In the past two years, Jewish settlers have set fire to Mu’arrajat’s mosque, attacked its school, and stolen livestock from its villagers.
But the final straw came on Thursday night, when dozens of settlers entered the remote Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, after days of harassment during which they ransacked a property, set up an outpost next to the village, and told locals they had to leave.
By Friday afternoon, most of Mu’arrajat’s 200 remaining inhabitants had done just that. The few who remained were slowly dismantling their wood and corrugated-iron houses, loading furniture, water tanks and window frames into trucks, as they faced up to the prospect of being displaced.