{"id":6673,"date":"2026-05-15T12:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/three-years-of-the-west-banks-third-nakba\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:35:42","slug":"three-years-of-the-west-banks-third-nakba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/three-years-of-the-west-banks-third-nakba\/","title":{"rendered":"Three years of the West Bank\u2019s \u2018third Nakba\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p><strong>Rammun, occupied West Bank \u2013<\/strong> Fresh off the seventh forced displacement of his central West Bank Bedouin community since 1948, Abu Najjeh was not in a contemplative mood leading up to Nakba Day. He said he was in a rush, too busy reacting to the crises of the day \u2013 the continuing \u201cthird Nakba\u201d, as he called it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not a proper place to live \u2013 that\u2019s why I\u2019m in a hurry \u2026 waiting for a car to take me,\u201d said Abu Najjeh, the mukhtar, or leader, of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/6\/4\/better-to-die-there-palestinians-mourn-ein-samiya-eviction\">former<\/a> Bedouin community of Ein Samiya, speaking from a recently erected tent in the outskirts of Rammun before rushing to find his sons amid unfolding violence in Jiljilyya.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/14\/may-your-village-burn-israeli-flag-march-returns-to-east-jerusalem\">\u2018May your village burn\u2019: Israeli Flag March returns to East Jerusalem<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/5\/14\/the-world-is-sounding-an-alarm-why-big-tech-is-the-new-colonist\">\u2018The world is sounding an alarm\u2019: Why big tech is the new colonist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/14\/federal-judge-blocks-us-sanctions-against-un-rapporteur-francesca-albanese\">Federal judge blocks US sanctions against UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Just that morning, Jewish settlers had stolen hundreds of sheep and two tractors from a member of his extended family in Jiljilyya, to the north of Rammun, as well as shooting and killing 16-year-old Yousef Kaabneh \u2013 also from Abu Najjeh\u2019s Kaabneh clan.<\/p>\n<p>Like the community of Ein Samiya, Yousef and his family had been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/20\/silent-annexation-settlers-dispossess-west-bank-bedouins-amid-israel-war\">forcibly displaced from Wadi as-Seeq<\/a> in 2023, one of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin communities emptied since October 7, 2023. Already ascendant, the Israeli far right has used the Hamas-led attack on Israel, along with the cover of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, to ramp up attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and seize more land.<\/p>\n<p>Yousef\u2019s family had relocated to Jiljilyya, hoping to finally be safe from settler attacks in an area under Palestinian Authority (PA) administration and where Israeli civilians are prohibited from entering under Israeli law.<\/p>\n<p>One of Abu Najjeh\u2019s own sons had also fled to Jiljilyya two months earlier, thinking the same. But on Wednesday morning, dozens of settlers rampaged through Jiljilyya, Sinjil and Abwein, all in Area A. The armed settlers opened fire on residents, shooting Yousef dead. The killing took place two days before Nakba Day, May 15, when Palestinians mark the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes during the Nakba \u2013 the Arabic word for catastrophe, used by Palestinians to refer to the ethnic cleansing that took place during the formation of Israel on historical Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>And now, a few hundred metres away from where they recently moved to near Rammun, is another illegal settler outpost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere is there to go?\u201d Abu Najjeh wondered.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4573654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4573654\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Children-of-Abu-Najjeh-community-1778788245.jpeg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C578&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Children next to a tent\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4573654\">Children from Abu Najjeh\u2019s family play next to a tent erected by his Bedouin community on the outskirts of Rammun, in the occupied West Bank [Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"a-history-of-family-expulsions\">A history of family expulsions<\/h2>\n<p>It is a question that has haunted the Kaabneh family for eight decades.<\/p>\n<p>Before 1948, the Kaabneh were Bedouins of the larger Jahalin clan living freely in the Bir al-Saba area in the Naqab Desert. They were pastoral people who grazed their flocks of livestock across the vast open ranges.<\/p>\n<p>But in 1948, they were expelled from their homes by Zionist paramilitary and later military forces during the Nakba.<\/p>\n<p>Pushed north to the West Bank, controlled by Jordan from 1948 to 1967, they drifted through Masafer Yatta and towards Ramallah, searching for land wide enough to sustain a herding community. In 1967, the Israelis once again forced them out, this time after they captured the West Bank in a war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey gave us 24 hours \u2013 they expelled us towards al-Muarrajat \u2013 no water, in September,\u201d recalled Abu Najjeh. Throughout the 1970s, various Israeli military orders pushed them around different areas in the southern West Bank, and towards Ramallah, he explained. \u201cSince 1967,\u201d he said, \u201cwe haven\u2019t rested a single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Around 1980, they finally found what started to feel like home. In the hills east of Ramallah, at a place called Ein Samiya \u2013 named for the nearby spring \u2013 the community put down roots, remaining there for more than 40 years. The flocks grew to thousands, and the children had a school. \u201cThe feeling was one of ease,\u201d Abu Najjeh said, the only moment where the urgency dropped from his voice. \u201cThe livestock could graze all the way to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/4\/10\/israeli-settlers-turn-passover-celebration-ethnic-cleansing\">spring at al-Auja<\/a>, drink, and come back to us. It was a blessed life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starting in the 1990s, the community faced periodic demolitions of their tent homes from Israeli authorities, who almost never grant building permits for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli administrative control. With help from humanitarian organisations like Action Against Hunger, they were able to weather such demolitions.<\/p>\n<p>But when the settlers came, it was different.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning around 2019, a settler outpost appeared nearby. What started as harassment in the grazing lands moved inside the community\u2019s residential area by 2021. Soon enough, settlers blocked the community from accessing the spring. They placed spikes on the road to Ein Samiya, and they photographed the families\u2019 flocks as a precursor to confiscation.<\/p>\n<p>Due to settler thefts, poisonings and restriction of land access forcing people to sell their sheep, the flock collapsed from 2,500 to fewer than 500. As violent attacks escalated alongside such livestock thefts, Ein Samiya became <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/6\/4\/better-to-die-there-palestinians-mourn-ein-samiya-eviction\">one of the first<\/a> Bedouin communities to be forcibly displaced in May 2023, months before the October 7 attack on Israel, and Israel\u2019s subsequent genocidal war on Gaza. It is a wave that has since accelerated dramatically, wiping out dozens more communities.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Najjeh\u2019s son called that 2023 violent displacement \u201canother Nakba\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But the new Nakba did not end there.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4573659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4573659\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Remaining-livestock-in-Rammun-I-counted-about-40-1778788378.jpeg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C578&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Sheep in a pen\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4573659\">Abu Najjeh\u2019s family\u2019s remaining livestock, down to fewer than 500 from 2,500 due to settler thefts, poisonings and restriction of land access [Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"we-didn-t-expect-them-to-come\">\u2018We didn\u2019t expect them to come\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the Ein Samiya relocated with Abu Najjeh to Khirbet Abu Falah in Area B, where the Palestinian Authority has administrative control, but shares security control with Israel. The farmland was not optimal for a herding lifestyle, but \u201cwe said this is an Area B area \u2013 we are allowed there, we felt secure,\u201d Abu Najjeh recalled.<\/p>\n<p>But by 2025, new illegal outposts had appeared in the immediate vicinity of Khirbet Abu Falah, and attacks resumed from the same group of settlers, who had followed them there.<\/p>\n<p>Facing rising thefts of their sheep and attacks and invasions of their shelter, during Ramadan this year, \u201cWe had to leave again, expelled while we were fasting,\u201d said Abu Najjeh. While they had managed to pack up much of their possessions from Ein Samiya, the settlers in Khirbet Abu Falah forced them to abandon much of their belongings.<\/p>\n<p>Eight of Abu Najjeh\u2019s married sons scattered elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>The mukhtar arrived at Rammun with one son and a handful of grandchildren.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"i-don-t-know-where-to-go\">\u2018I don\u2019t know where to go\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>On this hillside, there is no electricity, and water is trucked in at 250 shekels ($86) a tank. The strip sits among cultivated olive groves \u2013 and \u201cto graze sheep on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/5\/8\/in-the-days-of-old-the-world-was-safe-west-bank-familys-enduring-unity\">neighbour\u2019s farmland<\/a> would be wrong,\u201d Abu Najjeh said. The few animals that remain are no longer a livelihood, but an economic burden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was forced here into an area that has absolutely nothing \u2013 nothing above, nothing below,\u201d remarked Abu Najjeh.<\/p>\n<p>As his phone rang with new alerts from Jiljilyya, Abu Najjeh grew more restless. \u201cSmall children, since the day the settlers appeared, they have been afraid,\u201d said Abu Najjeh. \u201cAt night, they dream of settlers. During the day, they\u2019re afraid. When they see a car, they say it\u2019s a settler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And yet, even after moving to this tiny strip of unsuitable land, settlers established another outpost in the Rammun area within the past week, adding to an outpost built just across the narrow valley two years ago \u2013 within eyesight of where Abu Najjeh\u2019s grandchildren sleep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m afraid every night, every moment,\u201d said Abu Najjeh. \u201cThey are right there. A kilometre, half a kilometre, three hundred metres.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I don\u2019t know where to go. There is nowhere to go. That is the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4573663\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4573663\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Good-look-showing-how-close-the-outpost-is-to-the-new-location-1778788532.jpeg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C578&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Israeli outpost in the distance\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4573663\">An illegal Israeli outpost on top of a hill near Abu Najjeh\u2019s tent in Rammun, occupied West Bank. Settlers often follow displaced Palestinian communities, with the aim of making them leave their homes again [Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"we-live-on-the-land-and-die-in-it\">\u2018We live on the land and die in it\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Once the settler groups succeed in clearing a community, settlers often move on as well \u2013 following wherever the displaced families resettle. And so 78 years after the original Nakba, Abu Najjeh is not so focused on the Nakbas of the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Nakba of 1948, the Nakba of 1967, the Nakba of 2023,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the third Nakba.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He gestured towards the east. \u201cFrom Ein al-Beida [in the north] all the way to Masafer Yatta [in the south] \u2013 they cleared the entire eastern face. No grazing land is left. No place to set down your caravan. None left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the UN\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since January 2023 and up to May 4, 2026, more than 5,900 people from 117 communities across the West Bank experienced full or partial displacement due to settler attacks and related access restrictions. Forty-five communities have been erased completely. About 2,000 have been driven from their homes in 2026 alone.<\/p>\n<p>Tens of thousands of Palestinians have also been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/17\/mapping-forced-displacements-and-settler-attacks-by-israel-in-the-west-bank\">forced out of their homes<\/a> by Israeli military attacks in the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Settler attacks, as well as the Israeli military\u2019s near-daily raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, have killed at least 1,090 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the UN.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe live on the land and die in it,\u201d said Abu Najjeh, invoking a Bedouin saying. \u201cBut brother, we need people. A community of seven or 10 men who want to resist 60, 70 men \u2013 they can\u2019t resist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With communities across the West Bank now under threat, humanitarian workers on the ground describe what is happening to the Kaabneh not as isolated settler violence, but as a systematic pattern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want the world to starve,\u201d said Abu Najjeh. \u201cTo make life impossible so that the world emigrates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abruptly, Abu Najjeh stood on his feet. His sons were somewhere in Jiljilyya, amid rampaging settlers and soldiers. There was no more time for reflection \u2013 only the next crisis. \u201cMy people need me \u2013 I must go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rammun, occupied West Bank \u2013 Fresh off the seventh forced displacement of his central West Bank Bedouin community since 1948, Abu Najjeh was not in a contemplative mood leading up to Nakba Day. He said he was in a rush, too busy reacting to the crises of the day \u2013 the continuing \u201cthird Nakba\u201d, as &#8230; <a title=\"Three years of the West Bank\u2019s \u2018third Nakba\u2019\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/three-years-of-the-west-banks-third-nakba\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Three years of the West Bank\u2019s \u2018third Nakba\u2019\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}