Jabal al-Baba, West Bank
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Atop a Palestinian village overlooking Jerusalem, Atallah Mazara’a ruminates about his long-held dream. His Bedouin village of Jabal al-Baba sits near the geographical center of the occupied West Bank, balanced between the north and south of what a future Palestinian state would be made up of.
But with each passing day, that dream seems to fade into the horizon, farther than ever before.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last week announced the final approval of thousands of new housing units to expand Israel’s Ma’ale Adumim settlement, that would effectively cut the West Bank in two – a plan known as E1.
Smotrich made it clear that his goal was to kill prospects of a Palestinian state, saying, “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans, but with actions.”
The minister “wants to confiscate this area to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state… our fate has become unknown, not just mine, but every child, every woman, everyone. I am afraid,” Mazara’a, the leader of the village committee told CNN.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, approximately 7,000 Palestinians living in 22 Bedouin communities face the threat of forced displacement due to E1.
Jabal al-Baba is one of those communities, where 80 families, totaling 450 Palestinians, live. The village also has about 3,000 animals, a bedrock of life for Bedouin shepherds.
As Mazara’a walks around the homes he says could be bulldozed at any moment, he points to the nearby Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
“Bedouin presence in this land complements and benefits nature, unlike the presence of settlements,” he said.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and subsequently began establishing Jewish settlements there, which are considered illegal under international law, the United Nations and by much of the international community. The UN also regards the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territory, which the Palestinians seek for a future state.
Settlements are widely seen as the biggest impediment to Palestinian statehood, with many Jewish communities expanding around Palestinian population centers, often built on privately owned Palestinian land. Today, according to UN figures, there are 700,000 Jewish settlers living among approximately 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“These families have been here all their lives, since before 1967,” Mazara’a says. “They were here before the settlement was built…. As a Bedouin, it’s important for me to remain in this area. It’s not Israel’s right to choose my life for me in another area.”
Quashing the prospects of a Palestinian state has been an outspoken desire of Bezalel Smotrich, and other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
He has long advocated for the expansion of Jewish settlements. According to a leaked audio from June 2024, Smotrich said the way to prevent a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel was to develop Jewish settlements. “The goal is to change the DNA of the system for many, many years.”
After US President Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, Smotrich ordered preparations for the annexation of settlements in the West Bank. He told the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) that Trump’s win “brings an important opportunity for the state of Israel.” The “only way to remove” the “threat” of a Palestinian state, Smotrich added, “is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term by which Israelis refer to the West Bank.
Just south of the village is the bustling Palestinian town of Al-Eizariya, bordering East Jerusalem. It’s a fast-moving community with honking horns and busy streets, servicing its commercial needs.
Some of the Bedouins who would be displaced would be forced to move into the city, Mohammad Mattar, an official with the municipality, told CNN. It would be a different world for the Bedouin, an unfamiliar environment to navigate or earn a living, and nowhere to graze their livestock.
Along with building the E1 settlement, Israel plans to construct a road that will cut straight through Al-Eizariya and create separate road systems for Israelis and Palestinians around the settlement, according to Peace Now, an organization that closely tracks the expansion of settlements.
When CNN visited the town, Mattar told us 112 demolition orders had been given to shopkeepers, with the eviction deadline already passed. In barely hushed conversations, Palestinians asked each other in angst if they had heard of any news as to what would happen next.
Some people had already chosen to cut their losses and shuttered their shops as soon as the orders came down, despite no prospect of compensation. Others, who have experienced these threats before, chose to remain.
“They are waiting for God’s intervention or a state intervention in order to halt this project,” Mattar said.
Al-Eizariya is considered a “food basket” for the city of Jerusalem, residents said. It hosts the largest shopping market in the West Bank, connecting the north to the south.
If Israel’s planned road is constructed, they will have to go elsewhere to find their needs, making it more difficult and expensive. As for the shopkeepers, they fear their lifesavings would be depleted.
“I put all my money here. If they destroy it, I’ll have nothing to do anymore. I’m 65 years old. I hope they will not do that,” Abdullah, who owns supermarkets and a restaurant in the area, told CNN, holding back tears.
“We hope that (US) President (Donald) Trump will get involved and stop this.”
During Trump’s first term, his administration laid out a vision that came to be known as “The Deal of the Century.” Trump’s plan vaguely referenced limited parts of east Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. But Trump has hardly made any mention of this long-dormant plan since taking office again.
Hagit Ofran is an Israeli peace activist and co-director of Settlement Watch at Peace Now. She’s been monitoring Israeli settlements and advocating against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank for decades.
Israel’s nearly two-year offensive in Gaza has made it difficult to get people’s attention on the West Bank, she said.
“We’re fighting to end the war in Gaza and to end the occupation in the West Bank. It’s a crazy world here,” she told CNN.
When considering the construction of the road to facilitate movement for residents of the E1 settlement, Ofran said it will effectively close the center of the West Bank for Palestinians and control their movement. Palestinian homes will be demolished, and communities will be isolated.
“I don’t know how they will have any access to the territories they normally access. It depends on the goodwill of this government, which has shown no goodwill to Palestinians at all,” she said.
“You cannot develop a viable economy, not to say a state,” she said. “It will be impossible to have a capital in East Jerusalem for Palestinians.”
For some Palestinians, the recent final approval of the E1 settlement didn’t extinguish the idea of a Palestinian state, because Israel extinguished it long ago by creating facts on the ground.
“If you look at the settlements, which now are everywhere, it’s impossible to build a Palestinian state with geographic contiguity,” Khalil Toufakji, a Palestinian cartographer who has been monitoring Israeli settlements since 1983, told CNN.
He said while this move does spell the end of a Palestinian future, its demise was confirmed long ago.
“They (Israeli government) took advantage of October 7th and President Trump to carry out their plans.”
Back on the hilltop, in the afternoon breeze under a spreading tree, Mazara’a gazes at his village, unsure if it will still be his home by morning.
“It’s not just my life; it’s my memories and my childhood. I know every corner of this area,” he said.
“Jabal al-Baba isn’t only the end of the Bedouins’ dreams who live here, it’s also the end of every Palestinian’s dream of having a state in the future.”