JERICHO, July 1, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli colonists established a new colonial outpost in the Al-Mu’arrajat area northwest of Jericho, marking the fifth such outpost along the Al-Mu’arrajat road, according to local sources and rights monitors.
Hassan Malihat, the general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, told WAFA that colonists set up a tent, brought in water tanks and a generator in recent days, and proceeded to fence off the area in preparation for turning it into a permanent outpost, as part of a pattern repeated across the occupied West Bank.
Eyewitnesses from the nearby Arab al-Malihat Bedouin community, north of Jericho, confirmed that the outpost was set up under the protection of Israeli soldiers. colonists were seen bringing excavation equipment and metal fencing to the site as they began groundwork.
He warned that this new outpost is part of a “comprehensive colonial plan” aimed at seizing a strategically significant corridor that separates Jericho from central parts of the West Bank and restricts movement between the northern and southern regions.
Witnesses described the move as a form of “gradual Nakba,” carried out without bulldozers or mass expulsion, but no less dangerous than forced displacement. They cautioned that the larger goal appears to be the dismantling of Bedouin communities and driving them toward forced displacement.
“Outposts begin with a single tent and soon develop into full-fledged settlements,” the organization stated, adding that colonists act as “unofficial arms of the Israeli government” with full backing from the Israeli military.
Al-Baydar stressed that the expansion cannot be separated from the broader Israeli policy to empty Area C of its Palestinian population, particularly Bedouins, whose structures are regularly demolished and who are denied access to water and energy, while colonists receive wide-ranging support.
Residents of the area expressed outrage over what they described as the international community’s silence and the Palestinian authorities’ inability to halt the expansion. “They’re not shooting at us or loading us onto trucks—they’re just making life impossible until we leave,” said a local elder from the Arab al-Malihat Bedouin community. “This is another form of ethnic cleansing.”
Al-Baydar concluded its statement by urging serious international action, including ongoing on-the-ground monitoring and daily documentation of violations. The organization described what is happening in Al-Mu’arrajat as a “slow-motion massacre taking place away from cameras” and called on human rights groups to treat it as an active case of creeping ethnic cleansing.
T.R.
