning that the destruction of these buildings directly encouraged Palestinian displacement through the devastation of a home or through the targeting of agricultural structures that support the local economy and help families maintain their properties. The focus on these categories displays how demolition processes are a boon to Israel’s settler-colonial project, which requires Palestinian land and resources — and the elimination of Palestinians — in order to prosper.

Plagued by assaults by Israeli state forces and settlers alike, some Palestinian communities have already been forcibly displaced from their rural communities this year. In May, Palestinian Bedouins in Ein Samia were ethnically cleansed after joint efforts by Israeli forces and settlers to steal their resources and land. Just yesterday, another six families were forcibly displaced from their homes in al Qabboun, east of Ramallah. The six families from al Qabboun, part of the Ka’abneh clan, were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces after almost daily attacks by local settlers. Though settler attacks are not always carried out in coordination with Israeli forces or with their direct cooperation, the state’s unwavering commitment to settlement, the elimination of Palestinians, and its absolute refusal to meaningfully respond to these local attacks, encourage Israeli settler violence to continue. In this case, the state’s support of these settlers and their actions resulted in the displacement of 36 people, including children and older adults. Importantly, this family settled in al Qabboun after being displaced by zionist forces during the 1948 Nakba, making this their second displacement within Palestine at the hands of zionist militants. As Bedouin communities across the West Bank and the Naqab face ever-tightening restrictions on their abilities to maintain their communities and live in security, this news is a frightening development for other vulnerable villages.

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GSC program update

Good Shepherd Collective organizers took a much-needed reprieve from the work on the ground in Palestine, taking time to reconnect with friends, family, and fellow activists in the U.S. and U.K. The time away provided space to discuss the divide between movement spaces in Palestine and abroad with fellow organizers. Folks outside of Palestine wanted to know more about how NGO structures, liberal Zionism, and identity politics shape and influence solidarity strategies and tactics. We discussed how the confluence of these dynamics undermines Palestinian cohesion and, ultimately, liberation and justice. These talks presented new ways the Good Shepherd Collective can play a small role in those conversations.