From the outskirts of his town in the West Bank, the mayor, Moussa al-Shaer, surveyed the rocky hills stretching toward the Dead Sea where Palestinians had long farmed and herded. He pointed out the new features of the landscape – new guard posts manned by Israeli soldiers, new roads patrolled by Israeli settlers, and a new metal gate blocking the town’s sole road to those areas, installed and locked by the Israeli army to keep Palestinians out.
“Anyone who goes to the gate, they either arrest him or kill him,” said Mayor al-Shaer of Tuqu.
On the other side of the gate, stood one of the area’s new residents, Abeer Izraeli, a Jewish settler. “With God’s help, we will stay here a long time,” Mr. Izraeli said.
The case of the two people on either side of the gate is a clear example of a dynamic playing out across the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jewish settlers have hastened the rate at which they are seizing land previously used by Palestinians, according to rights groups.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that started the war in Gaza, settlers have taken more than 37,000 acres of land from Palestinians across the West Bank. The largest such expansion is near Tuqu, where more than 550 acres have been taken.
The gate may not seem like much, but it has served as a firm divider between the Palestinian Arab inhabitants of Tuqu and the Israeli Jews in the newly expanded settlement of Tekoa.
The recent seizures were catalyzed by the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which led to increased Israeli security measures in the West Bank that made it easier for settlers to take control of territory.
The United Nations reported that 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since it began keeping track in 2005. The violence rose significantly after the war in Gaza began, with 489 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7 as of May 22.
Israel has encouraged Jews to settle in the West Bank since occupying the territory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, providing land, military protection, electricity, water, and roads. Most countries consider the settlements illegal, and the Biden administration has criticized them for undermining the goal of a two-state solution.
The Palestinians in Tuqu have few options to address the land seizures by settlers. Complaints to Israeli authorities often go nowhere, and filing a court case in Israel is a lengthy process that may not restore their access to the land or stop the settlers from building there.
“The settlers are working on the ground to make a new reality,” said Mayor al-Shaer.