The High Court of Justice ordered the IDF, the Civil Administration department of the Defense Ministry, the police, and other agencies this week to respond to a petition by seven Palestinian shepherding communities from the northern Jordan Valley demanding protection from settler violence and access to vital services.

The seven villages filed their petition last week after coming under increasing pressure in recent months and years from radical settlers and the IDF, which they say has made life in the region almost impossible and argue that it amounts to “ethnic cleansing.”

The High Court ordered the respondents on Tuesday to file their response by August 6.

According to the Jordan Valley Activists organization and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which filed the petition, the villages are the last Palestinian shepherding communities in Area C of the Jordan Valley, after settler harassment and state pressure forced other communities to abandon their dwellings.

The petitioners are 17 members of the communities, which include al-Hama; al-Farisiyah; Ein al-Hilweh; Samra; al-Hadidiyah; Khirbet Humsa; and Khallet Makhul, along with ACRI itself, which says the villages in question are in immediate danger of being uprooted.

“What is happening in the northern Jordan Valley is not a series of isolated and accidental events, but a consistent, premeditated policy. This is called ethnic cleansing,” said Reut Shaer, who filed the petition to the High Court.

ACRI details in its petition eleven herding communities in the northern Jordan Valley in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full civilian and security control, that have been depopulated during the course of 2025 and 2026.

It says........

© The Times of Israel