Ethnic cleaning of Bedouin community of Mughayyir Al-Dir

Maghayer Al-Dir, also known as Mughayyir al-Deir, is a small Bedouin Palestinian shepherding village in Area C located in the central West Bank, east of Ramallah, east of the Allon Road and is surrounded by Israeli settlements such as Ma'ale Mikhmas and the outpost Mitzpe Dani.

It was one of the last Palestinian community remaining in the area before its displacement. Masked and unmasked settlers inflicted violence, creating a climate of terror and dehumanization. Israeli settlers used psychological Warfare tolding Palestinians to come toward them while shooting, then beat and humiliated them once they complied.

After this forced displacement, no residents remain in the area between Ramallah and Jericho, except for two other communities: M’arajat and Ras Al-Auja.

The entire village was depopulated, 25 houses lost, approximately 150 residents displaced. For many, this was their second displacement (originally expelled in 1948 from Be’er Sheva area).

Timeline of the ethnic cleansing

On May 18, 2025, Israeli settlers establish an illegal outpost (just a basic shelter and sheep pen) within 100 meters of a Palestinian home — a new, more aggressive tactic.

On May 21–22, 2025: Confrontations escalate. Settlers violently attack residents and activists. The entire village flees.

On May 23, 2025: Maghayer Al-Dir is fully emptied. All 25 families (~150 people) are displaced.Villagers lost homes, sheep, donkeys, and personal possessions. Maghayer Al-Dir is now completely depopulated : the residents fled to Wadi Al-Siq, itself previously emptied in October 2023.

Settlers began provocations the same day residents were dismantling the last homes, signaling a deliberate attempt to claim abandoned land.

The Settler Violence & Theft:

• Settlers attacked villagers and activists with clubs, rifles, and stones and kicks while victims lay on the ground
• Phones, wallets, keys, cameras, and bags were stolen or smashed.
• At least three settlers fired guns, including M16s and pistols.
• Settlers arrived on trucks and ATVs, in a clearly coordinated escalation.
• Israeli army briefly intervened but then left, allowing settlers to resume attacks.
• One settler was injured and lost consciousness; another fired into the air with a pistol.
• More than 25 armed settlers participated in the attack.
• The Livestock was theft (e.g., sheep and donkeys) was used as a tactic to claim land.
• Video evidence shows a settler boasting: “Thank God we’ve driven everyone out … Here too there will be Jews.”
• Survivors were “hunted” across a valley by Israeli settlers with pistols, rifles, and batons.
• Settlers used drones to track fleeing people.

Victims:

10 people were hospitalized, including:

• A 14-year-old Palestinian boy (Omar), beaten with a club and left bleeding for over half an hour.
• 8 other Palestinians
• 1 Israeli activist and photographer (Avishay Mohar) who was severely beaten and robbed

Israeli authorities role

• The MK Zvi Sukkot came on the ground, just before the attack to support the settlers.
• The Israeli army arrived late, only after significant violence had occurred.
• The Israeli Civil Administration had issued a stop-work order for the outpost on May 18 — it was ignored.
• Settlers claim impunity: “We’re the government,” one resident was told. -Sanctioned Settlers Present : Neria Ben Pazi and Zohar Sabah, both under UK sanctions, were involved in the broader campaign, though not directly in the physical attack described. British sanctions were imposed on settler leader Neria Ben Pazi, who was seen patrolling the village before the attack.
• Despite early police and army presence, no meaningful protection was provided to Palestinians. “This is not done by crazy settlers. It’s a state project.”
• Evidence of systematic coordination: phone calls to bring more settlers; deliberate weaponization of settler narratives to justify violence.

Wider Context:

• Since October 2023, over 60 Palestinian shepherding communities have been displaced in the West Bank.
• At least 14 illegal settler outposts have been built on or near these ruins.
• Settlers have seized over 786,000 dunams (~14% of the West Bank) via herding outposts.
• Outposts are part of a state-backed settler strategy to control and annex Area C.

According to of Hasan Mleihat, spokesperson for the al-Baidar organization for the defense of Bedouin rights in Palestine

Israeli settlers have displaced 62 out of the 212 Bedouin communities in the West Bank since October 2023. These include 12,000 out of the roughly 400,000 West Bank Palestinian Bedouins. “It is a wholesale ethnic cleansing campaign of exclusively Bedouin communities, which has been happening far away from the media’s attention”.

8 families from Mughayyir al-Deir moved to the industrial zone of Beitunia, south of Ramallah. The rural Bedouin tents and sheep barracks add an almost surreal contrast to the polluted industrial and urban landscape.

“There is nowhere to graze here; we are in the city, and not in the best part of it. We’re located between a dumpsite, a factory, and a cemetery,” said Ahmad. “We used to have a life, and it has come to an end. I can’t be a shepherd anymore, and I don’t know how we will live our lives from now on.”

A part of the Maghayer al-Deir Bedouin community relocated to Beitunia outside of Ramallah. (Photo: Qassam Muaddi/Mondoweiss)

Testimony of Mistaclim Activist group:

"The residents of the Bedouin shepherds community of Mughayyir Al-Dir received a "surprise" that has become all too familiar to Palestinian shepherd communities in Area C, and increasingly even in Area B, in recent years: settlers had established a new outpost nearby. What does a “new outpost” look like? A few shade nets, fences, a herd that were brought to the site, and most importantly a handful of young settlers guarded by armed militia members.

This time, the outpost was set up a few dozen meters from the community's homes. In a report that was published in Haaretz about the outpost’s establishment, one of the settlers in the new outpost was quoted saying: “This is the only place that's left. That’s it, thank God we kicked everyone out, including you along with them.” >>

The settler was referring to the fact that Mughayyir Al-Dir is now the only Bedouin community still living in the area, after a wave of expulsions that began in the summer of 2022 expelled the neighboring communities.

In January 2024, we published a post about the community of Mughayyir Al-Dir, as part of a series highlighting communities at risk of imminent expulsion due to settler violence. Much of that violence stems from the isolated and violent settlement of Maale Michmash and the chain of ultra violent outposts surrounding it. We recommend revisiting that post for a deeper understanding of what has been unfolding in the area over recent decades and especially since October 7, 2023.

As in many other cases, the new outpost is being built on a plot of land that was registered as state land during the Jordanian era, land that the State of Israel later looted and handed over to the criminal Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. We can assume that this council is behind the establishment of the new outpost. And what does the army have to say to the Haaretz reporter in response to settlers setting up an outpost just meters away from an isolated and battered Palestinian community? “The area does not encroach on the area where the Bedouins live”. For anyone still in doubt about the army’s role in the expulsion of Palestinian shepherd communities in the West Bank, here is yet another clear example."

📷 Documentation Photographer Avishay Mohar (B’Tselem) managed to hide memory cards documenting the attack before being assaulted