We were planning to visit the village of Ras ‘Ein al-’Auja in the northern West Bank. But three weeks before the trip, all 700 residents of the village fled due to violence from nearby settlers. When we drove through the ruined remains of the village, we saw groups of Israeli settlers having a picnic.
We were able to visit the village Fasa’il al-Wusta in the Jordan Valley. When we visited, six out of eight families had fled. Two weeks later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) demolished the home of the family we visited. Now only one of those families is left.
As the world’s attention is fixed on the war that President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started with Iran, Israel’s far-right government is quietly pursuing full-scale annexation in the West Bank. What we saw was a microcosm.