Community Resilience in a Coercive Environment: The Threat Posed by Israeli Shepherding Outposts to Palestinian Rights and Communities The State of Israel’s widely recognized failure to abide by duties incumbent upon it as an occupying power under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), namely, to protect the rights of the local population and not to transfer its own civilian population into occupied territory, is only intensifying in the 55th year of the military occupation of the Palestinian territory. There are currently some 132 settlements and 144 outposts spread across the West Bank in contravention of IHL. Today, Israeli shepherding outposts are a leading contributor to the dispossession of Palestinians from their land and a central source of settler violence, especially in Area C. These outposts are quickly becoming known as the new and most ‘efficient’ method for seizing maximum land while using a minimum of Israeli civilians, and are a major contributor to the erosion of community resilience among the Palestinian villages and towns under threat. This relatively recent trend coincides with a well-documented increase in home and property demolitions throughout the West Bank, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and rapidly intensifying settler violence. 

Through the proposed action, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) and its partner Yesh Din (YD) will utilize their intimate familiarity with the interrelated elements contributing to the coercive environment in the West Bank, and especially Area C. YD will contribute its recent research on Israeli shepherding outposts, together with its expertise on settler violence, the failure of Israeli law enforcement, lack of accountability of the Israeli military, and the Government of Israel’s (GOI) promotion of land takeover through policy and practice. PHRI will contribute its expertise on health in the oPt and other interrelated rights to examine the ways in which this coercive environment impacts the health of the affected Palestinian communities. This research will employ a broad approach to health, looking beyond the availability of basic services, and examining social determinants of health. 

The project will conduct research activities focusing on a specific area of the West Bank which is under particular threat by Israeli shepherding outposts. The targeted area consists of 5-10 Palestinian shepherding communities (including Ras a Tin and Dar Faza’a) with a total of some 300 residents, as well as residents from five Palestinian villages who reside - or whose lands are - on the outskirts of the villages and are therefore impacted by Israeli shepherding outposts. These villages consist of approximately 15,000 residents in total and include Taybe and Deir Jarir. These communities and villages are all in close proximity to a group of 7-10 Israeli shepherding outposts, such as Shomrei Ha’emek and Malachei Hashalom.

The project’s research and documentation of rights violations and their impact on community resilience will form the basis for further activities that will seek to push back against these destructive practices and protect Palestinian communities from harm. This will include the provision of legal aid to Palestinian individuals and communities, including principled legal actions to the High Court, conducting rights-awareness sessions and workshops on community resilience, and international advocacy interventions to raise awareness of this worrying trend. The project will thus provide much-needed protection services to the most vulnerable communities while pushing back against the underlying policies and practices that deny Palestinian rights and protection.

This project was recently approved for partial funding by the European Union. The Humanitarian Fund’s generous support would enable full implementation of the project’s core research activities and expansion of its legal aid, rights-awareness workshops, and international advocacy activities.