LONDON: Two Israeli settlers sanctioned by the UK this week have taken part in efforts to displace Palestinian families from the West Bank village of Mughayyir Al-Deir.
Neria Ben Pazi and Zohar Sabah were both spotted visiting an illegal outpost set up on Sunday near the community of around 150 Bedouins, The Guardian reported.
Ben Pazi’s organization Neria’s Farm was sanctioned on Tuesday after the UK suspended talks with the Israeli government on a free trade agreement over its blockade of Gaza and the extremist language of several of the country’s ministers.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned the actions of the Israeli government and suggestions its military would “purify Gaza,” saying it “has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions.”
Ben Pazi was sanctioned in 2024 for his role in displacing other Bedouin families in the West Bank.
According to the US State Department, “Ben Pazi has expelled Palestinian shepherds from hundreds of acres of land. In August 2023, settlers including Ben Pazi attacked Palestinians near the village of Wadi as-Seeq,” The Guardian reported.
His violence in the area even led to Israel’s regional military commander, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, banning Ben Pazi from entering the West Bank in 2023.
Sabah was sanctioned by the UK for “threatening, perpetrating, promoting and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals.”
This included his role in an attack on a Palestinian school, which injured teachers and pupils and hospitalized the principal.
The settler outpost in question, less than 100 meters from Palestinian homes at Mughayyir Al-Deir, was also visited by Zvi Sukkot, an MP with the Religious Zionist Party, who caused outrage last week when he told Israel’s Channel 12: “Everyone has got used to the idea that we can kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody in the world cares.”
Ahmad Sulaiman, a 58-year-old father of 11 children who lives close to the settler outpost, said intimidation had started against his community.
“I haven’t slept since they came, and the children are terrified,” he told The Guardian. “The settlers told me: ‘This is our home.’” He added: “There is nothing I can do. They have guns and other weapons.”
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says around 1,200 Palestinians have been forced from their homes in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023.
Yonatan Mizrachi, co-director of Settlement Watch, said the boldness of settlers despite international sanctions “shows the settlers’ lack of fear, and the understanding that they can do what they like.”
B’Tselem spokesperson Shai Parnes said: “Israeli policy to take as much land as possible hasn’t changed. But what has been changing under this current government is the total impunity for soldiers and settlers.”
