On Thursday, the Israeli human rights center B'Tselem revealed a plan by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which aims to displace Palestinian shepherds from their lands in the occupied West Bank, in cooperation with groups of settlers, considering it part of the "Israeli apartheid system."

The center said, in a statement: “During last February and March, we documented about 20 incidents during which settlers and Israeli occupation soldiers, through various means, expelled Palestinian shepherds from grazing areas in the hills located south of Hebron Governorate.”

The center reinforced its statement with video clips documenting these attacks.

It added that this process of expelling Palestinian shepherds is "part of an intentional pattern of action adopted by settlers in the service of Israeli policy."

It warned that this process has a "decisive and ongoing impact on the ability of Palestinian herders' communities to survive."

It pointed out that "Israel is seeking to displace Palestinian shepherds' communities from their locations in the West Bank in order to seize these sites, which include their agricultural lands and pasture lands that they use."

The center explained that Palestinian shepherds' communities in the West Bank are being displaced through a combination of "authoritarian methods and practices implemented by official bodies such as the Civil Administration and the Army, and through an unofficial channel through acts of organized violence and harassment carried out by settlers."

It added: "This merger is being adopted to reduce the ability of these communities to graze their herds of livestock, which therefore means causing them economic damage in a way that makes them more vulnerable to harm and facilitates the task of displacing them."

It pointed out that "during the last decade, with the support of the state but without its official permission, dozens of settlement farms were established that were prepared to seize pasture lands in the Palestinian rural area."

B'Tselem revealed that "since October 7, 2023, a very large number of settlers participating in acts of violence against Palestinians have been recruited into the ranks of the army's local defense or in alert teams and have been armed with military weapons."

It stated that as a result, "it is no longer possible today to distinguish between the actions carried out by these settlers under official orders and directives from the military leadership, and the actions carried out on their own by settlers in military uniform."

It pointed out that "state violence, both official and unofficial, is an integral part of the Israeli apartheid system that seeks to Judaize the space between the sea and the river."

B'Tselem stated that the plan to displace Palestinian shepherds from their lands in the West Bank "is being used to develop and expand existing Jewish settlements and to establish new settlements specific to this population group only."

It continued: "On the other hand, this plan tears up the Palestinian space by plundering Palestinian lands and pushing them into small, crowded enclaves."