Israeli Soldiers Were Sent to Harass a Bedouin Community That's Halfway to Expulsion - Opinion
A masked soldier and an unmasked female soldier forcing their way into a Bedouin community's residential compound in the West Bank is not the kind of incident that makes the news. Not even when the soldiers had been fed the "hilltop youth" lie that sheep were stolen from a nearby settler outpost and they are looking for them. Not even when they break into the tin shacks "without even knocking on the door," as one person told me, as they did last Thursday evening in a small community of the Kaabneh tribe in Ma'aleh Wadi Qelt.
One side effect of the daily terror from the hilltop youth – the radical, often violent youth from illegal settler outposts – is that the threshold of interest, shock and disgust keeps rising. If there are no dead or wounded, and there aren't any dramatic photos of burning fields, then the incident doesn't count. But this column reserves the right to be shocked and disgusted even by a pair of soldiers armed with long rifles, sent by some army commander in the hills to terrorize a civilian community, children and adults. That's right, this is routine – and it's disgusting.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit, in its response, doesn't refer to the "stolen sheep" tale and presents the incident as follows: After receiving information about a suspect who entered private Israeli territory, IDF forces were called up to conduct searches in the area. There is no known claim of a home invasion. A face covering requires approval according to orders, and such approval was granted (but why not for the female soldier? The IDF Spokesperson's Unit did not provide an answer).
And here's what we know: On June 18, at approximately 6 P.M., a military jeep descended from Route 1, turned onto a dirt road, and stopped at the entrance to the compound of tin shacks, to the sound of several dogs barking. Until about a year and a half ago, this community had a modest herd of 20 goats. "Kosher Jews" stole them, as is the local custom, which is well documented in recent years.
"Some of us work in date plantations in Jericho, and one brother works in the Mishor Adumim Israeli industrial zone," one member of the Kaabneh family told me. "We leave around 5 A.M." He said that the soldier who arrived to the compound claimed that that same morning, a teenager from the compound had stolen sheep from one of the Jewish outposts that have sprung up like poisonous mushrooms around the established Bedouin communities. He further claimed that the teenager had "fled."
The family member replied to the soldier: "If they were stolen in the morning, why are you only coming now? And who fled? He went to work." The soldiers entered the tin shacks, presumably to look for sheep. It all lasted only 15 minutes, enough to scare the children. The soldier warned, "Next time I'll destroy your home." The threat did not surprise the community members. They told me that the soldiers and those who sent them want the Bedouin to leave, just like seven out of 16 families who used to live in the community and could no longer bear the incessant harassment.
Can this "home search" be separated from the ongoing harassment, intimidation and attacks against about a dozen Bedouin communities in the area between Khan al-Ahmar and the upper entrance to Wadi Qelt? A total of 67 attacks and harassmentincidents from January 2026 through last week are documented on the website of the volunteer-run group Friends of Jahalin (this is the name of one of the Bedouin tribes whose decades-long presence in the area is threatened by settlers and Israeli eviction policies); 11 of them were against the same Kaabneh community in upper Wadi Qelt.
On January 20, an ATV from a nearby outpost drove wildly toward a group of children from the community. They ran away, and one fell and suffered a head injury. On January 23 at 1 A.M., Jewish teenagers played loud music near the homes of the Bedouin and directed blinding lights at them. On January 29, unknown individuals again cut the pipes supplying water to the community.
On February 5, between 2 A.M. and 3 A.M., teenagers from the outpost again blasted music from loudspeakers and blinded those who woke up with strong beams of light. On February 11 at 1:30 A.M., two young men with sidelocks entered the shack where volunteers were sleeping – the presence of the volunteers can prevent, or at least document, harassment. Three mobile phones were stolen, and the air was let out of their car tires.
On February 25, unknown individuals again cut the water pipes, and it happened again on March 9. Three days later, at 1:30 A.M., residents of the outpost on the hill above the community directed a powerful floodlight and a laser beam at the tin shacks. On May 6, "settlers, some in IDF uniforms and some masked,"as one of the volunteers wrote, came down the dirt road on ATVs and informed the teenagers walking on it that it would now be closed to them. This is the only access road to the community, since the settlers and their violent tacticshave prevented community members from moving freely in the area like they used to.
On May 19 at 1:30 A.M., six Jewish youths sat down near the Kaabneh compound and shouted curses and threats for about 20 minutes. Afterward, they hovered in between the homes, and one of them attacked one of the volunteers with pepper spray. On May 25 the water pipe was damaged again. On May 31, Israeli shepherds from one of the nearby outposts approached the community compound with their herd, played music and danced. They also blocked the residents' only access road.
According to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, the soldiers' activity on June 18 was for security purposes only. But this column was not born yesterday. The IDF was and remains the defense army for the settlement enterprise: in its official, respectable manifestations of devouring Palestinian land since 1967 and in its most pogrom-like and psychotic manifestations, whose declared goal is to empty the land of Palestinians, while settlers constantly and openly use soldiers as an efficient and obedient tool.