In September, 2025, Israelis established a new illegal settler outpost near the Palestinian village of Duyuk, in the West Bank. They subjected the Duyuk residents to constant harassment, ranging from surveilance and intimidation to theft, assault, and night-time invasion of homes. They stole, damaged, and destroyed property, livestock, and infrastructure (details).
Em (not her real name), a resident of British Columbia, Canada, had traveled to the Middle East on a mission of support for Palestinians. In November of 2025, she, along with three Italian colleagues, was attempting to provide “protective presence” in Duyuk. They hoped that their presence as international witnesses would discourage the settlers from committing crimes with their usual impunity.
On November 30, 2025, at 4:30 am, barely a week after the arrival of the international volunteers, ten masked settlers, two carrying army issued rifles, burst into the home where these volunteers were staying, assaulting them and stealing their possessions (including phones, passports, money and credit cards). Em was kicked in the head and body and had to be hospitalized along with her Italian colleages, some of whom suffered much greater injury.
From Em:
We went directly to the hospital, but this is not about us. We were beaten for fifteen minutes; Palestinians here endure this violence every day, every hour, a thousand-fold. We came because our governments in the West are funding and enabling the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
What we witnessed in Duyuk is not an isolated incident, it is a systematic campaign to terrorize and expel this community, just as every other Bedouin and herding community in the South Jordan Valley has already been forcibly displaced. Duyuk is one of the last still standing.
We are deeply afraid for the villagers. This is Area A under the Oslo Accords, supposedly under Palestinian Authority control, but international law means nothing here. Settlers and soldiers act with total impunity.
After the attack there was some international media coverage. But other than words of condemnation from some officials, hardly anything of import has changed. This is, sadly, the norm.
Shortly after the incident, Em redoubled her efforts to support the community in Duyuk.