Jordan Valley, Occupied West Bank – Haitham al-Zayed, 24, says his fondest memories as a child were spent swimming in al-Auja’s lush pools. “You’d always find someone there during hot days. Everyone went there to cool down,” he said.Three months after he and his family were forcibly displaced by Jewish settlers from Shallal al-Auja – located beside the stream coming down from al-Auja spring in the southern occupied West Bank – he was horrified, but unsurprised, when thousands of settlers converged on the spring during the Jewish festival of Passover at the start of this month.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIn one video circulating on settler chat groups, settler children waded and splashed in the same natural pools where Haitham had once swam. Their parents barbecued nearby, speaking to the camera with elation. “Happy holiday! Look at this wonder,” one man announced. “After years that Jews could not come here, the people of Israel returned to their land.”The video then focused on who made this possible: The so-called hilltop youth, the networks of young settlers carrying out systematic violence against Palestinians, driving out dozens of communities across the West Bank since 2023. “Do you know thanks to whom this wonderful thing happened?” one man said. “Thanks to a few youth – 16 years old! That are going around this area with their flocks. I saw them stubbornly redeem …
