illegal settlers west bank bat avin
© Gershon Elinson/Flash90Settlers of the Bat Ayin settlement hold Israeli flags during a march on 21 June 2021.
On 17 March, Israeli media outlets reported that an organization with strong ties to settler right-wing organizations is recruiting young volunteers to 'protect' illegal settler farms in the occupied West Bank.

According to its website, Hashomer Yosh, which receives funding from at least two government ministries, recruits the volunteers to "protect Jewish farmers from vandalism, agricultural crime, and terrorism by the Arabs."

Israelis who sign up with the organization are then exempt from serving in the military. Several Israeli institutions, including universities, also collaborate with the organization by giving incentives to students who work with Hashomer Yosh.


Comment: From that I24 report on settler tactics for driving out local Palestinians
The organization's Volunteer Association stations recruits at "slots for protecting state lands," including Nahal Shiloh Farm, Pnei Kedem Farm, Tzon Keidar, Kashuela, and Ahavat Olam, all of which are under demolition orders.

Farms are the most common form of Jewish outposts in the West Bank, considered "cost-efficient" as they mostly consist of one family, a herd of sheep, and volunteers to help herd and provide security.

According to Haaretz, herding is often a tactic to enlarge an outpost's territory - pushing out Palestinian herders who used the same area before the outpost was built.

It is estimated that there are some 50 farms across the territory.

It's simply a daily battle for the land," she told Haaretz.

"My husband planted the trees far apart from each other to take over as much land and block as much as possible."

Shamla explained that the service girls mostly take the herd out to graze to block Palestinians, who she claims "keep plowing and planting more."

"In the past, volunteer boys we had here blocked them physically, and didn't let the Arab farmer plow," Tehila told Haaretz.

Hashomer YOSH said that, with support from the Israeli police and military, it was established "to protect Jewish farmers from vandalism, agricultural crime, and terrorism by the Arabs."
Not the slightest sense of shame.


Stakeholders say the activities of Hashomer Yosh are part of the Israeli government's plans to seize more Palestinian territory and escalate the expansion of illegal settlements. The organization was reportedly established with the assistance of the Israeli military and police.

The farms and settler outposts that the organization purports to protect were established illegally, and some of them have become hotbeds for violent settler organizations.

On 22 January, settlers from the outpost of Givat Ronen carried out a savage attack on a nearby Palestinian village.

The attack left at least six Palestinians with serious injuries. However, no one was arrested because, according to Israeli authorities, the assailants "disappeared."

The development comes amid a steep increase in the building of settlements in the occupied Palestinians territories. In recent months, Israeli authorities have approved the construction of thousands of new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The same period has also witnessed a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians. Citing data from the Israeli police, the Times of Israel newspaper on 15 December 2021 reported that the number of attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers had increased by over 50 percent between 1 January and 1 December 2021 compared to the same period in the previous year.

Some human rights organizations have accused the Israeli government of using right-wing settler organizations to implement its anti-Palestinian policies.