Ahead of Trumps regional visit , Settlers’ terror steps up after he took office

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that on Nov. 7, 2024, the Republican candidate, Donald Trump capped an improbable political comeback by defeating his Democratic, Kamala Harris in the US presidential election by over 4,000,000 votes, including a landslide victory in the Electoral College, with 312 votes to 226. It was a landslide victory and a lopsided lead that enabled Trump to return to the White House. Trump achieved significant gains among the electorate, winning in more than one state that had traditionally voted for the Democratic Party, while winning over segments of Black, Latino, Arab, and Muslim voters, who had turned their backs on the Democratic Party.
On his inauguration day for a second term as US President, Trump annulled the Executive Order no. 14115, issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, on Feb. 1, 2024. Under this order, he imposed sanctions on right-wing Israeli settler entities and individuals for committing acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The move came less than a week after the Biden administration extended the state of emergency in the West Bank for an additional year, stating that ‘the situation in the West Bank, particularly with regard to the escalating level of violence by extremist settlers, forced evictions of Palestinian residents from their villages, and destruction of property, has reached unacceptable levels.’
His move has serious implications, as do his decisions to appoint pro-settlement Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel. Noting that Huckabee and his wife visited the Shiloh Settlement last week and met with the head of the settlement council, Yisrael Gantz. During their visit they saw the 5 red cows, he declared that their presence in the country is a divine sign of the imminent construction of the ‘Third Temple’ on the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the coming of the Messiah. In addition to the nomination of Republican Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who speaks of Israel’s ‘biblical right’ to the West Bank and describes the vote against Israel in the UN as evidence of being ‘anti-Semitic corrupted organization.’
Let’s see, what the entities targeted by Trump s sanctions are, which included individuals, who practiced organized terrorism against Palestinians, targeting their lives and property, on top of which is the ‘Hashomer Yosh’ organization that the previous US Administration announced sanctions against it on last August, due to its role in terrorist activities committed by settler groups against the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank’s Governorates. The sanctions came against the backof a terrorist attack by settlers on the Jeet village, Qalqilya, carried out by members of the ‘Hashomer Yosh’ Group, along with other settlers, in which they burned homes and shot dead a Palestinian.
Throughout its years of operation, the organization has played a dangerous role in the confiscation of Palestinian lands and the expulsion of Palestinians from them, especially since it focuses on pastoral and agricultural areas, and during the brutal Israeli war on the Gaza, the organization s activity has escalated, and supported by the government and various political parties in Israel.
The annual budget of this terrorist organization is estimated at millions of shekels, 60% of which comes from the Israeli general budget, and from domestic and foreign donations, including the United States, where the exact amount of those donations and their disbursements aren’t reported. According to Peace Now sources, the organization receives annual funding of between NIS 3 - 4 million, which is used to pay salaries, finance mass attacks on Palestinians, and provide assistance from the New York-based Central Fund for Israel.
This is in addition to annual allocations from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee, and other ministries. This organization is the main driver of settler violence. Its terrorist file records that, through a group of settlers wearing vests bearing its logo, it displaced all 250 residents of Khirbet Zanuta, a Palestinian village in the southern Hebron Hills.
The U.S. Treasury Dept. announced sanctions against ‘Amana’ organization along with its subsidiary, Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd’, for financing settlement activities and individuals involved in violence against Palestinian civilians. The Dept. asserted at the time that Amana was expanding settlement construction in a manner that threatened peace and stability in the region. Under these sanctions, the assets of the organization and its subsidiary in the United States were frozen. The organization is headed by Ze ev Hever – Zambish - through its subsidiaries, Bar Amana Construction and Real Estate Development and Homeland co.
Its activities include encouraging the absorption of settlers and planning and establishing new settlements and outposts. Its assets amount to hundreds of millions of shekels, yet its impact on life in Israel is vast. Amana operates illegally and plays a major role in establishing illegal agricultural outposts and seizing Palestinian-owned land using forged documents. Zambish is known for seizing Palestinian land over the years using forged documents executed by the ‘Homeland’ company he manages. In the 1980s, he was a member of the ‘Jewish Secret Organization’ terrorist organization and participated in terrorist acts targeting Palestinian mayors, as he was sentenced to prison at the time.

The sanctions also included several individuals, such as Yinon Levy and David Chai Chasdai, who were convicted in Israel of committing systematic violence against Palestinians over many years, as well as several settlers who US officials determined had established illegal outposts´-or-settlements on Palestinian land and carried out numerous attacks on Palestinians, such as the Safs Farm, established by settler Zvi Bar-Yosef, who was responsible for the most brutal attacks carried out by terrorist settlers on Palestinian civilians, and others such as Moshe Sharvit, Baruch Marzel, Isaac Mani, and other terrorists.
Israel s ruling far-right and fascist government celebrated President Trump s decision to lift the sanctions on the targeted settlers. National Security Minister Ben-Gvir welcomed the US president s decision, calling it ‘correcting an injustice that has lasted for years.’ Finance Minister and Minister of Settlements in the Army Ministry, Smotrich, praised Trump s decision, saying the sanctions were ‘blatant interference in Israel s internal affairs and harm the principles of democracy and the mutual relationship between the two friendly countries.’
The US president s move also encouraged Army Minister, Katz, who quickly cancelled all administrative detention orders issued against settlers who carried out terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and rejected a request from the Shin Bet security service to issue an administrative detention order against a settler suspected of involvement in terrorist crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank. Katz explained to the agency that he preferred ‘religious oversight’ over security prosecution, a move that raised eyebrows and astonishment given the minister s knowledge of the true relationship between a large number of settlement rabbis and those suspected of involvement in terrorist crimes against Palestinians.
The repercussions of the policy of lifting sanctions on settlement and terrorist entities and terrorist settlers are clear. Many human rights organizations and Israeli and foreign media outlets considered it a license for these entities and settlers to continue their terrorism against Palestinian civilians, not only in Area C, but also in most areas of the West Bank. Indeed, as soon as the US president finished lifting these sanctions, Jewish terrorist groups operating in the settlements sprang into action.
The British newspaper ‘The Times’ reported at the time that a group of masked men arrived as US President Donald Trump finished his inaugural address and gathered along St. 55 in the West Bank, between the villages of Al-Funduq and Jinsafut. They were seen burning excavators and trucks and smashing windows. The incident was terrifying, after the group brought a gas cylinder and set fire to a nearby garden center.
Settlers feel increasingly impunity and are increasingly emboldened by the belief that the most powerful man in the world is behind them. The Guardian also reported similar scenes in the village of Sinjil, where masked settlers attacked homes and threw Molotov cocktails. Settler terrorist attacks also targeted at least six other villages across the West Bank during those dark days. Settlers organize their attacks via WhatsApp chat groups, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Telegraph, for its part, confirmed that photos, videos, and police reports show that the rate of attacks by Israeli settlers near the West Bank village of Susya has increased significantly since early Nov, after the election of Donald Trump as US president. The first 3 months of this year witnessed 45 serious attacks on the village, an average of one every other day, in various forms of violence, ranging from intimidation to prevent Palestinians from accessing their traditional grazing lands, to confrontations around their homes and even inside them at night.
The occupation soldiers participate with the settlers in their brutal acts. Last April, Israeli forces executed in cold blood the Palestinian child Moh’d Rabie, 14, who held American citizenship, in the Turmus Ayya town, under the pretext that he had shot a “terrorist” who had endangered civilians i.e. (settlers). In the southern West Bank, settlers’ raids on citizens’ homes in the Masafer Yatta area continued unabated. Noting the first months of 2025 witnessed a significant increase in acts of violence and terrorism against Palestinians - an increase estimated at about 30% compared to the same period last year.
Jewish terrorism spread to many Palestinian towns and villages in various governorates, attacking citizens, their property, and their homes, as well as attacking Palestinian pastoral communities, their pastures, livestock, and even their water tanks. The bearers of the torches of terrorism were the same entities and individuals from whom US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions.
On another level, but within the same context, Minister Smotrich said last week, during his participation in the “settlement conference” organized by the right-wing newspaper “Makor Rishon” in the Ofra settlement, that the government will approve construction plans in the E1 area in the coming months, bringing in a million new settlers. He promoted the annexation and settlement plans, claiming that if Israel approves the annexation and US President Donald Trump recognizes it, and then a Democratic president comes along and revokes the recognition, it will be worthless.
He also claimed that the government, which has approved tens of thousands of housing units, expanded the demolition of Palestinian homes and facilities, and has put on its agenda the expansion of bypass roads and internal roads to connect settlement outposts and pastoral farms to existing settlements, allocating the necessary budgets for this amounting to approximately -$-3 billion. This is in addition to planning to increase the number of industrial zones to nearly 60 industrial zones controlling about 45,000 dunams of Palestinian land, will move forward with this policy amid expectations of support from the new US Administration for this policy.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Forcing Jerusalemite, Mah’d Alian to demolish his home, he is living in with his wife and daughters for 8 years in the Issawiya town, to avoid paying heavy fines if the occupation municipality demolished the house with its machinery.
- Attacking a historical landmark adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque’s wall, specifically the Shihabi family courtyard adjacent to Bab Al-Hadid. It is one of the historical landmarks of architectural and religious importance in the Old City. The Jerusalem Governorate expressed its condemnation of this attack, and said that ‘the frantic attempts to expand the entrance to the courtyard and transform it into a so-called ‘Jewish prayer place’ are taking place, with -dir-ect support from the occupation municipality, and that ‘these attacks come within a clear Judaization project targeting the Holy Basin and the Islamic endowment buildings surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque.’
Hebron:
- Causing panic among the children and women, damaging crops and breaking a number of fruit trees, and grazing sheep on citizens lands in the Sha b al-Batm village.
- Erecting a fence around large areas of citizens lands in Al-Masafir in Khirbet Um al-Khair and prevented citizens from accessing the area.
- Uprooting about 30 olive and almond trees and released their livestock onto the agricultural crops in l-Halawa and Rakeez areas in Al-Masafir.
- Assaulting citizens in the Tel Rumeida Neighborhood near the so-called ‘Ramat Yishai’ settlement, and threw stones at them and cursed them with obscene language. Chasing shepherds and forced them to leave their lands in Tel Ma in, settlers.
- Raiding the Khallet al-Daba village, forcibly evicting its residents, and demolishing 11 homes, 7 caves, 5 pens, 6 wells, and 2 huts. They also destroyed water tanks, smashed solar panels, and swept away the electricity grid. Noting that the village s residents are about 120 individuals and distributed among 14 families, all belonging to the Dababseh family, were left homeless.
Bethlehem:
- Storming the Tekoa wilderness amid provocations and violence, and prevented shepherds from approaching the area.
- Changing a plan to seize lands from the Husan town. The occupation authorities had issued a detailed plan that includes changing the allocation of lands in the ‘Wadi al-Hamra’ site in the town, according to plans no. 1/1/3/10/2/436, and 426/7/A/2/2 with the aim of building settlement housing units, public buildings, and issuing building and occupancy permits in the ‘Beitar Illit’ settlement.
Ramallah:
- Storming the Wadi al-Limon area in the Abood village from the -dir-ection of the ‘Beit Aryeh’ settlement and attempted to destroy a water tank that a number of villages and towns north of Ramallah depend on, especially in the summer.
- Storming the plain area in the Turmus-Aya town, placed the flags of the occupying state on buildings under construction, and set up a number of tents.
- Burning agricultural rooms near the al-Mughayyir village in the ‘Sa Plain’ area between the villages of al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah. Settlers constantly attack the plain area, with a steady escalation of attacks, especially after they recently established a settlement outpost in the area. Others cut down dozens of olive trees between the villages of al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah after storming the agricultural plains between the two villages and cutting down more than 100 olive trees there.
Nablus:
- Seizing equipment and machinery while working on rehabilitating and paving a road between the villages of Asira al-Qibliya and Amatin, and detained a number of workers and supervisors of the road rehabilitation and paving project.
- Attacking citizens vehicles and threw stones at them on the road near the ‘Yitzhar’ settlement, while others stormed a water spring on the outskirts of the Beit Furik town.
- Injuring a 27-year-old citizen in the Duma village, after being stabbed by settlers. Others set fire to agricultural lands and burned olive trees in the western area of the village.
- Attacking a number of citizens after they attacked the Al-Khallah area in the in the Einabus village, and assaulted a number of citizens, including the head of the council, and fired live bullets and tear gas bombs against them.
- Burning agricultural lands planted with wheat in the Burqa village’s plain, which led to the destruction of the crop.
Salfeet:
- Vandalizing an agricultural room in the Al-Ras area near the Qarawat Bani Hassan village, and tampered with its contents, causing material damage.
- Assaulting a farmer in the Frkha village, while he was passing near the ‘Badran’ spring, an area that witnesses youth activities aimed at protecting natural springs from the expansion of the new settlement outpost established in that area.
- Attacking citizens while they were working on their agricultural lands, injuring some of them in the Deir Ballut town. It is noteworthy that the settlers of the pastoral settlement outpost in the area continue their provocations and attacks against farmers and shepherds, in an attempt to prevent them from reaching their lands. This attack comes less than 24 hours after a similar attack carried out by settlers from a settlement outpost established on the lands of the village of Farkha, targeting citizen Lenin Afana while he was working on the farmers land.
Qalqilia:
- Demolishing a house in the northwestern area of Al-Funduq village, owned by citizen Firas Talal Balih, under the pretext of building without a permit. They also issued a decision to seize lands located behind the racist annexation wall south of Qalqilia Governorate, with an area of about one dunam, and 965m2 from the villages of Saniriya and Masha, south of Qalqilia, in preparation for the construction of 6 new settlement units for the ‘Shaarei Tikva’ settlement outpost.
Jenin:
- Leveling land in the Ya bad plain, south of Jenin. This area is surrounded by the settlements of Hermesh and Dotan. The total area of the plain is estimated at 20,000 dunams. The Israeli occupation authorities have designated it a ‘closed military zone,’ prohibiting citizens from entering since Oct. 7, 2023.
Jordan Valley:
- Closing the road leading to the Arab al-Malihat community and prevented vehicles from entering the community. They conducted a census of citizens homes in the community, targeting and preventing citizens from moving.
- Cutting off and stole a 4-km water pipeline that supplies several communities in the northern Jordan Valley. Settlers also released their cows to graze on citizens rain-fed crops, which were approaching harvest time. They also destroyed solar panels and water pumps in Khirbet al-Deir in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Setting up new tents near citizens tents in the Ghawal al-Farisiya spring. Others attacked the property of a family near the al-Hamra military checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley and stole scores of cows belonging to the same family.
- Demolishing residential facilities, livestock pens for citizens in Khirbet al-Deir in the northern Jordan Valley. The demolition operations also included a room and a solar cell assembly that supplies the residential complex.
- Storming the al-Ma arijat complex and attempted to burn down a house belonging to one of the complex s residents. They also poured flammable materials on an agricultural tractor with the aim of burning it, before the residents intervened and were able to remove them.

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