Press Release: Veritas Press C.I.C. Author: Kamran Faqir Article Date Published: 30 Aug 2025 at 12:56 GMT Category: Middle East | Palestine-Gaza | US-Israel At War Source(s): Veritas Press C.I.C. | Multi News Agencies
Masafer Yatta, West Bank – In a disturbing and symbolic escalation of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers forcibly confiscated approximately 50 acres of land belonging to Dr. Nidal Jboor, a Palestinian-American physician and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide (DAG), a coalition of healthcare professionals condemning the genocide in Gaza. The seizure occurred on 18 August 2025 in Masafer Yatta, a region prominently featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, triggering alarm among rights groups and the diaspora. Middle East Eye reported these developments.
Land Seizure Details & Immediate Aftermath:
Dr. Jboor, who resides in Michigan, said he was devastated to learn of the seizure:
“I felt heartbroken” when informed that armed settlers, under Israeli military protection, had set up tents, built structures, and begun grazing livestock on his ancestral grove of over 500 olive trees, along with almond and grape vines.
The Jboor family, his father, mother, seven brothers, and three sisters, are currently in Palestine, and they have confirmed that there was no recent military order designating the land as a firing zone, nor any legal sale. Yet, settlers planted an Israeli flag on the property, a move that Dr. Jboor views as an overt land grab:
“Once they build structures, they claim it as theirs and insist it’s time for us to go.”
Declaring his dual identity, American and Palestinian, Dr. Jboor underscored his right to the land and voiced concerns about U.S.-made weapons being used against his family:
“These weapons that the settlers have are American weapons.”
Doctors Against Genocide has called on the U.S. government to urgently intervene, including by investigating the seizure and defending Palestinian-American property rights.
Broader Context: Systematic Displacement & Military Pretexts.
This incident unfolds against a backdrop of decades-long Israeli strategy, under the pretext of declaring areas like Masafer Yatta as military “firing zones”, which facilitates displacement and land appropriation. According to the UN, on 18 June 2025, Israel’s Civil Administration rejected all Palestinian building permits in Masafer Yatta, effectively enabling mass demolitions and displacements.
Simultaneously, in mid-June, Israel’s army formally sought to demolish at least 12 villages within the same zone, prompting fears of total expulsion of the region’s roughly 1,200Palestinian villagers. The Israeli NGO Kerem Navot highlighted that these military justifications often cloak a broader settler-colonial land grab strategy.
The scale of violence in Masafer Yatta is rising. A spate of settler rampages since 2024 has included uprooting and destroying olive groves, livestock theft, and infrastructure damage. In June 2025 alone, settlers attacked villages like Shi’ab al-Batem and Jinba, uprooted trees, and seized water wells under military cover. As recently as July, Israeli forces demolished homes and agricultural structures, including vital livestock shelters.
According to investigative reports, more than 90% of Masafer Yatta’s grazing land has already been lost through home demolitions, road closures, and infrastructure sabotage.
This connects to the Jboor family’s struggle, not just as an isolated incident, but as part of a systemic push to remove Palestinians from ancestral lands.
Amplifying Voices: The Human Cost.
Ahead of the land seizure, one of the film’s consultants, Awdah Hathleen, an English teacher closely connected to No Other Land, was killed in July 2025 by Israeli settler Yinon Levi, who had been previously sanctioned for violent attacks. Despite video evidence, Levi was released, deepening the climate of impunity and fear among Masafer Yatta residents.
The documentary’s co-director and featured activist, Hamdan Ballal, was himself attacked by settlers and detained by Israeli forces in March 2025, an act widely perceived as retaliatory against the international success of the film.
Residents report a daily onslaught of settler violence under army protection, from torching cars to stone-throwing, demolitions, and harassment, contributing to what Palestinians and media describe as ethnic cleansing.
Conclusion: A Microcosm of State-Backed Colonial Theft
The seizure of Dr. Nidal Jboor’s land is not an isolated act of rural criminality; it is a calculated manoeuvre in a decades-long project of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Under the guise of “security zones” and “military training areas,” Israel has systematically weaponised law and bureaucracy to strip Palestinians of their ancestral lands, then allowed armed settlers to take what the state claims to “protect.” This land theft does not occur in the shadows; it happens in daylight, with full military escort, and in defiance of international law.
What makes this case uniquely damning is its convergence of impunity, foreign complicity, and settler-colonial arrogance:
- Impunity: Settlers like Yinon Levi, who filmed the killing of Palestinian civilians, walk free while entire Palestinian families live under constant threat.
- Foreign Complicity: U.S.-made rifles, U.S.-funded military units, and U.S. diplomatic silence enable this dispossession, even when the victim is a U.S. citizen.
- Settler-Colonial Arrogance: Planting an Israeli flag on stolen land is not a mere act of symbolism; it is the physical declaration of domination, erasure, and permanent replacement.
Masafer Yatta is the crucible of a much larger strategy: fragment Palestinian communities, sever them from their agricultural lifeline, and normalise violence as a prelude to annexation. When settlers seize 50 acres of land belonging to the co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, a movement born out of Gaza’s destruction, it exposes the total ecosystem of control: the military, the settlers, and the political machinery that sanctifies their crimes.
If this trajectory remains unchecked, Masafer Yatta will not just lose its olive groves and homes; the world will lose yet another frontline in the fight against settler-colonial impunity. And the question Dr. Jboor asks,
“If America cannot protect its own citizens, who will protect the people of Palestine?”, should haunt every policymaker who continues to bankroll this slow-motion eradication.
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