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Aug. 12, 2025 | #SkyNews #WestBank #MiddleEast
When Mohammed Robin left for work one morning, he returned to find his home had been seized by Israeli settlers.
The property, located near the West Bank city of Ramallah, had been in his family since 1952.
“I have to go the legal route to defend my land,” Robin says. “But even with the courts, there’s little hope.”
Settler expansion has become one of the most pressing issues in the West Bank, intensifying since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Sky’s Stuart Ramsay traveled into the West Bank to speak with Israeli soldiers, armed settlers, and Palestinians being forced from their homes.
When Mohammed Robin left for work one morning, he returned to find his home had been seized by Israeli settlers.
The property, located near the West Bank city of Ramallah, had been in his family since 1952.
“I have to go the legal route to defend my land,” Robin says. “But even with the courts, there’s little hope.”
Settler expansion has become one of the most pressing issues in the West Bank, intensifying since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Sky’s Stuart Ramsay traveled into the West Bank to speak with Israeli soldiers, armed settlers, and Palestinians being forced from their homes.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The West Bank is central to the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
00:09The Palestinians, it is basically at the heart of what would be a Palestinian state.
00:14I told you three times, this is military territory.
00:17Please turn around, turn off the camera and go away.
00:19So we're being filmed now.
00:20They watch us right now.
00:22This is the order.
00:23Understand?
00:24Three minutes.
00:25That's all.
00:26Okay, I understand.
00:27The Israelis, though, they believe that the West Bank should actually belong to Israel, particularly on the right.
00:32They actually want to annex the whole of the West Bank.
00:34First, let's get the facts straight.
00:36There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.
00:38Recently, countries like the United Kingdom and France have indicated a willingness to recognize the state of Palestine.
00:45That would be, if it worked, the two-state solution.
00:52The question, though, is it even possible?
00:57We're in Hebron, a major Palestinian city in the West Bank, where Israeli soldiers have arrived to shut down part of the town.
01:09They shot him as a Mexican city.
01:10They're by the East Bank, where they have to go.
01:11I think, you know, we can't get the votes in the West Bank, right now.
01:19I think it's the good news.
01:21Go, I see.
01:22You're making it.
01:23Oh, yeah…
01:24Can you move it here, because we want to go all the way, so…
01:28Right there.
01:29You want to go over here, over here, yeah…
01:30Yeah.
01:31Stay right there.
01:32Stay right there.
01:33Stay right there.
01:34Like, everybody's fine.
01:35Okay, thank you.
01:36Okay, they're closing the town down because they want to go up this street along here.
01:43This goes up to a tomb.
01:45Yeah, okay, sorry sir. Thank you.
01:57A group of Orthodox Jews and settlers want to visit a holy site in the area.
02:02It's meant to be off limits to Israelis, but the soldiers are here to make it happen.
02:19It's obviously massive disruption. This is a massive market.
02:23Now the whole of this section of town is being closed down.
02:28The idea is to take control of this street for security reasons so that they can bring the settlers through.
02:35They'll put up a screen, yeah?
02:37They're going to put some, yeah, cover.
02:39And then they'll walk them up.
02:40And they're going to walk up to a speed.
02:42But are you reporting live?
02:44No, no, no, no.
02:45We're just videoing.
02:47We're videoing, yeah.
02:48Because last time they did this kind of walk into the city, they couldn't avoid.
02:55Yeah, I heard.
03:14Hold the press here. All right? All right?
03:18Don't play with me. All right?
03:22For now, this part of Hebron is a military zone.
03:25And nobody at all is allowed past the Israeli lines.
03:29Behind a large green screen, the visitors arrive in small groups.
03:34To look at a tomb up the street.
03:53The Palestinian city of Hebron is in what is known as Area A of the West Bank.
04:00It means it's technically under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.
04:06But everyone here says the presence of Israeli soldiers and settlers is designed to make a point.
04:21To emphasize who's really in charge.
04:25This is a journey around the West Bank.
04:32And inevitably it starts at the wall separating Israel from its Palestinian neighbors.
04:38It is imposing and is in many ways a symbol of Israel's desire to segregate the people who live on the other side from them.
04:47The wall was built over two decades ago to stop Palestinian terror attacks inside Israel after a wave of violence.
04:58But there is more than a wall to all of this.
05:02The West Bank and its people would make up the lion's share of a Palestinian state if one were to be recognized.
05:10Geographically, it's on the West Bank of the River Jordan.
05:15Which is where it gets its name from.
05:18Current political leadership in Israel does not want a Palestinian state.
05:22And the Israeli parliament just approved a motion to annex the West Bank.
05:27It doesn't necessarily mean it'll happen.
05:31But it shows the thinking.
05:34And right now, life is tough for Palestinians in the West Bank.
05:39They say they feel powerless.
05:43Random military operations, security checks and barriers restricting movement can happen anywhere and at any time.
05:51Making normal movement impossible.
05:54There's the continuous threat of attacks by settlers who believe the land is theirs.
05:59And roads to villages and towns are barricaded.
06:03The building of iron gates that close off vehicle entry and exit to Palestinian communities has dramatically increased since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the Gaza war.
06:17These gates are monitored 24 hours a day.
06:21And are impossible to break through.
06:23Beneath the village of Almagaya we watched as IDF soldiers oversaw a digger working on a roadway.
06:33And a new barrier gate being moved into position from the back of a lorry.
06:37My name's Stuart Ramsey.
06:39I'm a reporter for Sky News in England.
06:41OK, what's the problem here?
06:42No problem, we were just going to go up to the village.
06:44But I can see obviously you're putting in a barrier.
06:46It's not now.
06:47OK, so no.
06:48It's a military territory.
06:52So please turn around and go away.
06:54OK.
06:55Could you just explain though?
06:56Are you putting in a new gate?
06:58No problem.
06:59This is classified.
07:00Please turn around and go away.
07:01OK.
07:02Thank you very much.
07:03All right.
07:04We'll just be up here.
07:05No.
07:06So please turn off the camera.
07:08Turn around and go away.
07:09Thank you very much.
07:10OK.
07:11But can I...
07:12Listen, I told you three times.
07:13This is military territory.
07:14Please turn around, turn off the camera and go away.
07:17All right.
07:18Can I go to the village though?
07:19No.
07:20Is there another way around?
07:21Maybe.
07:22I don't know.
07:23OK.
07:24I'll leave you at that then.
07:25Thank you very much.
07:26Goodbye.
07:27Turn off the camera.
07:28Well, obviously there's another gate being built.
07:33As simple as that.
07:34And we expected them to be unfriendly or at least unpleasant about it.
07:37I suppose they've been reasonable.
07:38But that's what happens all over the West Bank.
07:42These villages, Palestinian village, you can see behind me get cut off by gates.
07:46And that'll be closed.
07:47And access in and out is totally controlled.
07:50But as we've seen before, it gets described as a military area.
07:55And therefore you've got no options because when they say it's a military area, that's it.
07:59You're out.
08:06Just as security checks and barrier gates have increased since October the 7th,
08:10so has the expansion of settler outposts.
08:13It often starts with a land grab and a flag.
08:17Then the building of temporary accommodation.
08:22And later they develop into whole towns, heavily guarded and dominating the landscape.
08:29I wanted to meet Mohammed Robin, a Palestinian man I'd read about who'd had his land taken off him.
08:39So Mohammed went to work one morning, came back and told he couldn't go back to his house.
08:44I'm now going to follow him, see where he is.
08:48Settlers have taken everything apparently from inside the house as well.
08:53Which is fairly common.
08:54But we're going to follow him and see where he wants that.
08:57He's taking us to the only place, he says, we can still see his land from without getting into trouble.
09:13It's off the main road, on gravel and dirt tracks leading to a windy hilltop.
09:19That's his land.
09:28Yeah.
09:29Where is the cars are standing now?
09:31And they also take over there another two dunams.
09:36How long have you been here?
09:37How long have you been here?
09:38How long have you been here?
09:39I live.
09:40This land was built from 52 years old.
09:42It was built here.
09:44And there's no stone.
09:46There's about 500 acres of stone.
09:48This land built by his grandfather from 52.
09:52And they have olive trees on it.
09:54His father was a teacher and supporting with money so we can invest on it.
10:10There's movement down below and we realise we've been spotted.
10:18That's how many people have been here.
10:19The radio said.
10:20There's a lot of people here.
10:21No.
10:22There's a lot of people here.
10:23The radio said.
10:24There's a lot of people here.
10:25How are you?
10:26What are you?
10:27How are you?
10:28How are you?
10:29How are you?
10:30You can keep speaking?
10:31What?
10:32how are you speaking we've just come up here because uh mohammed saying that
11:02well we've introduced ourselves but um i think they're trying to go back down
11:30probably because we're here um they're not making much action but of course these settlers are armed
11:38not quite sure if they're heading back or what they're going to do now i haven't seen the one
11:43to talk very much
12:01they barely speak they just check out our cars
12:03we don't know if they're soldiers or settlers or both they don't identify themselves
12:21one returns to the small holding the other waits we decide to leave
12:27hi daniel hi how are you very good how are you nice to meet you stuart ramsey daniel winston nice
12:36to meet you thanks for coming where are you going to take us then i'm going to take you up to har
12:38kabir let's come out of the street though so you don't get hit i'm going to take you up to har
12:43kabir it's uh it's the mountain that overlooks the valley of tirzah where the jewish people first came
12:48into the land of israel with joshua at the uh the end of the the five books of moses and the beginning
12:53of the rest of the bible okay great okay let's go you're gonna come with me in the car yeah okay good
13:02daniel winston is from chicago but he's lived here in israel for over 25 years i've chosen to live in
13:08the west bank uh jordain samaria truly out of a biblical imperative to um make this happen to make
13:16it happen better even though the entire world has this mythology around um it being occupied
13:23territory and being the so-called the land of the palestinians daniel his wife and 10 children
13:30live in yitzar settlement it's considered one of the most hardcore settler communities
13:37but we weren't allowed to meet him there so he's taking us to a lookout point in another settlement
13:43is there an argument for saying regardless of those legal definitions that the um for many palestinians
13:50living here in the west bank that they do feel that they live under a law of apartheid and that they
13:57are discriminated against there's a complete control over movement there's a lack of freedom of movement
14:04and people settlers take land that they have occupied themselves for a generation yeah let's let's talk
14:11about each of those things and i'll try to keep order um first of all i have no doubt that the the arabs
14:17that live here have lots of feelings about lots of things that are going on uh i'm not going to even
14:22though i'm a therapist i'm not going to address those feelings because i'm much more interested in
14:26the facts afterwards if we want to have a discussion we can sit around around and we can have some
14:31coffee sit around a campfire and talk about their feelings uh but first let's get the facts straight
14:36the facts are there is no such thing as a palestinian people in the historical record palestine and the
14:42palestinians does not exist just a second hi hi what's up all right i'm sorry i'm going to show
14:54them a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a
14:59and dana leads me down a path overlooking a valley in the west bank he and the israeli
15:17government called it by its biblical name judea and samaria daniel says this valley is where joshua
15:25led the Israelites to the Promised Land, according to the Scriptures.
15:30He, like all the settlers, believes the land is theirs
15:33and rejects any notion of a Palestinian state.
15:37I'm not angry. I'm not one of those frothing at the mouth of the settlers
15:41who are going to yell and scream and start throwing things at you
15:44because I don't like what you're saying.
15:46I don't like what you're saying because what you're saying is wrong.
15:48It is not consistent with the historical record.
15:51There was never a Palestinian state.
15:55Even if I were to say, okay, well, these poor people,
15:58they have to do something, they have to go somewhere.
16:00And I would say, well, not on my account, not on my watch,
16:05because not only is it inimical to my essential national interest
16:14of settling the entire land of Israel,
16:17it's also an intrinsic danger, a clear and present danger
16:21to our physical survival.
16:25Daniel struck me as well-mannered and well-read,
16:28but his views on the modern day, like many of the settlers,
16:32are thousands of years old.
16:41Khalil Hathaline greets a family friend who's come to pay his respects.
16:45His brother's been shot dead, allegedly, by a settler.
16:52We're in the village of Umm al-Kia,
16:58where Palestinian villagers confronted an Israeli digger driver
17:02on Palestinian land adjacent to a settler town.
17:0635-year-old Aouda Athaline was killed.
17:15As the mourners gather, the Israeli army moves in.
17:19Sir, can you explain why we have to leave?
17:22To keep the place quiet.
17:23To keep the place quiet.
17:25It does seem quite quiet though, I think.
17:27At the moment I would say.
17:28Okay, to leave them from here and go to the green road.
17:31Now, now, everyone who's not in the place will take the place,
17:35take the place quiet, take the place quiet.
17:37To take the place quiet, I think.
17:38At the moment I would say.
17:39Okay, to leave them from here and go to the green road.
17:44Now, now, everyone who's not in the place will take the place,
17:48take the place quiet, take the place quiet and leave them outside.
17:56They give everyone who doesn't live here 10 minutes to leave for all risk of rest.
18:01Many of these journalists are Israeli, and they argue that being moved on is basically illegal.
18:16Soldiers enter the family area of the village.
18:19They're looking for foreign activists and anyone else to clear.
18:25Three minutes, you need to go from here.
18:27Okay.
18:28Unless you want to be arrested, okay?
18:30But why?
18:31Just, this is the order.
18:32Understand?
18:33Three minutes.
18:34That's all.
18:35Okay, I understand.
18:36So, can you explain to me?
18:37Have a good day.
18:38Can you explain to me why?
18:39We're journalists, sir.
18:46This type of thing happens all the time.
18:48It's the main point of contention from the Palestinians,
18:51is that the security forces in Israel represent only the settlers in the West Bank,
18:56not them at any point.
18:58And they feel really aggrieved about it.
19:00And there is really no actual argument for saying why we should leave.
19:04It's just they don't want them to be near an Israeli settlement.
19:11Declaring the area a closed military zone, a regular tactic.
19:14The soldier is in no mood to compromise.
19:21Just one question.
19:24Amongst the activists, Israeli Yehuda Shaul.
19:27He's straight to the point.
19:29At the end of the day, this Israeli government doesn't want only to kill the possibility of a future Palestinian state besides Israel.
19:38It wants to cement Israeli sovereignty between the river and the sea.
19:42Rights for one group of people here.
19:44I think in Afrikaans it's called apartheid.
19:48Now the question is whether the international community will allow my government to implement its plan.
19:54Up to now, all what we've heard was statements, warnings, concerns.
20:00That's not enough.
20:01Unless we're going to see a serious move to tangible measures.
20:06In order to end this kind of behavior, this will just escalate.
20:10I wasn't here. Can you tell me what's happening?
20:13You have a new area that you can be there.
20:19You need to go there.
20:21Okay. But the senior officer said we could stay here.
20:24Yes.
20:25I'm sure there's a briefing.
20:26They just make the closed military area bigger or wider and you have to leave this area as well.
20:38Why?
20:39Why is it bigger?
20:41Why is it a closed military area extending?
20:44I'm not a commander.
20:46I mean, they are in charge here and they're pretty serious about this.
20:53I think while the journalists are arguing and they're accepting that you probably can't stay,
20:58once they declare an area a military closed zone, there's actually nothing you can do about that.
21:03We've seen that lots of times since the Gaza war happened, the whole areas would be closed off.
21:09Can you go?
21:10Yeah.
21:11You took the guy named and started?
21:17Yeah.
21:18What is he doing?
21:28The soldiers throw blast bombs and try to clear everyone out.
21:33Let's roll.
21:41What did you tell us?
21:42You didn't have to go there.
21:44One activist is arrested for not leaving.
21:47I'm going to talk to you about what I'm going to say to you about it.
22:07Her friend attempts to reach her and she's arrested too.
22:17The closed military zone gets larger.
22:41There's been so much conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
22:45that the maps of it have been bound into an atlas.
22:49Britain is one country threatening to recognize the state of Palestine
22:53and is calling for a two-state solution,
22:55where Israel and Palestine live side by side.
23:01I've come to meet Yossi Bellin, one of the architects of the original plan.
23:07He's a rare voice of optimism.
23:09He's also a voice of warning to Israel.
23:12If you don't want to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem,
23:15you will always have good enough reasons on both sides,
23:19why never to do that?
23:21But if you want to solve the problem, you will find yourself.
23:24Are we getting to a tipping point whereby you just can't have a two-state solution
23:30because there's too many there, too many who won't agree and no sort of pan-nation support for it?
23:40Do we get to a point where you just, it can't happen?
23:43We are in a situation whereby both sides need the two-state solution badly.
23:50The Palestinians, because this is the only way for them to fulfill their vision of self-determination.
23:59For the Israelis, it is the only way to have a border unless we do it unilaterally.
24:05And we already know that unilateral decisions about borders are not usually fulfilled.
24:12So we need an agreement about the border in order to assure that there is, that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state.
24:22Otherwise, we are doomed.
24:24I'd heard about Sinjal, a Palestinian town, I was told, that was cut off from the outside world.
24:42It isn't yet completely surrounded, but a five-meter-high metal fence around its eastern edge indicates the direction it's going.
24:50We enter the town on a small road that is the only exit and entry now available to the 8,000 residents.
24:59The main entry point has been permanently shut by the Israeli army.
25:04We stopped to check we're on the right road.
25:12It's the first town on the West Bank to be slowly encircled and many here believe it won't be the last.
25:17Israel says it's to protect the main road from attack by stone-throwing villages.
25:24Security concerns are used as a catch-all reasoning for virtually everything here.
25:29It's a particularly vivid example of Israeli segregation.
25:34You're not completely surrounded, but almost.
25:37Yes.
25:38They're going to continue and isolate all the town.
25:46Mutaz Tawafsha is the mayor of Sinjal.
25:50He tells me people who live here have two big issues.
25:53One is settlers and the other is the fence and barricaded gates.
25:57This is the main entrance.
26:00Okay, so this is a main gate into your town, but also to other people as well.
26:06Yes, yes.
26:07This is the main entrance for 22,000 people from Sinjal.
26:12They close it on October 7th.
26:21We have, by the way, we have the gates before October 7th.
26:25Right.
26:27And they open it and close it as the army like.
26:31When it was, but now this is just permanently shut.
26:34They now open it from October 7th.
26:37Close.
26:38If you broke the lock, what would they do?
26:42They have cameras over there.
26:44Oh, right.
26:45You will see it and they're going to come and take you.
26:49So we're being filmed now?
26:51Yes.
26:52Of course.
26:53They watch us right now.
26:56As we chatted, it became clear that that other big issue, the settlers,
27:01is in many ways more dangerous to them.
27:04The mayor showed us what he filmed when a farm on the edge of town was attacked by settlers.
27:10The farm building was ransacked and later set on fire by a large group.
27:15And later, sheep and goats are seen being herded away from the farm by settlers.
27:20He took me to where he filmed from.
27:22Everybody tried to go over there, they're going to be at the dangerous zone.
27:29And so literally, if we were to walk up that hill, we would be in danger straight away?
27:33Yes, sure.
27:34Are they watching now?
27:35If you just try to go close to the settlers, you will see them.
27:40They're going to come and start to attack you.
27:43Across the West Bank and particularly here in the Jordan Valley,
27:54the landscape is scarred with the remains of destroyed Palestinian villages,
27:59emptied out after attacks by Israeli settlers.
28:05Through this dry, arid landscape, we arrive at one of the latest villages to be attacked and burnt out.
28:11The homes have been destroyed.
28:32The community abandoning their houses to the elements.
28:41It's eerie and quite striking.
28:51We found that uncertainty, argument, pain and suffering are recurring themes in the West Bank.
28:58A hospitable place made inhospitable by a conflict that's no nearer to resolution now,
29:04six decades after it started.
29:06Six decades after it started.
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