Pastoral Settlement represents one of the most widely used and currently most dangerous forms of Israeli displacement and dispossession in the West Bank. It usually entails illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank centered around livestock grazing and shepherding. This is because the total grazing area amounts to approximately 2.2 million dunams (around 30% of the West Bank), 90% of which lies in Area “C”. This has enabled the instrumentalization of “pastoral activity” as a direct tool of territorial control, allowing settlers to seize vast areas of open land within a short period of time through the establishment of lightly built pastoral outposts. Later, it evolved into permanent facts on the ground, protected by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and supported by state institutions. Today, the grazing lands controlled by settlers are estimated to cover twice the area of built-up settlement zones.
The process typically begins with the establishment of settler tents, basic structures, and livestock pens in the occupied West Bank, which gradually develop into fixed settlement outposts under the protection of the Israeli military. These form an interconnected network of pastoral outposts that fragment Palestinian land and restrict access to it through earth mounds, barbed wire, and iron gates. This is accompanied by systematic settler violence, terror, and intimidation against Palestinian communities, including physical assaults, live fire, the use of pepper spray and other coercive means, and, in some documented cases, killings. Such practices have led to the forced displacement of entire Palestinian communities and the conversion of their lands into settler-controlled zones. As part of institutional support for this model, the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture allocated approximately 3 million shekels in grazing grants between 2017 and 2024, while the Jewish National Fund (KKL) invested around 4.7 million shekels in these illegal pastoral outposts.
The pastoral model to unlawfully seize occupied territory expanded rapidly after 2021 and accelerated significantly following 7 October 2023. Pastoral outposts have seized approximately 786,000 dunams (786 km²), equivalent to 14% of the West Bank by 2025. The number of outposts has reached approximately 289 across the West Bank, including around 100 pastoral outposts operating as an interconnected network. In 2024 alone, 61 new outposts were established, followed by 9 additional outposts in the first quarter of 2025. The highest concentration is recorded in Hebron Governorate (22 outposts), followed by Ramallah (21), Nablus (14), Tubas (9), Bethlehem (8), Salfit (6), Jericho and Jenin (4 each), and one outpost in Tulkarm. Collectively, these outposts control more than 7% of Area “C”, amounting to approximately 238,000 dunams (about 94 square miles).
Rangeland settlement policy has also become a key mechanism of forced displacement in the West Bank. Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicates a marked escalation in this trend, documenting the displacement of approximately 636 people between early 2025 and mid-July, out of 2,895 displaced since 2023, primarily due to settler violence or restrictions on land access. Sharply escalating to about 80% in the strategic Jordan Valley alone, which represents the Palestinian food and water stock.
This pattern of violence has taken a structural form, leading to the dismantling of entire communities. Since 7 October 2023, residents of 20 Bedouin communities comprising around 180 families have been forcibly displaced, while other estimates indicate that at least 40 pastoral communities have been affected by ongoing expulsion and pressure policies. As a result, population levels in 24 pastoral communities declined by 39%, and total displacement has exceeded 7,000 people according to field monitoring since that date. Recent cases in 2025 include communities in Mughayir al-Deir east of Ramallah, Arab al-Mleihat in al-Ma’arajat north of Jericho, Arab al-Jahalin west of Ramallah, Shib Tima southeast of Bethlehem, and a Bedouin community in al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley.
#1 Citizen M.J. from the town of Tuqu’, Bethlehem, stated that their suffering began on October 7, when access to the eastern side of the village, consisting of vast lands used as grazing areas for their sheep, was closed off. Later, settlers erected a gate at the entrance to the wilderness area. Following the installation of the gate, his brother was shot and killed by a settler wearing an Israeli military uniform while they were attempting to reach their land.
He further stated that when the Kiryat Arba Police summoned him to provide testimony regarding his brother’s killing, he informed them of these details. He also stated that his brother’s killing was deliberate, explaining that he was shot directly in the head rather than randomly, indicating that there was a clear intent to kill.
The witness owns a plot of land that he considers his only refuge and sole source of livelihood. He cultivates the land and visits it regularly with his family.
One month ago, while he was at the land with his young daughters and his wife, who was six months pregnant, three settlers entered the property. They pushed his daughter at the doorway, and one settler attempted to break her leg. When the witness intervened, the settlers sprayed him with pepper spray. As a result, the entire family was transferred to the hospital. He stated that his family continues to suffer from the consequences of the attack, particularly his pregnant wife, who is still experiencing serious health complications, and his daughters, who remain psychologically affected, traumatized, and terrified whenever they hear of military incursions into the town.
Settler attacks associated with pastoral settlement activity have also increased significantly, rising from 2,410 incidents in 2023 to 2,971 in 2024. These attacks resulted in the uprooting and destruction of 14,212 Palestinian trees in 2024 alone, reflecting a direct targeting of agricultural and economic production resources.
At the economic level, pastoral settlement functions as a mechanism for dismantling traditional pastoral livelihoods by denying herders access to natural grazing lands and forcing them to rely on expensive purchased fodder or reduce herd sizes, thereby accelerating impoverishment and loss of economic independence. This process is reinforced through advanced surveillance technologies such as drones and thermal cameras used to track herders and prevent access to large areas surrounding settlement outposts. It is further sustained by an institutional framework of financial and logistical support provided by Israeli state bodies and settler organizations, effectively transforming rangeland settlement into a structured policy aimed at reshaping demographic and geographic realities.
#2 Citizen T.A. from the town of Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem, stated that all the lands east of the town, specifically in the Tuqu’ wilderness (located east of the town of Tuqu’ and extending toward the eastern slopes overlooking the Dead Sea), have become a pastoral settlement outpost.
According to his testimony, there were 26 families who used to graze their sheep in the wilderness, but earthen barriers were placed to prevent them from entering. Later, the gate blocking access to the wilderness was moved half a kilometer closer toward the town.
Four grazing hills were taken over; they belonged to four families from Tuqu’: Al-Badan, Al-Amour, Al-Sha’er, and Al-Minya.
A large number of the families returned to the outskirts of the town, while others moved to live in the Al-Minya area, which is also a grazing region, but they were later expelled from there as well.
In this context, the failure to utilize agricultural land in Area “C” is estimated to cost the Palestinian economy at least 3 billion USD annually, adding a structural economic dimension to displacement and land control policies.
The impact of pastoral settlement intensifies during periods of religious and social significance, particularly Eid al-Adha, when livestock farming constitutes an integral part of the Palestinian socio-economic and cultural fabric. The act of sacrifice is not merely an individual religious ritual but a central mechanism of social solidarity and food redistribution, ensuring access to meat for poor and marginalized groups.
These policies have also had a direct impact on livestock decline between 2020 and 2024, with cattle and camels decreasing by 35%, and sheep and goats declining sharply by 37%. This reduction is linked to several settler-related factors, most notably the fact that 49% of farmers reported theft or killing of livestock by settlers. In addition, 84% of herders were forced to change feeding patterns and rely on purchased fodder after being denied access to grazing lands, increasing production costs by 40–50%.
Accordingly, the targeting of the livestock sector through rangeland settlement does not merely constitute an attack on land and productive resources but extends to the disruption of a fundamental social and religious practice, restricting families’ ability to perform a central ritual, while depriving large segments of society of a seasonal food source that often represents the primary or sole source of meat throughout the year.
Applicable Legal Framework & Analysis
The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice “Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” (2024) reaffirmed the unlawfulness of Israel’s very presence and prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territory, highlighting the unlawfulness of the settlement regime as a whole, including all associated policies that entrench territorial fragmentation and demographic engineering. Within this legal framework, pastoral settlement is not an isolated phenomenon but a functional extension of the broader settlement enterprise, designed to consolidate permanent control over land and population in violation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
This system operates through a process of incremental displacement structured around three interlocking mechanisms: spatial control through denial of access to land; coercive violence aimed at producing insecurity and dispossession; and economic deprivation that dismantles the viability of pastoral livelihoods. Against this backdrop, pastoral settlement in the West Bank constitutes a structured system of population displacement and enables the gradual transfer of control over large areas of Area “C”. This practice amounts to forcible transfer under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as displacement results not only from direct eviction but from coercive conditions, including settler violence, denial of access to grazing land, and destruction of livelihood sources, that render continued residence impossible.
The same factual pattern engages Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the destruction of civilian property unless absolutely required by military necessity. The destruction and appropriation of pastoral land, livestock infrastructure, and agricultural resources cannot be justified under any military rationale and therefore constitute unlawful destruction of protected property. In parallel, the systematic intimidation and violence directed at pastoral communities, including assaults, live fire incidents, threats, and the use of coercive force, operates as a mechanism of pressure that produces displacement as a foreseeable and intended outcome, thereby engaging the prohibition on collective punishment under Article 33 of the same Convention.
Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, these practices collectively amount to war crimes, including the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory (Article 8(2)(b)(viii)), the forcible transfer of protected persons (Article 8(2)(a)(vii)), and the extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity (Articles 8(2)(a)(iv) and 8(2)(b)(xiii)). The cumulative and institutionalised nature of these acts, coupled with their implementation through state-supported mechanisms and organized settler structures, further supports their characterization as crimes against humanity, in particular persecution and forcible transfer as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population.
In addition, pastoral settlement must be situated within the established illegality of the settlement regime under international law, as confirmed by UN Security Council resolutions and the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 2004 on the Annexation Wall, which recognized the unlawful nature of Israeli settlements and their violation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. In this context, the use of “pastoral activity” functions as an adaptive modality of settlement expansion, characterized by lower infrastructural visibility and higher spatial flexibility, enabling rapid territorial capture and irreversible facts on the ground.
References:
Pastoral Settlement in the West Bank: The Most Dangerous Face of Occupation and the Scenario of Organized Displacement – Sada News Agency
The Settler Strategy Accelerating Palestinian Dispossession
pastoral-settlement-policies-to-combat-the-latest-models-of-set.pdf
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654954