The people of al-Muarrajat remain undeterred, even after a recent and disturbing settler threat on their lives.
Mughayer al-Deir, occupied West Bank – On January 23, the villagers of al-Muarrajat woke up to find three child-size burial mounds near their children’s school. The message was clear: Leave, or die.
According to Alia Mleihat, 27, from the village, the fake graves sent “intense fear, anxiety and terror” through the village – a group of 30 shepherding families, all related.
“The [graves] the settlers put in al-Muarrajat are a direct threat from these monsters [that] could be implemented today or tomorrow because whoever made them goes past the village every day,” she said.
But even after this latest settler threat on their lives, the people of al-Muarrajat are undeterred.
“Those who did this must be held accountable … we will remain steadfast on our land until death, this doesn’t frighten us,” added Alia.
“On the contrary, it calls on us to be even more steadfast.”
Word quickly reached the villagers’ cousins in Mughayer al-Deir – also from the Mleihat clan – of what had happened. Though chilling, it was no surprise, considering what they were experiencing as well.
But, four months later, the people of al-Muarrajat and Mughayer al-Deir remain on their land.
According to leaders and members of these shepherding communities, they stayed despite dangers and restrictions to preserve their Bedouin way of life – and because they have nowhere else to go.
Ibrahim Mleihat, 58, known as “Abu Muhammad”, is the mukhtar, or chosen leader, of Mughayer al-Deir, about a 90-minute walk away from al-Muaarrajat on a hill with the Allon Road on one side and surrounded elsewhere by encroaching settlers, including the settlement of Ma’ale Mikhmas and the outpost of Mitzpe Dani.
With rain and hail pounding the top of their family tent, Abu Muhammad had his grandson serve coffee as the older man spoke to media, a photo of his father perched on the wall. Much of the village outside was being reduced to mud.
Abu Muhammad described how things began to deteriorate in Mughayer al-Deir three years ago as settler outposts first appeared during the prior Israeli government headed by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.
The last of the Bedouins
As happened in Bedouin villages elsewhere in Area C – land under Israeli military control earmarked to be negotiated in future peace talks – the harassment the Mleihat villagers had experienced for years escalated after October 7.
Settlers began surveilling them with drones, using loudspeakers to shout profanities about Islam or to amplify sounds to scare away their flocks, said Abu Muhammad and his son, Ibrahim Mleihat, 37. Armed settlers attacked them and stopped them from grazing their sheep on land they had used for years, penning them in.
In Mughayer al-Deir, organised settler attacks reached a peak on December 28, said Abu Muhammad and Ibrahim. That morning, dozens of armed settlers in military uniforms and covered faces came to the village, invading homes and telling Abu Muhammad the villagers had to leave.
“This is our area,” they declared.
“We will never leave,” Abu Muhammad replied.
When some villagers defended themselves in their homes, settlers shot at the ground towards Abu Muhammad and his sons. As the situation escalated, he called the police.
“Don’t bother calling police,” a security guard from a nearby illegal settlement – an alleged ringleader of the attacks – told Abu Muhammad. “We are the government.”
When the police arrived, the settlers claimed it was the Bedouins who had attacked them. Abu Muhammad and five of his sons were arrested.
“Why are you arresting us while they’re attacking us in our homes?” asked a cuffed Abu Muhammad.
They were taken to Ofer Prison, where they were beaten and kept in cold cells with no water or food for long stretches, they said.
It took 10 days to be released, despite there being no evidence against them, and each of them had to pay 10,000 shekels (about $2,750) for their release plus 10,000 shekels for a lawyer. They also had to sign pledges to pay 50,000-shekel (about $13,730) fines if they “attempted violence” towards the settlers again.
The material and psychological state of the Mughayer al-Deir and al-Muarrajat families is deteriorating as their isolation continues, more than four months into the war.
Threatened with confiscations by settlers and authorities if they graze their sheep on traditional lands, the villagers only leave their land to get water from down the road or to buy fodder, Abu Muhammad says.
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