Ethnic cleansing is intensifying in Masafer Yatta, in Palestine. The Zionist occupation seeks to break the community by demolishing its community center, greenhouse, and 13 homes.
While the world watches Israel systematically violate the so-called “ceasefire” in Gaza, the colonial offensive in the West Bank deepens. Since October 7, 2023, violence from both fascist settlers and the Israeli army against Palestinians has steadily increased across the territories illegally occupied since 1967. Masafer Yatta —the area featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land— has become one of the main targets. Now, 15 new demolition orders have been delivered.
Umm al-Khair, one of the most attacked Bedouin communities in Masafer Yatta, has endured more than 20 demolition operations since 2007, destroying over 100 residential, agricultural, and public structures —the latest in February 2025. The new “final” orders give residents less than four days to appeal to Israeli courts, which function as tools of ethnic cleansing. Those who resist face arrest without charges or trial, joining over 10,000 Palestinians held in “administrative detention.”
This escalation follows a series of prior assaults: gates that are arbitrarily opened or closed, olive trees uprooted, water pipes cut by settlers, military raids, and containers installed near the community center to house Israeli soldiers. The peak of aggression came with the 2025 murder of Awdah Hathaleen, who filmed his own killing by Yinon Levy —a notorious settler now leading a bulldozer company involved in the demolitions.
Far-right factions inside and outside Israel’s ruling coalition have recently pushed bills in the Knesset to annex occupied Palestinian land —what they call “Judea and Samaria”— and to extend Israeli civil law there. Meanwhile, the E1 plan seeks to expand settlement construction.
The years 2024 and 2025 have seen record levels of illegal annexations in the West Bank, surpassing even 2023. These annexations stem from decades of forced displacement under Zionist occupation and violence. In areas like Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley, networks of anti-Zionist activists —both international and Israeli— continue standing in solidarity with local communities. That is precisely why the occupation aims to crush these villages, which have become symbols of steadfast resistance.
The people of Umm al-Khair have rebuilt their village time and again. They now need the widest possible solidarity to continue resisting. Contact your representatives and demand pressure on Israel to stop this ethnic cleansing. Let’s amplify their voices, speak of Palestine everywhere, and take to the streets until Zionist oppression is defeated.