Far from concrete blocks and construction, in the midst of the hills of the West Bank, the Israeli settlement process is taking on a new form: through cows and pastureland.

What has come to be known as “pastoral settlement” is emerging as a potent tool for seizing Palestinian land. Spearheaded by extremist settler groups and shielded by the Israeli occupation forces, grazing has become a de facto policy that pushes Palestinians off their lands without official decrees or formal expropriation orders.

Pastoral settlement: No maps, no mandates

The term “pastoral settlement” has gained traction in recent years to describe a new strategy of colonization. It revolves around the establishment of small-scale cattle and livestock farms, often run by settlers from radical messianic religious movements, Jewish groups that view settlement and the imposition of control over the so-called "Promised Land" as a divine obligation. These farms function as tools for asserting territorial dominance on the ground.

According to a report by the Israeli organization Kerem Navot, by the end of 2023, there were 77 such illegal “pastoral outposts” across the West Bank, particularly concentrated in the Jordan Valley and the southern areas of Nablus.

Collectively, these outposts exert control over approximately 240,000 dunams (dunam = 1000 square meters) of Palestinian land, nearly 10% of the West Bank. This territorial control is established not through formal expropriation orders or government-approved settlement units, but through continuous grazing, where the cattle are accompanied by armed settlers.

Cows as instruments of colonization

In some of these settler ranches, cattle are systematically used to delineate zones of influence. Any area where cows graze regularly is treated as “inhabited land” under Israeli settler control. Meanwhile, Palestinians are barred from accessing these areas or even approaching them, often facing violent attacks or forcible removal by armed settlers.

Local and international human rights groups have documented dozens of cases in which Palestinian farmers were denied access to land they have cultivated for generations, solely due to the presence of settler-released cattle.

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Data from B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, shows that more than 18 Palestinian Bedouin communities have been displaced in recent years due to persistent pressure from pastoral settler outposts. Families have been expelled from their homes, livestock seized, and access to water and grazing routes severely restricted.

In the northern Jordan Valley alone, over 1,000 Palestinians have been forced off their land since 2020 amid relentless Israeli assaults and systematic denial of basic means of livelihood.

Land without decrees or borders

Israeli researchers point out that pastoral settlement is not merely the work of isolated settler groups but enjoys implicit backing from senior officers in the Israeli occupation forces, particularly within regional commands in the West Bank. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, no less than 20% of battalion and field unit commanders in the West Bank are settlers themselves, and some maintain direct ties to settler organizations involved in establishing pastoral farms.

Human rights organizations say this helps explain the Israeli army’s consistent failure to intervene in dozens of documented incidents in which settlers directly assaulted Palestinians, particularly in areas adjacent to these ranches.

One of the defining features of pastoral settlement is that it operates without any official decision from the Israeli government or approved construction plans, making it “more flexible and effective on the ground.” All a settler needs is a tent, a handful of cattle or sheep, and a weapon to enforce control over a grazing zone.

Israeli authorities often turn a blind eye to these activities and, in some cases, even provide tacit support, such as connecting these illegal farms to water sources or electricity networks despite their illegality even under Israeli law.

A surge in attacks around pastoral farms

In recent years, Palestinian human rights organizations have documented thousands of attacks carried out by settlers across various parts of the West Bank, including crop destruction, forced expulsions of farmers, and arson targeting Palestinian property. A significant portion of these attacks occurred near pastoral settler farms.

According to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), hundreds of Palestinians have been displaced from their communities in the West Bank due to settler-linked violence, most of it occurring in areas where cattle are used as a means of territorial control. As these ranches continue to spread, Israeli assaults have surged across the West Bank in 2025, particularly in areas bordering these farms.

Even by the Israeli occupation forces' own records, settlers carried out 139 attacks on Palestinians in just the first two months of this year. If the current pace continues, the total may exceed 800 attacks annually. A large share of these assaults is concentrated in the Jordan Valley and southern Nablus, where pastoral farms are proliferating.

Pastoral settlement expands, violations escalate

The spread of pastoral settler farms coincides with a noticeable surge in Israeli attacks on Palestinians, particularly in rural and agricultural areas targeted for annexation.

According to a report by the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Commission, 1,593 violations were documented in the West Bank during January 2024 alone, committed by both Israeli occupation forces and settlers. These included 291 attacks in al-Khalil, 203 in occupied al-Quds, and 200 in Nablus, all key areas where pastoral settlement projects are concentrated.

This systematic escalation reflects a field policy aimed at depopulating the land and securing a “pastoral settler crescent” at the expense of the Palestinian people and land without requiring official decisions or the construction of permanent settlements.

Settlement in the West Bank is no longer confined to concrete blocs and urban planning schemes. It now creeps in through new patterns such as pastoral settlement, which silently and effectively reshapes the geography. As this phenomenon expands, Palestinian land becomes an open arena for exclusion and annexation policies, amid the absence of any meaningful international accountability and growing hardship for Palestinian farmers who lose their land season after season.

Translated by Mohammad al-Jaber